Once upon a time, a hen, a cat, a dog, a pig, a goat and a rabbit all lived together in a little house.

Like good housemates, they all worked together to do the chores and pay the bills. In the front yard, Goat had a little pen. Children would come and pay to come into the pen and pet Goat. Sometimes the other animals came out to be petted too, except for the hen, because she was always too busy.�

Rabbit had beautiful long fur and brushed it all the time, and then she would spin the fur that came off with the brush into wool, which she would sell. The wool that came from Rabbit's fur made lovely soft sweaters.

The others had jobs around the house. Hen kept a garden where she grew food for herself, Pig, Goat and Rabbit. Sometimes Dog ate the food too. Once or twice even Cat did, because Hen's cooking was very good, but most of the time Cat prowled around for mice, or took naps.

Dog's job was to bark a lot. Dog barked to warn Goat that children were coming for the petting zoo if Goat was inside the house. Dog barked to warn other dogs to go away. Dog barked to say hi to people. Dog barked to say that people had better watch out and not try any funny business. Dog barked at squirrels. He couldn't explain why he needed to bark at squirrels. He just did.

Pig was always eating garbage. And then she would track dirt across Hen's nice clean floor on her way to take a shower. And then she would eat more garbage. And then she would take another shower. When Hen got mad at Pig for taking too many showers, Pig asked Hen if she would prefer it if Pig had a mud wallow instead. After that Hen didn't complain about Pig's showers.

Hen tried to keep the house clean. There were always feathers and fur everywhere. Cat didn't want to sit still to let Rabbit brush her. "I'm a cat," she would say. "I can clean myself." Then she would lick off all of her own loose fur. Then eating so much hair would make her sick, and she would throw up a hairball, right on Hen's nice clean floor. "Ooh, I feel much too sick to clean that up," she would say. "Hen, can you do it?" Then she would take a nap.

Dog got nervous sometimes. All that barking was hard on him. He had to stay alert all day and all night. When Dog was nervous, he chewed on things. He chewed on Cat's bed pillow, which got feathers everywhere that weren't even Hen's. He chewed on Rabbit's brush, and Rabbit was angry enough to try to hit him with it. He chewed on a pair of old shoes. None of the animals wore shoes, but the shoes belonged to Goat, who also liked chewing on them, so Goat and Dog had an argument.

Pig would stay in the garbage pen when she was eating garbage. Goat would wander into the pen the day after Hen made spaghetti with tomato sauce, because he loved tomato sauce. He'd pick up the can Hen had thrown in the garbage, and lick it. Pig didn't mind. There was plenty of garbage. But Goat wouldn't stay still in the garbage pen. "I have to get back to the petting zoo," he'd say. "The children want to pet me." Then he'd walk around with the dirty tomato sauce can in his mouth, letting it drip all over the place. Children thought this was very funny. Hen didn't.

Rabbit would get angry when she found red feathers in her hutch. "Hen! You're getting feathers in my hutch again!" she'd say. Hen would get angry because Rabbit shed fur everywhere and it wasn't fair for Rabbit to complain about Hen's feathers, when Hen was the only one who even tried to keep the house clean. Rabbit would always say that her fur was putting a roof over all of their heads and paying for the groceries, because six animals ate a lot more than Hen could grow in her garden, so she was always going to the grocery store. Then Hen would say "Well, if that fur is worth so much money why is it all over the couch and not on your spindle?" and then Rabbit would hmph and say that she works hard to sell her wool and she has the right to sit down and watch TV sometimes.

They were all friends and they all worked together to make life better for all the animals in the house. But sometimes friends and housemates don't always get along so well.

One day Hen decided she was going to bake a loaf of bread. All of the animals loved her bread. Even Cat, who wasn't supposed to eat bread, because she was a carnivore and it was bad for her. Cat pretended she didn't really care about the bread, but when no one was looking she would always sneak a slice.

"I'm going to make bread," she announced. "Who wants to help me buy the supplies I'll need?"

"Not me," said Cat, who was running around on the kitchen flour pouncing on nothing. Sometimes she did that for fun.

"Not me," said Dog, who was at the window looking out into the yard. He saw a squirrel. "WOOF WOOF! WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF! AR-AR-AR-AR-AR! WOOF WOOF!"

Rabbit rolled her eyes. "It's just a squirrel," she said. "You don't have to bark."

"I do! My honor as a dog requires it!"

"Are you going to help me get the groceries?" demanded Hen.

"Oh heavens no. Look at all this brushing and grooming I have to do!" Rabbit brushed her fur.

"Pig, will you come with me?"

"I would, but I'm sooo hungry, I feel like I'd eat everything in the store!" Pig said, munching on yesterday's garbage. "Sorry, count me out."

Hen stuck her head out the door. Goat was playing with children. "Goat, will you come with me to the store so I can buy supplies to make bread?"

"Not me," said Goat, as the children petted him.

"Well! Then I guess I have to do it all myself! I swear I live with the biggest lazybones I've ever met," Hen said, which was probably true, because last time she had housemates they were all chickens. The hens worked hard at laying eggs and sitting on them, and finding bugs and worms and plants to eat, and the roosters worked hard at defending the hens and crowing when it was morning to wake all the chickens up so they could eat.

