The Dog the Cock and the Fox

The dog and the rooster set off one morning to see the world. By nightfall the two friends had come to a thick, dark wood. "I shall sleep up here," said the rooster, flapping onto a branch. "I shall sleep down here," said the dog, and he curled up inside the hollow trunk of the same tree.

When the sun came up, the rooster did what roosters do. He threw back his head and crowed. He crowed once. He crowed twice. He crowed so loudly that they heard him on the far side of the wood.

On the far side of the wood, a fox pricked up his ears. "Breakfast," he said. He came trotting through the trees and stood under the branch, smiling his widest smile. "What a glorious voice!" he called. "How I have longed to meet the owner of such a voice!"

The rooster looked down at all those teeth. "How kind of you, sir," he said. "Would you do me a favour? Go round to the hollow trunk below me and wake my doorman. He will open the door and let you in."

"Gladly," said the fox, and he stepped up to the hollow trunk.

Out sprang the dog. One snap, one shake, and that was the end of the fox.