‘Some Things Are Better Than Money'

An unexpected turn of events can sometimes teach us a valuable lesson.

by Rex Sexton

"Sixty-two and a half, who'll give sixty-three? Will ya say sixty-three? SOLD for sixty-two and a half!" blared the words of the auctioneer over the loudspeaker. Bridgette turned around against the wall of old worn boards and buried her face in her hands. I tried to put my arm on my daughter's shoulder to console her. When she looked up, I could see tears streaming down her cheeks from her big brown eyes.

"I only got barely a hundred dollars for my lambs, Dad," she mumbled. "I won't have enough money for the school clothes I had picked out." She tried to hide her face in her arms so the other people around wouldn't see her crying.

We were at Woody's Auction just east of Woodland, Washington. It was late August, just before the school year started. Bridgette, 11 years old, was going into the sixth grade in just a few days. Back in April we had bought two newborn lambs for her to raise. Bridgette's plan was to raise them during the summer and then sell them, using the money for school clothes.

The lamb market had been good for a month, with most butcher-ready lambs bringing almost a dollar per pound. The lambs were 100 pounds each the morning we loaded them in the trailer behind the minivan and drove to Woody's. Bridgette had figured out exactly how to spend her anticipated $200 on the clothes she wanted for school. It would be just enough.

When we brought the newborn lambs home in April, they were small and awkward, but cuddly and lovable. We made a pen in the garage out of refrigerator boxes and filled it with straw for them.

Bridgette had to mix powdered milk several times each day and feed them out of a soda bottle fitted with a large rubber nipple. She and her best friend Jeanne even slept in the pens for a few nights with the lambs so they wouldn't cry.

Read the full article at www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn48/betterthanmoney.htm

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