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Pennies earned

I was 4 years old, and all my older family members were picking cotton in Grandpa’s field. I wanted so badly to pick too, so I was given a 10-pound sugar bag with a strip of cloth tied to the corners so it would stay across my shoulders, and I was told to pick cotton and put it in the bag.

Some burrs scratched my hands and I was slow, but I stayed with it all afternoon. At the end of the day, Grandpa paid one cent per pound to all of the field hands according to the weight of the cotton each had picked. I had seven pounds of cotton. I had earned 7 pennies all by myself, and I was so proud!

I ran about 100 yards down the dirt road to home to show Mama. When I showed her, there were only four pennies. I could not count, but I knew three pennies were gone. I had lost them on the way home. I cried and cried. Mama tried to give me three to add to my four, but I didn’t want the ones she had. I wanted mine that I had earned.

Even at 4 years old, I knew that something earned is of more value and appreciated so much more than something given to you.

Louise Deberry, Rockingham, Pee Dee Electric

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