It was a cold and dark night when the sun set in the west. All of the chickens in the hen house sat on perches, closed their eyes and got ready to sleep. "Good night!" Everyone fell asleep after saying good night to each other.

　　However, one hen was sitting up and pecking at her own feathers. This hen was quite famous for laying eggs everyday. In addition, she sometimes made other chickens laugh with jokes.

　　As she pecked her feathers, one of her white feathers fell down to the ground suddenly. "Oh, one has come off! But I don't have to feel sorry for it. That means I lost as much weight as one feather." The Hen said as if it was nothing. All the other chickens were sleeping, so none of them could see it.

　　There was an owl sitting on a branch next to the hen house. Owl's eyes have keen sight at night. The owl muttered to himself. "I heard it clearly. I heard what the hen said with my sharp ears." But the owl lost interest soon and told this story to a pigeon in his neighborhood.

　　"Listen to me. Well, a Hen in the hen house pulled out one of her own feathers to look attractive. How can this happen? "Is it true? That's ridiculous."

　　The pigeon burned to tell the story to her friends, so she told it to a barnyard duck in her neighborhood. "Hey, duck. I have some surprising news." "What's up?" "A hen pulled all her feathers out to look pretty." "What a stunning story!"

　　The barnyard duck was shocked by the story. "That's unbelievable. If she pulled out all her feathers, she must have a cold and be running a fever." There was a swallow living under the eaves of the duck's house. The barnyard duck told the story to the swallow.

　　The swallow was surprised, too. "What an unbelievable story this is. I can't keep quiet. I have to tell this story to everyone." The swallow flew to the sky full of bright moonlight.

　　The next morning had broken. "Tweet tweet! Tweet tweet!" Early in the morning, sparrows were sitting down in front of the hen house and chattering. The Chickens felt strange and asked the sparrows. "Excuse me, dear sparrows. What happened?"

　　"I have an unbelievable story to tell you. It's very unusual. Well, one hen pulled all her feathers out because she wanted to look attractive. But do you really think she will be beautiful after pulling all of her feathers out? So, the angry hen pulled out all the other hen's feathers. As a result, five chickens died at the same time."

　　Then, one hen replied to the sparrow. "Oh, what a pity. How could that happen?" The hen that replied to the sparrow was the one who pulled out her feather last night. The small thing that she pulled her feather out became such huge and shocking news while passing through several of her animal friends.

　　"Where did they say the hen was living? I want to meet her." "They said she is living right here." "Here? No way. This is not where she is living." "That's strange. Then, where is she living?" The sparrow shook her head.

　　"Definitely not here. I am curious where she lives, too. How on earth can a hen do such a horrible thing?" At that moment, a gust of wind blew, and it carried the hen's feather, which she pulled ort last night, to somewhere else.

　　單詞注釋：

　　perch n. 桿;棲木;高位

　　peck vi. 啄食;扔石頭;吹毛求疵 vt. 啄食;扔

　　例句：Jack is the most hen - peck man I know.

　　杰克是我所認識人中最怕老婆的人。

　　muttervi. 咕噥;喃喃自語

　　ridiculousadj. 可笑的;荒謬的

　　例句：Simply to imagine a pig flying is ridiculous.

　　光是想象一只豬在飛就覺得荒謬可笑。

　　barnyardadj. 下流的;粗俗的

　　sparrows n. 麻雀;矮小的人

　　gust n. 一陣狂風;風味;趣味