once, a long time ago, there was a little girl who lived in a country where they had all sorts of hens. there was a green hen and a yellow hen and a pink hen; but the rooster was sky blue. they all sang a different song. the yellow hen said: "hoop-de-dooden-do! hoop-de-dooden-doo!" and the green hen said: "chick-a-chick-chee! chick-a-chick-chee!" but the pink hen only said "tra la la! tra la la!" for she was very lazy.

now the green hen laid red eggs and the yellow hen laid blue ones; but the pink hen never laid any, she was such a lazy thing.

well, this little girl thought this would never do, and so did the sky-blue rooster. so, one day, she went to the pink hen and said to her:

"snail, snail, come out of your hole, or else i'll beat you as black as a coal!"

and the sky-blue rooster said to her:

"twinkle, twinkle, little star!"

i don't know what they meant by it, but the pink hen knew, for she went straight to her nest and laid a little white egg. the sky-blue rooster was so tickled that he turned fourteen somersaults right off in succession, and sung "the star-spangled banner" all through three times, standing on the tip of his longest tail feathers. but the pink hen only said "tra la la!" she was such a lazy thing.