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"Soon folks were saying that no one had such good eggs as Jeremias the Egg Man, 'specially when he started with them double-yolked eggs," added Esther.

"Double-yolked eggs?" I asked.

"You ain't never eat a cake made with double-yolked eggs?" asked Esther in disbelief.

"I can't say that I have."

"Well, sit right there, child."  She lay her knitting in her basket and entered the house through the broken screen door.

Within a minute she handed me a slice of angel food cake with chocolate icing.  I took a bite and it was as rich as any I had ever eaten, and I said so.

While I savored the treat, Jeremias continued his story.

"Well, there was these special free range hens down by the river and for whatever reason, about half them eggs they laid had two yellas or double-yolked, cause they was like twins don't you see."

“How can you tell if they have two?” I asked.

“Well, Missy, you hold ‘em real close like to a candle and you can see ‘em in there plain as day.”

I clicked a nice close up of his index finger to thumb circles as he demonstrated the phenomenon, his one eye squinted closed.

"Come to find out, these are highly prized for makin' rich cakes and such."

"I agree completely," I said as I held up my forkful before placing it in my mouth.

"So I caught all them double-yolked egg layin' hens and brung them on back to the house so I could protect them from the dogs and such, then I heard of other hens here and there what had this amazing ability and I rounded them up too."

"He even bought a few from a farmer's wife from time to time."

"That's right.  Pretty soon more than half my eggs was double-yolked and I started to make some extra money, which made me work all the harder.  My Momma said we was home free, but all we had was enough to eat more or less regular."

"My husband earned his daily bread by good honest work is what he done and that's something to be proud of."

"Some days I even brung my Momma some store bought bread and she thought we was livin' high on the hog I'm here to tell you.  How she enjoyed that store bought bread and how she would thank the Lord that he provided for her in her old age."

"So you were very happy?"

"Oh, I had me some time at first when I went around with a sourness about me," he acknowledged.

"His Momma told me that at first he started to fret that things would go bad for his business or he would get sick or some such thing and he commenced to get a little short with the people he loved the most, and that just ain't right."

"Well, them eggs was heavy as lead.  When Mr. Washington asked me what was the matter, because of my blue mood don't you know, I told him I couldn't carry all them eggs by my ownself for my whole life."

"Couldn't you have found someone to help you?" I asked.