“WELL, madam,” said the General, lifting his hat and bowing politely to the old hen who lived near the shoe house, “will it be possible for you to furnish the Teenie Weenies with an egg for their Easter dinner this year?”
“Why, yes, of course,” snapped the old hen. “Ain’t I always ready to lay an egg when I gets my pay?”
“Dear me,” whispered the Lady of Fashion to the Doctor, “did you ever in all your life hear such bad grammar?”
“How much will you charge us?” asked the General, as he sat down on a pebble.
“Twenty-five grains of corn,” answered the hen, glaring about at the Teenie Weenies.
“Great guns!” exclaimed the General, “why, that’s five bags, and last year we paid you only three.”
“Things are awfully high now and worms are scarce; well, all right, you can have an egg for twenty grains of corn, and not one grain less,” cried the old hen.
“That’s pretty expensive,” said the General, “but it wouldn’t seem like Easter if we didn’t have a boiled egg, so I’ll take it and we’ll bring over the corn in the morning and get the egg.”
The next morning the little folks filled four teenie weenie bags with corn. Five grains were put into each bag and it was about all a Teenie Weenie could do to carry it.
When the Teenie Weenies arrived at the hen’s house they opened the bags and poured the corn out on the ground so the old hen could count them, for she was a businesslike old lady and wanted to be sure that she was getting her full amount of corn.