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The Pumpkin Seeds

Once upon a time, there was a young woman named Lakshmi who lived all on her own.

She had nothing but a small garden, barely enough to keep her fed, so she was very thin and usually

half-starved. Each day, she'd leave her little cottage, tend to her garden, and then go foraging

in the woods. If she happened to find something good, like a patch of blackberries or some honeycomb,

she'd gather it all up carefully in a clean

sheet. Always, she'd bring half home and drop the other half off to her brother, Doobie.

Doobie lived with his wife and baby on the other side of the woods. They also had very

little to eat, and since the baby, certainly nothing to give poor Lakshmi.

He worked as a woodcutter and complained constantly about his lot in life.

He'd grown whenever she came to drop off what little she had to share.

I'm all day swinging this heavy axe or dragging heavy logs.

It's an unfair world for us, Lakshmi. Of course, brother, it's an unfair world, she would agree,

but only out loud and only to make him happy. In her heart, she never felt that way. Truth be told, Lakshmi was content.

She had her little home, she had her little garden, she had the occasional berries,

...