"Oh, I hope, I hope, I do hope I shall gain a prize!" said Maggie, clapping her hands, jumping about, and uttering each succeeding "hope" with more and more energy. "I must have one. Oh, I must!"
"Which one do you mean to try for, Maggie?" asked Nellie Ransom.
"I suppose I ought to wish most for the one for the lame child," said Maggie, pausing in her antics and looking thoughtful; "but I'm afraid I don't, so that's a sure sign I should not deserve to have it. No, I'd never get it; for I know I should not be the best child in the school. But I think maybe I could earn one of the others, and I will try for both; but most of all I'd rather have the one for composition. If I knew any one who would like to go to the hospital, I'd try for that; but I don't."
"O Maggie," said Bessie, "don't you remember Jemmy Bent?"
"Why, to be sure," said Maggie. "Well, I'm just glad enough Jemmy did not hear me say that. He would think me too unkind to go and forget him. But, any way, I know I'd never earn that prize. I shall just do everything in the world to get the composition one."
"So shall I," said Gracie; "and I hope I'll be the one."
"I'm going to try too," said Dora Johnson; "but only one of us can have it. So all the rest will have to be disappointed."
"Oh dear!" said Maggie; "I didn't think about that. I'll be very sorry to have you all disappointed."
"You seem to be very sure you'll get it," said Fanny Leroy, rather snappishly.
Maggie coloured.