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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Write something suitable for CHILDREN (05/31/07)

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• TITLE: Red Nettie of Sunny-Side Up Farm | Previous Challenge Entry
  By Beth LaBuff
  06/05/07
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One minute till the stroke of dawn
On Sunny-Side Up Farm,
Gizzard Rooster cocked one eye
Then crowed the morn’s alarm.

Now Gizzard’s beak had lost its tip,
His “cock-a-doodle-doo”
Instead, when crowed, it sounded much
More like a “toodle woo”.

And with this morning’s “toodle-woo”
The old ramshackle shed
Erupted in a chorus of squawks
And roused hens from their bed.

Then two and twenty chickens leaped
With four and forty legs.
Red Nettie was the youngest hen
She’d yet to lay an egg.

Today it was Red Nettie’s turn --
TODAY! … of all the days!
It’d be her first egg ever laid --
The hens would sing her praise.

And as Red Nettie set upon
the nest filled high with hay
Her hopes and dreams all centered on
The egg she’d lay today.

And there it was! -- Red Nettie’s egg!
...but something had gone wrong.
A hush went through the chicken coop
The hens cut short their song.

As each hen eyed Red Nettie’s egg
Old Gertie had a frown.
She clucked for all the coop to hear
“Red Nettie’s egg is BROWN!”

Old Gertie and the other hens
Laid eggs of purest white.
So with Red Nettie’s all-brown egg.
The hens received a fright.

A stop in egg production might
Result from Nettie’s shame.
Gizzard hoped this would not be
Or Nettie was to blame.

For every chicken worth it’s feed
Knows every egg should be
NOT BROWN, but whiter than the snow,
To this, they all agree.

And while they watched a fresh white egg
Came rolling into view.
It bumped into Red Nettie’s egg.
The fascination grew.

Both eggs began a sliding,
The white egg and the brown.
They rolled up to the corner’s edge
Then both came crashing down.

Two sounds reverberated,
The first was a small “smack”.
The second was much louder --
A resonating “CRACK”.

All hens then gathered ‘round the spot
To see what had become
Of two hen eggs-- one white, one brown --
The mess just looked like one.

A twitter chirruped through the coop
For there, near cracked egg shell,
Were two egg whites and yellow yolks --
No difference could one tell.

“White eggs, brown eggs -- they’re the same!”
Was Gertie’s proclamation.
Among the chicken-hearts was joy
O’er this new revelation.

The chickens’ song began again.
The celebration grew.
The loudest voice that could be heard
Trilled forth a “toodle woo”.

***
"The color difference [in eggs] is due to the specific breed of hen, according to the Egg Nutrition Center. Hens with white feathers and white earlobes will lay white eggs, whereas hens with red feathers and matching-colored earlobes give us brown eggs." …the color of the eggshell had nothing to do with the taste of the egg…the health benefits of brown eggs versus white eggs … concluded that there is no nutritional difference.”
http://ask.yahoo.com/20000523.html

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