by William Kilcoyne
One day, a group of animals were walking by an old lady’s house: A crow, a fox, a cat,
and a dog. The old lady had just made a pie and was setting it on the windowsill. She had spent
years perfecting her recipe and it was the apple of her eye. This particular pie was her
masterpiece, it had taken her all day to make. The animals smelled an aroma coming from
the pie and decided that they would try to steal it in one fell swoop. As the old lady went to
her rocking chair to rest while the pie cooled, the cat and the dog came up to her. They decided
to make a ruckus that would serve as a distraction. When the cat came up the steps, the old lady
took the cat and sat him up on her lap. Soon after, the dog barked, scaring the cat away. The old
lady, upset about her new friend being chased away, shooed at the dog.
“Good riddance!” she said as the dog ran, but what she didn’t notice was that at the same
time, the fox and crow had worked together and hoodwinked the old lady. The crow pulled the
pie off the windowsill and onto the grass, and the fox carried it away into the woods through the
primrose path.
“What the dickens?” exclaimed the old lady as she came back to see if her pie was
finished cooling.
“For goodness sake! My pie was right on this windowsill!” The old lady looked high and low for her pie, but her efforts were in vain. As the old lady went back to her rocking chair empty-handed, the dog and the cat returning to rest by her side. Meanwhile, the fox and crow played a trick on them. They were laughing-stock just like the old lady. Together they ran off with the pie, leaving none for their loyal partners in crime. But it was not the end for the fox and the crow. As the fox was carrying the pie through the woods, he tripped and lost ahold of it, tumbling out of his grasp. The crow took this opportunity and stole the pie from the fox, hastily escaping to the treetops. The crow, with greed in his eyes, took his first bite of the pie, but it was then that he realized his mistake. It was a blueberry pie, and the crow was allergic to blueberries.
The crow threw the pie from the tree in a panic and had it landed on the forest floor in a
decimated and non-consumable mess.
As the night set in, the dog slept at the old lady’s feet and the cat snuggled onto her lap.
She felt loved by the animals who had a change of heart and learned a valuable lesson.
