MISS MAYHALL AND THE DIRTY EGGS

Miss Mayhall was born in a barn, and got dropped on her head shortly thereafter.  It didn't hurt her bad, but it did make her friendly.  She didn't have a care in the world and was always smiling and singing.  Her favorite song was "Hold The Bell Cow".  You could hear her singing it while she was tending her chickens.   ♫ "Went down to the cornfield to pick a mess of beans, along came the bell cow pecking at the greens."  ♫♫ "Hold the bell cow, catch her by the tail, hold the bell cow, milk her in the pail."  The hens loved it, and laid lots and lots of white eggs.  Miss Mayhall would take her eggs to the General Store and sell them for three cents apiece.  She was secretly saving up for a wedding dress, but would never have told it.  Now most everybody knows that the color of a chicken's earlobes predicts the color of the eggs.  You learn that the same way as how to milk a cow, or how to dress a goose.  (You don't use calico to dress a goose)  These things are just passed down from those who know to those who don't know.  However, for some unknown reason, nobody for miles around had ever raised anything but White Leggerns, and those kind only lay white eggs.  Not one person in the whole county had ever laid eyes on a brown egg, or a dark chicken; that is, except for Miss Mayhall.  She was good at keeping a secret, and had recently discovered a reddish brown hen, which must have escaped from a traveling wagon.   It was a mighty fine looking hen, but at the same time very curious, as far as Miss Mayhall was concerned.  Why, what would it do?  Would it eat corn, lay eggs, cluck, fly, nest? Well, it "certainly must need a nest", she thought, so reluctantly she pitched it in the coop.  None of the other chickens seemed to mind, and the roosters were happy to accommodate the new lady.  She took right to clucking, and eating corn, and laying eggs...very BROWN eggs!!  Oh, what a sight!!  Miss Mayhall gasped as she looked in that nest, and screamed, "Look how dirty!!"  "How shall I ever sell those dirty eggs?!!"  "What will I ever do with them?"  "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!"  She decided to wash them.  I heard she even tried to white wash them, until her conscience got the better of her.  There was nothing to do but see if any of the town's folks would be curious enough to try the dirty eggs for themselves.  Miss Mayhall had already eaten a few, and since she didn't die,  figured they were safe enough.  Of course, the price for the dirty eggs would have to be less than the white eggs, so two cents apiece would be fair.  Off she went to the General Store, where to her surprise, she completely sold out!  Folks were so curious, they drew a big crowd, and everybody wanted the dirty eggs more than the white ones!  After that, Miss Mayhall could charge four cents apiece because, of course, the dirty eggs were richer and had a better flavor.  It didn't take long for the dark hen to hatch a brood, and then they started laying, and so on, and so on.  Nobody would have ever guessed that Miss Mayhall would have had enough sense to start her own business, but she did.  She quit selling eggs at the General Store, and opened her own store.  She called it, "Miss Mayhall's Eggs And Goods".  I went in there one time and there was a new wedding dress hanging in the back.  The tag read... "Not For Sale".