The Fox and the Hens(Martin Green) 2023FOX&HENS

Fables for our Time---The Fox and the Hens

As everyone knows, foxes and hens are not exactly bosum buddies. This particular fox, let’s call him Fred, not only enjoyed eating hens for dinner but for some reason detested all hens and thought they should be wiped from the face of the earth. Perhaps this was because the roost of hens in the nearby field where Fred liked to hunt was guarded by a band of fighting roosters who protected them. After fending off several attacks by Fred the roosters had erected a fence which they thought the fox couldn’t get through.

However, Fred, living up to the fox’s reputation as being sly, dug a hole under the fence at night and then one morning got into the roost and destroyed as many hens and their chicks before the roosters, wakened at last, drove him off. The roosters then prepared to go after Fred in his lair.

Now, you’d think after this massacre of hens and chicks the avian community---ducks, swans, geese, etc.---would be all on the side of the roosters and against the evil fox. Strange to say, this was not the case. Many avians, even some members of the avian congress, argued that an invasion of the fox’s lair would involve the other foxes, women and children, who were innocent bystanders and be against the rules of war. So, that’s how things stood when this fable went to press.

The moral: Avians are known for being stupid; hence the adjective bird-brains.

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