The Teenie Weenies usually bought their eggs from a queer old hen that lived near the Teenie Weenie village. She was a Plymouth Rock and like most Plymouth Rocks she was talkative. Because she was continually clucking and making a fuss, the Teenie Weenies had named her "The Boomer." It took a lot of bargaining to get an egg out of her, for she was rather sharp in a business deal. Some of the Teenie Weenies could understand a little chicken talk, but when a deal was on for an egg, it was usually the Chinaman who bargained for it because he speaks Plymouth like a hen.

The Teenie Weenies were entirely out of egg. There wasn't a doughnut or cookie in the village, and the General was most unhappy without his morning omelet. The little folk had been trying for several weeks to get an egg from the old hen, but she was very cranky and demanded black market prices. However, the weather helped the Teenie Weenies out of their trouble. It turned bitter cold and the Teenie Weenies were able to do the hen a favor which made her more reasonable in her price.

One cold morning the Sailor reported that the hen's drinking water was frozen. "She's thirsty and she wants us to break the ice," the Sailor told the General.

"Ah, shucksl" exploded the Dunce. "We're all the time breakin' ice for old hens. Don't do it until she agrees to lay us an egg."

"No," said the General, "we can't take advantage of her trouble. That would be wrong. But we can go over and help her get a drink."

The hen's drinking water had been put into an old tin cup and the water had frozen solid. The little men carried some Teenie Weenie tools and the Cook's biggest kettle, which the Teenie Weenies use for making apple butter. While some of the men chopped off pieces of ice, the Cook set up the kettle and built a fire under it. The pieces of ice were thrown into the kettle and when they were melted the water was poured into a carrying thimble and given to the thirsty hen as quickly as the little men could take it to her.

She was terribly thirsty and she drank 18 thimbles of water. She was so grateful she promptly laid a large egg and she told the General her price would be only 7½ grains of corn and 4 grasshoppers - the grasshoppers to be delivered to her next Summer. She had been asking 10 grains of corn and 6 large, plump grasshoppers or 8 small grasshoppers.