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[gatech!dscatl!lindsay (Lindsay Cleveland): cutie]

------- Forwarded Message

Date:    Tue, 04 Sep 90 04:38:17 -0400 
From:    gatech!dscatl!lindsay (Lindsay Cleveland)
To:      gatech!purdue!spaf
Subject: cutie

Contributed by Emily D. Brooks (ihnss!gc49!edb):

                THE MODERN LITTLE RED HEN

  Once upon a time, there was a little red hen who scratched about the
barnyard until she uncovered some grains of wheat. She called her
neighbors and said, "If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat.
Who will help me plant it?"
  "Not I," said the cow.
  "Not I," said the duck.
  "Not I," said the pig.
  "Not I," said the goose.
  "Then I will," said the little red hen. And she did. The wheat grew
tall and ripened into golden grain. "Who will help me reap my wheat?"
asked the little red hen.
  "Not I," said the duck.
  "Out of my classification," said the pig.
  "I'd lose my seniority," said the cow.
  "I'd lose my unemployment compensation," said the goose.
  "Then I will," said the little red hen, and she did.
  At last it came time to bake the bread. "Who will help me bake the
bread?" asked the little red hen.
  "That would be overtime for me," said the cow.
  "I'd lose my welfare benefits," said the duck.
  "I'm a dropout and never learned how," said the pig.
  "If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination," said the goose.
  "Then I will," said the little red hen.
  She baked five loaves and held them up for her neighbors to see.
  They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red
hen said, "No, I can eat the five loaves."
  "Excess profits!" cried the cow.
  "Capitalist leech!" screamed the duck.
  "I demand equal rights!" yelled the goose.
  And the pig just grunted. And they painted "unfair" picket signs and
marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
  When the government agent came, he said to the little red hen, "You
must not be greedy."
  "But I earned the bread," said the little red hen.
  "Exactly," said the agent. "That is the wonderful free enterprise 
system. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under
our modern government regulations, the productive workers must
divide their product with the idle."
  And they lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who
smiled and clucked, "I am grateful. I am grateful."
  But her neighbors wondered why she never again baked any more bread.

     From an advertisement by Milliken & Company (textiles)

Cheers,
  Lindsay  Cleveland    Digital Systems Co.  Atlanta, Georgia

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