.C:!pr.24 .X:12 .XB:7 .XT:7 .R:W .R:V P---T----1L----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----T----5----+----R----r----7--T-+--r THE BALLAD OF CHICKEN LITTLE [also known as: "Rudyard Kipling and Robert R. Service collaborate on a rhymed version of a children's story ÄÄ- with a few phrases and a final verse contributed by Robert A. Heinlein."] by Kate Gladstone - with credit to an inspiration by Gary McGath [tune: "Green Hills of Earth" or "King Henry" as recorded by Steeleye Span on BELOW THE SALT or quite a few other ballad-tunes - so use any tune that will fit, if you don't know one of those I named] Chicken Little was in the woods. An acorn fell on his head. "Oho, the sky is falling. I must tell the King," he said. "When the arching sky is falling, and a Chicken gets hit by a Thing - The duty of ev'ry Chicken is to run and tell the King - " - And so I must go, that the King may know, through fields and meadows many," So Chicken Little ran and ran, till she met with Henny Penny. "Why travels a Chick so fast, so far?" the Hen desired to know: "The sky above is falling - to tell the King I go." "How can I know that the thing is so?" And the Chicken answer`ed. "I saw with my eyes, I heard with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head." The Hen agreed: "You must run with speed. This is a perilous thing: Fear not, O Chick - through thin and thick I will go with you to the King." So they ran at a jog through swamp and bog to a lake where the waterfowl paddles, Their message to bring to the throne of the King - and they met with Ducky Daddles. "Why travel ye so fast, so far? What urgent news do ye bring?" "The sky, the sky is falling - we go to tell the king." "How can I know that the thing is so?" 2 And the Chicken answer`ed. "I saw with my eyes, I heard with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head. The Duck agrees: "This does not please - it is a perilous thing: "O Chick and Hen, we must warn him then: I will go with you to the King." Though of different feather, they ran together, for the news could not delay, Ran long and hard to the poultry-yard where the fattened goslings stay -- Where they met with Goosey Loosey, who asked like others to know: "Why do you travel so fast, so far? Tell on what errand ye go." "O Goose," said the Chick, " 'twill make you sick, the thing that has occurred - "The arching sky is falling - the King must have the word." "How can I know that the thing is so?" And the Chicken answer`ed. "I saw with my eyes, I heard with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head." "Since the tale is true, I will go with you." Through the poultry-yard they hie - Speeding along, the four as one, till Turkey Lurkey they spy. "Why travel ye so fast, so far? What urgent news do ye bring? "The sky above is falling - we go to tell the King." "How can I know that the thing is so?" And the Chicken answer`ed. "I saw with my eyes, I heard with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head." "O Trav'lers Four, the news is sore, and the King hath need to know. With you I will bring the news to the King." And the five together did go. Through muck and mire, through bush and briar, through ice and blazing heat, Through storms and hail, though their strength grew frail, through hurricanes and sleet, Through ev'ry distress of the wilderness, though strength and will did melt, To a lonely glen with an earthen den where Foxy Loxy dwelt. 3 "Why travel ye so fast, so far? What urgent news do ye bring? "The sky, the sky is falling - we go to tell the King." "Know ye the way to the King's house? Know ye by what path to go?" But one and all, they could not recall ... one by one, they admitted "No." "Let me guide you there; together we'll fare," the Fox made his reply, "But first, to my den for dinner." Then ... ... on him fell a piece of the sky. Comet or asteroid - who knows? Or burning satellite's shell? Or alien craft? "No matter," they laughed, "for it killed the Fox quite well." If on Earth you stay, day after day, the moral's sad but true - Ignore the sky and your kind will die, when the sky falls down on you. So find your wings, all living things, though Terra gave you birth - For your ultimate place is all of space, beyond the Green Hills of Earth. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Kate Gladstone - Handwriting Repair - kate@global2000.net http://www.global2000.net/handwritingrepair -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-