We thought that least said was soonest mended in such a matter . We went very softly indeed , lest the grown-ups , especially that terrible Uncle Roger , should hear of it . `` We should have known better than to trust Billy Robinson , '' said Felicity , summing up the case one evening when all had been made known . `` After all , what could you expect from a pig but a grunt ? '' We were not surprised to find that Billy Robinson 's contribution to the library fund was the largest handed in by any of the scholars . Cecily said she did n't envy him his conscience . But I am afraid she measured his conscience by her own . I doubt very much if Billy 's troubled him at all . CHAPTER X . A DAUGHTER OF EVE `` I hate the thought of growing up , '' said the Story Girl reflectively , `` because I can never go barefooted then , and nobody will ever see what beautiful feet I have . '' She was sitting , the July sunlight , on the ledge of the open hayloft window in Uncle Roger 's big barn ; and the bare feet below her print skirt WERE beautiful . They were slender and shapely and satin smooth with arched insteps , the daintiest of toes , and nails like pink shells . We were all the hayloft . The Story Girl had been telling us a tale `` Of old , unhappy , far-off things , And battles long ago . '' Felicity and Cecily were curled up in a corner , and we boys sprawled idly on the fragrant , sun-warm heaps . We had `` stowed '' the hay in the loft that morning for Uncle Roger , so we felt that we had earned the right to loll on our sweet-smelling couch . Haylofts are delicious places , with just enough of shadow and soft , uncertain noises to give an agreeable tang of mystery . The swallows flew in and out of their nest above our heads , and whenever a sunbeam fell through a chink the air swarmed with golden dust . Outside of the loft was a vast , sunshiny gulf of blue sky and mellow air , wherein floated argosies of fluffy cloud , and airy tops of maple and spruce . Pat was with us , of course , prowling about stealthily , or making frantic , bootless leaps at the swallows .
A cat in a hayloft is a beautiful example of the eternal fitness XXXXX things .
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