Free One Hundred Eggs for Henrietta by Sally Huss

 
 
    Children's EBook

 
    One Hundred Eggs for Henrietta
    Written and Illustrated by
    Sally Huss

 
    “Hurry up, girls! Keep laying those eggs. Easter is coming and we don’t have nearly enough for the big hunt.”
    Henrietta stood inside the henhouse wringing her hands. She was in charge of the hens and she knew she was going to be short of eggs.

    This Easter Sunday, unlike all of the previous Easter Sundays, Farmer Johnson had invited all of the town’s children to the farm for a special Easter Egg Hunt, all one hundred of them. Henrietta had to have things ready.
    “My, my, my,” she fretted, as she looked at the meager number of eggs she was collecting. “Two. One. Four. Three. Two. None. No, this was not going to do.” She would never reach her goal of one hundred eggs. Every child had to have an egg or it just wouldn’t be Easter.

    It wasn’t that her chickens were lazy. They definitely were not. They were just tired and exhausted from trying to lay more eggs than usual.

    “Henry,” she called to the rooster, “bring more food for the girls. George, get them more water.”

    “Oh my, oh my,” Henrietta fretted some more. “How am I going to do it? We only have two days left and we’re short nearly fifty eggs!”
    Henrietta had been collecting eggs for a week for the usual family Easter gathering. But then Farmer Johnson changed plans and announced that all the town’s children were invited – one hundred strong.

    “Oh my, oh my,” Henrietta said again as she left the henhouse, still shaking her head. “I need help, lots of help.”
    Earlier in the week she could have picked up eggs at the market, but they were all snapped up by now. The egg shelves were empty. Easter was a big event in this little town and everyone knew that Easter wasn’t Easter without eggs.

    Eggs on Easter reminded everyone how wonderful life was, that spring was beginning and new life was on the way. And every child had to have an egg; it was tradition!
    One hundred eggs, one hundred eggs -- that’s what she needed. One hundred eggs and she was only half way. Where would she find fifty more?

    Henrietta pondered her dilemma as she sat near the duck pond. The ducks were paddling in line.

    The geese were splashing each other.

    The swans were gracefully gliding in circles, looking in charge of it all.

    Then Henrietta thought, we are all birds of a feather, we need to stick together. “You hoo ,” she called to the water birds, “I need your help!”

    She continued to explain, as they swam to the edge of the pond, “In two days it will be Easter Sunday and Farmer Johnson has invited all the children in town for an Easter Egg Hunt. My chickens are doing the best they can but we are fifty eggs short. You have feathers. You are birds like us. You lay eggs. Would you help us by laying enough eggs for the hunt?”

    “Of course. Of course. We’d love to help,” announced one of the swans, speaking for the whole group.
    “Yes, yes. We’d love to help,” piped up one of the other water birds.

    “Thank you all,” replied Henrietta, as she headed off to solve the next problem on her list. Eggs were one thing but coloring them was another.

    Fortunately Farmer Johnson had rows and rows of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and boysenberries – all perfect coloring materials. But who would be careful enough to do the dyeing?
    Aha, she thought, the rabbits! Bunny rabbits have soft paws, just right for holding eggs, as long as the bunnies didn’t eat the eggs in the process. Of course the eggs would be hard-boiled by the time they would be given to the rabbits to dye. But still, every egg must be handled carefully, remaining whole and uncracked, and perfect for the child who would find it.

    “Here, Bunny, Bunny, Bunny,” called Henrietta.
    Out scampered five very perky bunnies, each wondering what a chicken could want with them.
    “I need your help. Farmer Johnson is having a big Easter egg party here on