The Mysterious Hay Ball

Once in a faraway land, was a village. A

village full of people, animals and
farmlands. A wolf lived near the village,
on the bank of a river. He always tried to
attack and eat the animals but the
farmers shooed him away. The farmers
were fed up with the wolf. Among the
animals, lived a hen who wanted to
escape from the farm and was always
about to get eaten by the wolf, but she
always escaped with cleverness. The
wolf was very angry and wanted to take
revenge with the hen. Once he rolled
himself in the mud and acted as a dog
but the dogs chased him away, once he
stole the saddle and the bridle of the
horse but the farmer saw his tail was
different and shooed him away. Once
the hen got a spectacular idea. She was
very confident. The idea was this- Her
cage was half opened some of the days
when it rained and because it was weak.

Her cage was beside the hay, she tried

to escape when the cage was open but
the farmer caught her and locked the
cage properly. So she got an idea that
she would collect some hay and roll up
in it and would have hay all around so
when the cage is open, she would
escape but if the farmer would see her,
so he would think that it was living hay
and would get scared and run away and
then she would escape. And if the wolf
sees here, he would think it is just hay
and would pass her. The hen seemed to
be excited all the time. Each day, she
would collect hay and hide it inside her
feathers and at night she would sleep
over it. When the day arrived when the
cage was half open because it rained
last night, she rolled up in the hay and
took some grains which were given to
her in breakfast. It was time to leave.
She jumped from her cage and started
running to the bank of river. She had

carried some wood on which she would

sit and cross the river. On the way she
rested for a while. Then she saw the
wolf and stayed still, she had forgotten
that hay was eatable so she got a little
worried. The wolf saw her but passed
her. The hen was delighted that her plan
was successful. When the wolf was away
in sight she crossed the river and
entered the city. She crossed many
roads and came again to new river. It
was the same river which she crossed
before but she didnt know it was the
same river and crossed it again. When
she was crossing the river some of her
hay fell off but she did not notice. When
she reached the other side of the river,
she saw the wolf and stayed still. The
wolf saw her part from which the hay
had fell and started running after the
hen. He bit her feathers. The hen got
frightened and ran towards the farm.
The farmer saw the hen and put in her

cage and shooed the wolf away. The hen

got know that she was in her farm back
and felt foolish of not recognising the
river and never tried to escape again
from the farm again.

-Kushaan
Agarwal
City- Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh,
India
Age- 8
School- The Sanskaar Valley
School
Illustrations-(Not in order)