Page:Fairy Tales from Brazil.djvu/94

 laid them at his feet. Now I, too, even I, the little white hen, have a letter. I am going to carry my letter to the king." The next morning the little white hen started bravely out on her long journey. She carried the letter very carefully in her little brown basket. It was a long distance to the royal palace where the king lived. The little white hen had never been so far from home in all her life. After a while she met a friendly fox. Foxes and little white hens are not usually very good friends, you know, but this fox was a friend of the little white hen. Once upon a time she had helped the fox to escape from a trap and the fox had never forgotten her kindness to him.

"O, little white hen, where are you going?" asked the fox.