The hen had been scratching happily looking for seeds when she heard the coyote coming. She fluttered quickly on to a branch well out of his reach.
The coyote came and looked up at her, smiling. “I have good news for you, hen!” he said, “Don’t you want me to share the good news with you?”
The hen was accustomed to the ways of the coyote. She looked at him and thought, ‘You old rogue! I can well imagine your good news! You have been spending all your time trying to catch me. And if you do, I know what will happen. You will kill me, pluck my feathers and fry me because you wish to eat me!’
But she was very clever. So aloud she asked, “Well, what’s the good news?”
“A peace agreement has been declared,” replied the coyote, “between the hens and the coyotes. We are now friends! Isn’t that great? Why don’t you come down and give me a hug?” The hen chucked, “I am not a fool, coyote. Where’s this agreement that you are talking about? I’d like to see it. And do tell me who signed it and when?”
“You are unnecessarily suspicious, hen!” retorted the coyote, “The agreement is on the other side of the hill. Come along with me and I’ll show it to you. Meanwhile, you can give me a hug, can’t you?” The hen muttered, “Oh, yes! All you really want is a good bite of my leg or my wing!”
“Did you say something, hen?” asked the coyote.
“I wondered if there had been any agreement between coyotes and dogs too?” said the hen, looking very innocent.
“With dogs?” asked the coyote, looking over his shoulder, scared and anxious. “Oh, no, no! There’s no agreement with them.”
“That’s surprising, because I can see a dog running towards us,” said the hen.
“Where?” said the coyote, looking around. “I can see him from up here,” said the hen. Then she added, “I think there are some more dogs following him. What a lovely time you will have hugging the whole pack!”
She looked down to see the coyote disappearing into a bush at top speed. The hen chucked loudly. She had managed to get rid of that silly coyote again!
‘Oh, well!’ she thought, ‘his lies had to be stopped with a lie about the dogs!’
