The Chicken, Cow, and Spider

Once there was a farm that had lots of animals. On this farm lived a chicken, cow and spider. They were all great friends and looked out for one another. Cow lived in a field, next to the chicken coop, where Chicken lived, and in the corner of that coop lived Spider, in his finely spun web. They loved it on the farm, until one day, Spider overheard the farmer talking about getting ready to slaughter Cow so he could sell beef to the market. Immediately, Spider told Chicken, who told Cow. They had to come up with a plan soon.

The night before the farmer planned on butchering Cow, Spider came up with a plan to help his friend. He ventured out to the field where Cow lived, and told Cow to lay down and pretend to be dead. Then, he spun a web all around Cow, so that it looked like Cow had been dead for quite some time. When the farmer came out the next morning, he saw Cow, and said, “Oh no, Cow has died! I can’t butcher him now, because his meat has spoiled and will no longer be good to eat. I’ll have to bury him later. In the meantime, I’ll butcher some of the chickens and sell them for money.” Then farmer walked back inside his house.

Cow was thankful for Spider, but now he had to save his friend, Chicken! He told Spider what he had heard from the farmer, and Spider told Chicken. They were worried their friend, Chicken, would soon be killed by the farmer, so they all tried to think of a plan. After some time, Cow struck up an idea.

Before nightfall, Cow told Chicken to meet him back at the fence after the farmer and the rest of the chickens had gone to bed. So Chicken waited, and when the time was right, he snuck out of the chicken coop and met Cow at the fence. Cow told Chicken that he must dig a little hole in the dirt, then lay down as flat as he could be in the hole. So, Chicken started pecking at the dirt, soon making a little hole. He got down into the hole and waited. Cow, using his mouth, began to pick the grass up from the field and put it on top of Chicken, covering him up so nobody could see him. The next morning, the farmer came out to the chicken coop. As he gathered some chickens, he noticed the great web that Spider had made in the corner of the coop. “Gross, I hate spiders. I’ll make sure to get some spider spray and kill that thing tomorrow,” exclaimed the farmer. He gathered up a couple chickens, and took them to the slaughterhouse. Once the farmer was gone, Chicken came out of hiding, where he had heard the farmer talk to himself about killing Spider.

Chicken, Cow, and Spider were all now afraid Spider was going to be next on the farmer’s list, and devised a plan to save Spider. They all plotted together, but it was Chicken who finally hatched an idea. He was going to save Spider, but this time, he would make sure that they were all saved, and would not have to worry any longer about being killed by the farmer. So that night, Chicken met Cow at the fence and told him the plan. Then they waited until the farmer and all the other farm animals were fast asleep.

When the farm finally fell silent at night, Chicken woke up Spider. He told Spider to get on his back, and to trust him. So, Spider spun down from his web and got on Chicken’s back. When Spider was secured, Chicken creeped out of the coop, and met Cow at the fence. Then, Cow and Chicken both started digging below the fence that separated the chicken coop from the cow field. Chicken pecked away at the ground, while Cow used his hooves to dig. Eventually, they made a tunnel underneath the fence, where Chicken and Spider slid under to the other side. Then, they made their way to the fence that separated the cow field from the forest, at the edge of the farm. As they approached and got ready to dig another hole under the fence, they saw the farmer open the gate from the forest. They quickly panicked and hid behind a hay bale. What were they going to do? The farmer must’ve gone to the forest to do some fishing before dawn. This wasn’t in the plan!

Suddenly, the farmer stopped as he was closing the gate, for he had dropped his fishing gear by accident. Spider quickly spun up an idea, and told Chicken to let him down. Chicken, while hiding, let Spider down, and Spider began to quickly crawl towards the gate. He reached the farmer, and as the farmer was still busy picking up his supplies, Spider crawled up his pant leg. All of a sudden, the farmer shrieked and jumped, as he felt something crawling on him. When the Spider emerged, the farmer shrieked again, and ran all the way back to the farm to get something to swat the spider with. As he did this, he forgot to close the gate. Quickly, Chicken and Cow rushed to the gate, grabbed Spider, and ran out into the forest.

From then on, Spider, Chicken, and Cow lived out the rest of their lives as best friends in the forest, never to be bothered by another farmer again. Thanks to the bravery that each animal had, they had managed to escape the farm and save each other.

Author's Note

I read the story from Jataka Tales called The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer, by Ellen C. Babbitt, and thought to myself "I can make a better story with that plot." I felt that, in the original story, the author missed the opportunity to allow each of the three animals help each other escape. Instead, it was only Woodpecker and Turtle helping Deer escape, and then Deer helping Turtle escape. Woodpecker was never in any danger, so it felt like he was forgotten. In my story, I wanted it to be so that each animal was in danger, and each animal helped in their own certain way. I chose a farm because usually they contain many different types of animals (and insects/spiders, too), and the farmer could take place of the hunter from the original story. I used a similar plot, except they all helped each other, and they all escaped in the end. That's another thing I thought the original story could have used; the animals needed a way to finally be safe. Although it would be odd to see a trio of a cow, chicken, and spider living together in a forest, I figured it would make for a wholesome ending.