The Proud Chicken

A widow named Hong-Mo lived in a little house near the market place.

Every year she raised many hundreds of chickens, which she sold to

support herself and her two children.

Each day the chickens went to the fields near by and hunted bugs, rice,

and green things to eat.

The largest one was called the king of the chickens because, of all the

hundreds in the flock, he was the strongest. And for this reason he was

the leader of them all.

He led the flock to new places for food. He could crow the loudest, and

as he was the strongest, none dared oppose him in any way.

One day he said to the flock, “Let us go to the other side of the

mountain near the wilderness to-day, and hunt rice, wheat, corn, and

wild silkworms. There is not enough food here.”

But the other chickens said, “We are afraid to go so far. There are

foxes and eagles in the wilderness, and they will catch us.”

The king of the chickens said, “It is better that all the old hens and

cowards stay at home.”

The king’s secretary said, “I do not know fear. I will go with you.”

Then they started away together.

When they had gone a little distance, the secretary found a beetle, and

just as he was going to swallow it, the king flew at him in great

anger, saying, “Beetles are for kings, not for common chickens. Why did

you not give it to me?” So they fought together, and while they were

fighting, the beetle ran away and hid under the grass where he could

not be found.

And the secretary said, “I will not fight for you, neither will I go to

the wilderness with you.” And he went home again.

At sunset the king came home. The other chickens had saved the best

roosting place for him; but he was angry because none of them had been

willing to go to the wilderness with him, and he fought first with one

and then with another.

He was a mighty warrior, and therefore none of them could stand up

against him. And he pulled the feathers out of many of the flock.

At last the chickens said, “We will not serve this king any longer. We

will leave this place. If Hong-Mo will not give us another home, we

will stay in the vegetable garden. We will do that two or three nights,

and see if she will not give us another place to live.”

So the next day, when Hong-Mo waited at sunset for the chickens to come

home, the king was the only one who came.

And she asked the king, “Where are all my chickens?”

But he was proud and angry, and said, “They are of no use in the world.

I would not care if they always stayed away.”

Hong-Mo answered, “You are not the only chicken in the world. I want

the others to come back. If you drive them all away, you will surely

see trouble.”

But the king laughed and jumped up on the fence and

crowed—“Nga-Un-Gan-Yu-Na” (coo-ka-doodle-doo-oo) in a loud voice. “I

don’t care for you! I don’t care for you!”

Hong-Mo went out and called the chickens, and she hunted long through

the twilight until the dark night came, but she could not find them.

The next morning early she went to the vegetable garden, and there she

found her chickens. They were glad to see her, and bowed their heads

and flew to her.

Hong-Mo said, “What are you doing? Why do you children stay out here,

when I have given you a good house to live in?”

The secretary told her all about the trouble with the king.

Hong-Mo said, “Now you must be friendly to each other. Come with me,

and I will bring you and your king together. We must have peace here.”

When the chickens came to where the king was, he walked about, and

scraped his wings on the ground, and sharpened his spurs. His people

had come to make peace, and they bowed their heads and looked happy

when they saw their king. But he still walked about alone and would not

bow.

He said, “I am a king—always a king. Do you know that? You bow your

heads and think that pleases me. But what do I care? I should not care

if there was never another chicken in the world but myself. I am king.”

And he hopped up on a tree and sang some war songs. But suddenly an

eagle who heard him, flew down and caught him in his talons and carried

him away. And the chickens never saw their proud, quarrelsome king

again.

Ee-Sze (Meaning): No position in life is so high that it gives the

right to be proud and quarrelsome.