Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/85

 COLLECTANEA.

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The Half-Chicken.

upon a time there was a beautiful hen, that lived very much at her ease in a farm-yard surrounded by her numerous family of chickens, amongst which was a young cockerel conspicuous for its ugly and crippled form. This was just the one that its mother loved the most—for such is always the way of mothers. The small deformity had sprung from a rickety little egg. It was scarcely more than half a chicken, and looked just as if Solomon's sword had executed upon it the judgment pronounced by that wise king on a certain occasion. It had but one eye, one wing, and one leg, and yet gave itself more airs than its father, who was the finest, bravest, and most gallant cock in all the farm-yards for twenty miles around. The young cockerel believed himself to be the Phoenix of his kind. If the other young cocks made a mock of him, he thought it was from envy; and if the young hens did the same, he said it was because they were enraged that he took so little account of them.

One day he said to his mother, "Hearken, mother, I am sick of the country. I am resolved to go to court; I wish to see the king and queen." The poor mother began to tremble at hearing these words. "My son," she cried, "who has put this extravagant idea into your head? Your father never stirred from his home, and he has been the glory of his race. Where will you find a yard like the one you have? Where will you find a more