Lost - perdu - system preferences

hi everyone,
I have an ibook G4, and I made a wonderful mistake.
I erased the "system preferences" from the applications and from the dock.
how can I get it back ? without re installing the whole mac os X cd, as I am afraid of loosing all my data.
If anyone can help me (in french or english)
Thanks

When I erased it from the dock, I tried to put a new shorcut into the dock.
but I missed it and I put the application on the desk. Then I create a shortcut to the dock and erased the application from the desk ...
So now I have a useless shorcut, and no application anymore.
i tried to find it on the mac os x cd, but impossible to find it in the usual directory ....
I don't want to do a complete recovery ... is there anything to do it?

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