Chapter 101
the little half chick a spanish folk-tale once upon a time there was a hen who made a nest for herself in one corner of a sunny farm-yard in spain the nest was close against the whitewashed wall of the house and was snug and well sheltered there mother hen raised a brood of small chicks fluffy and yellow and beautiful did they come from the shell very good little chicks they were too all but one and that one oh dear me when his mother called to him cluck cluck cluck he never did what she told him when she bade him come here he went there when she bade him do this he did that he always gobbled the choicest morsels of food in the yard and he wanted his own way in all things one day when the whole family was scratching about in the dust mother hen noticed suddenly this little chick had only half a head and half a body and half a tail and one eye and one wing and one leg dear me dear me what in the world is the matter with my chick clucked mother hen in dismay how did he ever come to be such a queer little fellow but very soon it became quite plain enough to good mother hen why this chick was but a half chick
no matter how hard she tried to teach him to do what was right he only tossed his little half-head and flipped his little half-tail and did exactly as he chose dear me dear me said mother hen sadly one day little half chick came hopping up to his mother on his one little leg stump stump stump and he said good-bye mother i'm off to the city to see the king off to the city cried poor mother hen why you haven't even learned yet how to behave in a paltry yard you'll never get on in the city stay here and learn from me and who knows you may still grow into a whole chick but little half chick tossed his little half head and flipped his little half tail and cried i know enough without any teaching this life here is too quiet for me i'm off to the king and away you went with a hop and a skip stump stump stump stump stump stump over hill over dale past wheatfield and barleyfield past olive grove and vineyard past flocks of woolly merino sheep with shepherds in sheepskins and gay-coloured blankets on on on hopped little half chick stump stump stump up the highway
at length when he had got some distance on his journey he reached a lonely place where he came upon a little stream the stream was choked up with weeds that held it there a prisoner so it could not go leaping on its way oh little half chick little half chick murmured the water the weeds have bound me fast with their chains please stop and pull them away and set me free to go on my journey but little half chick only tossed his little half head and flipped his little half tail stop and set you free he cried well i should think not i haven't the time to bother with you i'm off to the city to see the king and for all the brooklet's beseeching he went on his way stump stump stump a little farther along what should half-chick come upon but a fire whose flames were sinking lower and lower so that little more of it was left than a mass of glowing red embers sticks give me sticks faintly sputtered the fire oh little half-chick feed me with sticks or i shall go out altogether feed you with sticks cried little half-chick well i should think not
i haven't the time to bother with you i'm off to the city to see the king and he tossed his little half-head and flipped his little half-tail and went on his way stump stump stump pretty soon half-chick passed through a thick wood and there he found the wind caught tight in a clump of bushes oh little half chick little half chick faintly whispered the wind pray stop and pull these bushes apart and make a loophole for me to get out stop and pull those bushes apart cried little half chick well i should think not i've no time to bother with you i'm off to the city to see the king and he tossed his little half head and flipped his little half tail and went on his way stump stump stump after a while the road became crowded with people some riding mules with red leather harnesses some on horseback some driving wagons and some on foot ahead of him he saw the great wall of the city with steeples and towers and gay-coloured roofs peeping over it in the midst of the crowd he slipped through the city gate up the narrow crooked little streets with tight-packed houses on either side through the market-place where gayly dressed men and women danced to the click of the castanets till he came to the palace of the king
there he stumped by a guard at the gate and into the palace yard but it happened the gate by which he had entered was a back gate so instead of being at the grand entrance to the palace he found himself in the kitchen yard just as he was crossing the court the king's cook looked out of the window and spied him just the thing for the king's dinner he cried i was kneading a chicken for the king's soup and he reached out the window seized little half chick ran with him to the fire took the cover off a great pot threw in a handful of onions garlic tomatoes and spanish peppers and after them all popped in little half chick then he clapped down the cover bang it was dark enough inside the kettle the water rolled over little half chick and twirled him round and round oh water water he cried do not roll over me and twirl me round help me help me ah little half chick bubbled the water when i was in need you would not stop to help me what right have you to ask me to stop and help you now and he went about his business of rolling and twirling about in the pot soon the water began to grow warm very warm fire fire do not cook me cried little half chick
but the fire leapt up in strong bright flames when i was in need you would not stop to help me he crackled what right have you to ask me to stop and help you now and he went on about his business of making the water hotter pretty soon the cook took the cover off the pot to see how his soup was doing as he stood there sniffing the onions and garlic and tomatoes and spanish peppers along came the wind oh wind wind help me cried little half chick get me out of this pot ah little half chick whistled the wind when i was in need you would not stop to help me what right have you to ask me to stop and help you now but just as the cook was about to clap down the cover on the kettle the wind did take little half chick whisk him out of the pot and out of the window up up up high over the roofs high over the towers and steeples he flew only a little half chick would act as you have roared the wind and here's the place for a little half chick with that he dropped half chick down bang on the top of a steeple so little half chick found himself at last nothing more than a weathercock there fastened tight to the top of the steeple he stands to this very day on his one little leg
and he never has his own way any more for he simply twirled this way and that without even so much as a by your leave however the wind blows end of section one hundred and one
