A man decided one day that as he had made it in the world of big business he should do something special for his family. He knew that as a child his wife had always wanted a pony, so he sat out to purchase one for her and their two children. He searched far and wide until he found the perfect one; a long-haired Shetland. The pony was a rich chestnut brown and its golden mane was almost two feet long, flowing across its neck like strands of soft sunlight. He was so sure of his choice he didn’t even haggle over the somewhat high price the farmer was asking.

The gentleman was anxious to show the prize to his family, but wanted to surprise them at the same time. He placed the colt in a small shed in back of his house overnight and brought his family outside first thing the following morning. When he opened the door to the shed he was appalled to find the Shetland standing before him with its beautiful mane twisted into a mass of knots, and two small house wrens nestled in the middle. He promptly chased the birds away and began untangling the mess they had made. His family was well pleased and stated they wished to keep the gift.

The executive had an elaborate stable built in his back yard and had the foal moved to its new quarters; yet, though the stall was almost impregnable, the birds returned every evening to again rebuild their home. The businessman and his family would spend at least two hours grooming the steed every day, undoing the mess the birds had done the previous evenings until, one day, the man got sick of it.

He told his wife, “When I saw our pony at his old home on the farm he was with about twenty other Shetland’s all out in the field with no stables in sight, yet all their manes were straight and flowing.” he said. “I know the farmer and his wife couldn’t comb all their hair every day. I’m going back and find out if they know some way I can keep our Shetland’s hair free of these birds.” He drove back to the farm and asked the farmer what he did to keep all the ponies’ manes so beautiful.

“Well,” drawled the farmer, scratching his chin, “about once a month I take three packs of Fleischman’s yeast, dissolve it in one cup of warm water, spray it on the manes, let it dry, then comb them out.”

“Really?” asked the man quite astounded, “That’s your secret?”

“Yup.” replied the farmer.

Even though it sounded far-fetched, the man thought he should give it a try. He went home and did as the farmer said and never had a problem with the birds matting the Shetland’s mane again.

The moral of this story? Yeast is yeast and nest is nest, and never the mane shall tweet.