What's your gravel?

Oct 16 2022 | Sunday

Hello, beloved reader.

In the short story, 'The Chicken Who Wouldn't Eat Gravel' by Clara Dillingham Pierson, the Hen mother has twelve chickens. Eleven of them are quite plump, but there's one who is thin and lank, which worries her. She asks him if he eats gravel and he says that he doesn't because he doesn't like the taste of it.

His mother tells him the reason behind eating gravel—"You have no teeth, and you cannot chew the grain you eat before it is swallowed. You have a strong stomach, and if you eat gravel this stomach or gizzard will rub and press the tiny stones against the grain until it is well broken up and ready to make into fat and strength for your body." However, the Chicken remains adamant.

After seeing his shadow, which is only a small black spot on the ground while his brothers and sisters have big fat shadows, the Chicken starts eating gravel, and then gradually starts growing into a "fine looking fellow."

However, he's still sad because he hasn't told his mother about the gravel. So when he hears his mother telling his brother to eat more gravel and his brother says that he doesn't like the taste of it, the Chicken speaks these words at last—"Suppose you don't like it, you can eat it. Queer world it would be if we didn't have to do unpleasant things. I've just made up my mind that the people who won't do hard things, when they ought to, have the hardest times in the end. Wish I'd minded my mother and eaten gravel when she told me to, and I'm not going to let you be as foolish as I was."
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Thank you for reading.​
Sahar Afreen

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