MAGIC SEED When the time came to hand in our collections for the library fund Peter had the largest -- three dollars . Felicity was a good second with two and a half . This was simply because the hens had laid so well . `` If you 'd had to pay father for all the extra handfuls of wheat you 've fed to those hens , Miss Felicity , you would n't have so much , '' said Dan spitefully . `` I did n't , '' said Felicity indignantly . `` Look how Aunt Olivia 's hens laid , too , and she fed them herself just the same as usual . '' `` Never mind , '' said Cecily , `` we have all got something to give . If you were like poor Sara Ray , and had n't been able to collect anything , you might feel bad . '' But Sara Ray HAD something to give . She came up the hill after tea , all radiant . When Sara Ray smiled -- and she did not waste her smiles -- she was rather pretty in a plaintive , apologetic way . A dimple or two came into sight , and she had very nice teeth -- small and white , like the traditional row of pearls . `` Oh , just look , '' she said . `` Here are three dollars -- and I 'm going to give it all to the library fund . I had a letter to-day from Uncle Arthur in Winnipeg , and he sent me three dollars . He said I was to use it ANY way I liked , so ma could n't refuse to let me give it to the fund . She thinks it 's an awful waste , but she always goes by what Uncle Arthur says . Oh , I 've prayed so hard that some money might come some way , and now it has . See what praying does ! '' I was very much afraid that we did not rejoice quite as unselfishly in Sara 's good fortune as we should have done .
WE had earned our contributions by the sweat XXXXX our brow , or by the scarcely less disagreeable method of `` begging . ''
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