Now, the hen known as old Whitey was something of a gossip. She went straight to the farmyard and told everybody what had happened—what Henrietta Hen had said to her and what she had said to Henrietta Hen. The whole flock had a great laugh over the affair.  
To Henrietta Hen's delight, all her neighbors took a keen interest in the wonderful white egg. They asked her countless¹ questions about it. Above all, they always took pains to inquire whether she had been so unlucky as to crack the shell. And if Henrietta hadn't displeased² Polly Plymouth Rock one day, the truth might never have come out.
 
Anyhow, Polly Plymouth Rock told Henrietta Hen that if she had any sense she would stop making such a fuss over a china egg.
 
"China egg!" cried Henrietta. "I don't know what you mean."
 
"That's not a real egg that you're so proud of," Polly Plymouth Rock declared. "It's nothing but a make-believe one. Johnnie Green left it in your nest to fool you, so you'd keep that nest and lay eggs in it, right along.... You're so careful not to break that china egg! Why, if you tried to break it you'd find that it's solid as a rock."
 
Henrietta Hen couldn't believe the terrible news.
 
"I laid that egg myself!" she shrieked³.
 
"You t............