Hen went to the grocery store, and got flour, yeast, and vegetable oil. The vegetable oil was very heavy. She'd bought a large one, because it was on sale, but it was very hard for a little hen to drag such a heavy bottle back home, especially with the heavy bag of flour too.

When she got back to her house, she yelled, "This stuff is really heavy! Is anyone going to help me carry it into the kitchen?"

"Too busy!" yelled Goat, who was still getting petted by children.

"If I look away from the window there might be an intruder!" Dog said. "Or another squirrel!"

"Still brushing," said Rabbit.

"I'd help, but if I look at your groceries, I might get hungry again," Pig said. "I just now managed to get full enough to go take my shower."

"Cat?" Hen asked.

"What, are you seriously asking me? Of course not. I'm grooming," Cat said, licking her fur.

So Hen dragged her groceries into the kitchen and began to make the dough. She put the ingredients in a bowl and began to mix them. "Can anybody help me mix the dough here?"

"What part of 'grooming' are you not getting?" Cat asked.

"Maybe if Cat will watch the window for me and let me know if anything dangerous is coming, I could help you mix the dough?" Dog suggested.

"How about no?" Cat said.

"Still brushing," Rabbit said.

Pig was in the shower, and Goat was outside, so Hen didn't even ask.

When she was done mixing the dough, it was time to knead it. Wings are not very good at kneading things, so Hen washed her feet in the sink first. Then she climbed on the dough and began to knead it. "I don't suppose anyone wants to help me knead the dough?" she asked.

"I am hunting a mouse here," Cat said, which Hen thought was strange, because it looked like she was sitting still on the floor with her tail twitching.

"Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute!" Dog said. "THERE'S AN INTRUDER!" He ran outside, barking. "Intruder! Intruder!"

Rabbit sighed. "Dog, that's the mailman," she said, although Dog couldn't hear her, because he was already outside. Also, he was barking very loudly.

"You're not brushing anymore," Hen said. "You could help me."

Rabbit glared at her. "I am spinning," she said, feeding the fur from her brush into a spinner so she could turn it into wool thread.

After Hen had kneaded the dough, it was time to make it into a loaf. "Does anyone want to help me make these loaves?" she asked.

But the only one left was Rabbit. Pig was still in the shower, Goat was still being petted by children, Dog was patrolling the property, and Cat had gone outside to hunt mice. Hen looked over at Rabbit, but Rabbit was still spinning. "Humph," Hen said. "None of you are very helpful. It would serve you right if I didn't even let you eat any of this loaf." But Rabbit was paying attention to her spinning, so she didn't notice what Hen said.

When the loaves were made, Hen put them in the oven to bake. She got out the butter, so it would be nice and soft when it was time to put it on the bread, and then she washed the dishes she'd gotten dirty, and cleaned the counter, and swept the kitchen. None of the animals helped her.

Finally, the loaves came out of the oven. By this time, Rabbit was done spinning, and had finished taking pictures of her wool to add to her catalog, and now she was watching TV. Cat was sleeping in the living room with the TV on. Pig was munching on apple cores and peels from the apple pie Hen had made yesterday, as she watched TV with Rabbit. Dog and Goat were playing cards in the living room at the coffee table.

Hen marched out to the living room. "Well, the bread that I made all by myself is done. Who wants to help me eat it?" she asked.

"I'd love some!" said Pig.

"I could definitely go for bread," Goat agreed.

"Me, too," said Dog.

"Bread sounds nice," Rabbit said.

Cat flicked her ear up and opened one eye. "Maybe," she murmured sleepily.

"Well, too bad!" Hen said. "Because none of you helped me get the groceries, and none of you helped me bring in the groceries, and none of you helped me make the dough, and none of you helped me knead the dough, and none of you helped me make the loaves, and you definitely didn't help me clean up the kitchen afterward, so why should you help yourself to any of my bread? It's my bread and I'm going to eat it all by myself!" She flounced back into the kitchen, fluttering her wings.

All of the animals looked at each other.

Goat followed Hen into the kitchen. "You do know that Rabbit and I made the money that you used to buy those groceries, right?" he asked.

"But you didn't help buy them. You didn't help use them. You didn't help clean up after them. And you never, ever do! I work very hard around here to keep this place clean and cook nice food for all of us and none of you ever help."

"Well, all right then," Goat said. "You do your job, without any help, and we all get the benefits. All of us do our jobs, without any help, and you get the benefits too, along with the rest of us. So why is this different?"

"Because you are all being lazy and not helping me at all. I make the food! That's very important! But you don't help me do that and you don't clean up after yourselves and I'm tired of it! So I'm going to eat all the bread that I made."

"I really don't think that's a good idea," said Goat.

Hen humphed. "Well, you didn't think helping me was a good idea either, and look how that turned out."

Goat left the kitchen, and Hen sat down to eat her nice warm bread, with butter and cheese. It was delicious, but she couldn't eat it all. She had to wrap most of the loaf up for later.

I can have it for breakfast in the morning, thought Hen.