There once was a Ladybug who lived in a lovely Garden. Her days were filled with warm sunshine and the laughter of her children. Her husband was a good bug and worked hard to provide for his family which was no small task as over half of what he earned had to be sent to the Barn. No one in the garden knew just exactly what went on in the Barn and really they were much too busy to care. As long as the Garden bloomed on schedule, they were content. Every now and then they heard rumors of the poor souls who lived in the muddy quagmire behind the Barn and the homeless that wandered the dusty paths, but they were glad to let those in the Barn worry about that.

 

Every morning Rooster would announce, "Cockle-doodle-doo.....all's right with the world!" And everyone sighed in relief and said what a good job those in the Barn were doing running things.

One day Ladybug happened to fly to the top of the fence, a place she seldom went, and she peered over the top towards the Barn. She could see a cloud of smoke coming from the upper window. Thinking to herself, "Where there's smoke, there's fire," and being very curious, she set off to investigate.

As she drew near, a raucous uproar met her ears and she could see that the smoke was not really fire at all. It was the dust kicked up by the melee within the Barn. She saw that two groups were facing off and each seemed to be very angry at the other. They were huffing and puffing and snorting and occasionally kicking. Suddenly all was quiet and she heard Donkey say, "Let me repeat, I did not have sexual relations with that Cow!" as he shook his hoof at the others.

She saw Cow bat her eyelashes in Donkey's direction and grin a silly conspiratorial grin. Everyone looked over at Spider, expecting her to kick and scream or maybe cry since Donkey was her husband. But she did neither. Instead she retreated to the back of her web as if she were biding her time.

"Hmmmm," thought Ladybug, "Is this the important duties that require so much of our money to be sent to the Barn?" and so she asked this very question to the group of Sheep standing nearby trying to look important and congressional. "Will you let Donkey get away with this kind of behavior?" she added.

"Get away with what?" bleated most of the sheep, "we didn't see anything." "Consult the polls!" bleated several others. "Stop bashing Donkey!" said another with an angry scowl. A brave Falcon flew down from the rafters and suggested that lying could not be tolerated, even by someone as important as Donkey. At this the fighting began all over again. Donkey just crept quietly away to his stall and ordered a raid on the neighboring farm hoping that might draw attention away from his recent activities. He especially wanted to keep the Rooster busy.

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