The Cock, the Mouse and the Little Red Hen
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The Cock, the Mouse and the Little Red Hen is a European fable first collected by Félicité Lefèvre and published in illustrated form by Grant Richards in 1907. The story is a variation of the fable, the Little Red Hen and has been further adapted to the modern fable, the Fox and the Little Red Hen.
On two hills are two houses. One house is well kept where the cock, mouse and red hen live. The other house is ramshackle where the bad fox and little foxes live. The little foxes are hungry so the greedy fox decides to catch the cock, the mouse and the hen for their supper. At the well kept house, the cock and the mouse show their nature of laziness by refusing to help with breakfast chores. The hard working red hen does all the chores cheerfully.[1]
The mouse and the cock sleep while the fox approaches the house and they carelessly let the fox in. All are captured and popped into a sack and carried off. The fox tires and lays down to rest. The red hen effects the escape from the sack by using her sewing utensils and substituting stones for themselves. After the three run away home, fox awakes, picks up the sack of stones, and falls into the stream, and is never seen again. As a reward, the hen enjoys a break while cock and mouse do all the chores, thankful to be alive.[1]
The moral lesson
The central moral lesson of the fable is that "hard work pays", in that the laziness of the cock & mouse lead to the capture of the animals by the fox and the assiduous hen then works hard to get them free again.
The secondary moral lesson is to "be prepared for every eventuality" whereby the red hen kept a sewing kit on her person just in case it was ever needed and this saved their lives.[2]