behind her, and as soon as she came in again she locked the door behind
her and put the key in her apron pocket, where she kept her scissors and
some sugar candy.

At last the old Fox thought out a way to catch the little Red Hen. Early
in the morning he said to his old mother, "Have the kettle boiling when
I come home to-night, for I'll be bringing the little Red Hen for
supper." Then he took a big bag and slung it over his shoulder, and
walked till he came to the little Red Hen's house. The little Red Hen
was just coming out of her door to pick up a few sticks for firewood. So
the old Fox hid behind the wood-pile, and as soon as she bent down to
get a stick, into the house he slipped, and scurried behind the door.

In a minute the little Red Hen came quickly in, and shut the door and
locked it. "I'm glad I'm safely in," she said. Just as she said it, she
turned round, and there stood the ugly old Fox, with his big bag over
his shoulder. Whiff! how scared the little Red Hen was! She dropped her
apronful of sticks, and flew up to the big beam across the ceiling.
There she perched, and she said to the old Fox, down below, "You may as
well go home, for you can't get me."

"Can't I, though!" said the Fox. And what do you think he did? He stood
on the floor underneath the little Red Hen and twirled round in a circle
after his own tail. And as he spun, and spun, and spun, faster, and
faster, and faster, the poor little Red Hen got so dizzy watching him
that she couldn't hold on to the perch. She dropped off, and the old Fox
picked her up and put her in his bag, slung the bag over his shoulder,
and started for home, where the kettle was boiling.

He had a very long way to go, up hill, and the little Red Hen was still