Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-01-13
STUDIES IN
NATURAL HISTORY
BY JAMES HENRY RICE, Jr.
THE HEN THAT LAID TWO EGGS

The up-country was once land Of
glory and romance, What II was then,
in It's virgin prime, as the "evil days
came and the years drew nigh," when
{ would be little more than o. wreck or
its former self, it's beauty tarnished,
none Of the present generation can ever
know.
No wonder that men loved IL with q
passionate devotion that carried con-
yiction to "the stranger within the
gates" Men from near and far bowed
,erore that dogged and resolute faith.
It was land anybody could be proud
Of; and everybody In 1t was.
People hah very little, however.
Money was so scarce as to be almost
non- existent There was abundance to
i've on; nobody lacked food Of the best
They had 1t because they made 1t and
saved 1t.
The original up-country population
could ehauenge comparison with any
people in the world.
Faith and Imagination.
But where there was so little, there
must be faith and imagination. There
are no greater things. Faith Is the
substance Of things hoped for; the evil
ience of things not seen" Hence the
up- -countryman who hoped, and who
began with children in their early
years. Taught to obey, they implicitly
believed. A man who can not believe
and trust lacks the elements OF growth.
One case In point was that Of two
little boys, four and six years of age.
A Young uncle rode his horse to school
each day to a nearby town. In the
morning he was always too pressed for
time to stop. so he took a nigh cut
through the woods. In the afternoons
ae had plenty. of time; so he rode
around by the house where the little
boys lived.
They knew when he was due and
were always on the lookout FOR hlm.
Almost invariably he brought In ms
tin bucket, In which his dinner was
carried. two hard-boiled eggs. They
had a flavor no other eggs ever had
There were sometimes other things In
the bucket; but the eggs were the
dainty most relished. Each boy got
)ne egg and sat down on the grass 10
eat 1t.
He told the boys that these eggs
we're laid by old Pelham. They knew
old Pelham. She was duck Legged
hen Of a clay bank color. in appearance
1ot different from other hens; but what
invested her with interest and charm
was the fact Of her laying two hard
boiled eggs each morning.
Old Pelham had been bought from
noted character, from whom her name
came. This worthy himself, an old
ginger-cake coIored mulatto, was HIM
self a very Paladin of romance to the
boys. who were feasted on tales or
= what he had and wnat he did, for ne
lived in the midst Of an unsettled re-
gion, visited seldom by the plantation
negroes and therefore clothed with al
the mystery Of "fur-off" countries.
There were plenty Of eggs on the
plantation; but these were ordinary
eggs, lacking the favor and relish that
Old Pelham's eggs always had:
Thought Eggs Were Ready Boiieo.
There came q time when the young
uncle moved away, and after q while
the boys left the plantation for good:
The country around there now Is fuli
Of people, and each six-year old child
knows that nj, hen ever laid two eggs,
let alone two hard boiled eggs.
But what they do not know Is that
there is a country, "over the hills ana
far away.r when men, women ana
children live for other things; and that
the belief is something that never hap
pened does not Of itself work Ill. IL
NAV, as in this case, sweeten the days
and atone for the deprivation, the long
waiting and the hope deferred.
The bows themselves always believ-
ed that Old Pelham laid two hard
boiled eggs each morning, whose havor
they could tell any day; and they nope
that Old Pelham roosts now on a palm
branch above the plains OF glory III
some heaven or good fowls.