A farmer had a faithful（忠诚的） horse who was old and couldn't do much work. So the farmer no longer wanted to give him anything to eat and said, “If you can bring me a lion here, I will keep you.”

    The horse was sad, and went to the forest. There he met a fox. After the fox heard the story, he said. “I will help you. Just lie down, as if you were dead, and do not move."

    The horse did what the fox asked, and then the fox went to the lion and said, “A dead horse is lying out there. Just come with me, and you have a rich meal.”

    The lion went with him, and they were both standing by the horse, the fox said, “Now let me tie the horse to your tail and you can take it home and eat it.”

    The fox's words made the lion very happy. But the fox tied the lion's legs together with the horse's tail. When the fox finished his work, he said to the horse, “Pull the lion to the farmer.”

    Then the horse pulled the lion away with him at once. The lion was very angry but he couldn't do anything. When the farmer saw the lion, he was in a good mood（心情）, and said to the horse, “ You can stay with me." And he give him enough food to eat until the horse died. 

    Once there was a parrot on sale in a pet store. It was a beautiful red and blue bird.  It sat on a perch in the middle of the store so that everyone could see it when they came in. The owner was very proud of it and asked a high price for it.

    One day a man went into the store. "That's a beautiful bird," he said to the pet store owner. "But why is it so expensive? Is it an unusual bird?"

    "No, it's not very unusual. It's expensive because it can talk," the pet store owner said.

    "I see. How can I make it talk?" the man asked.

    The pet store owner asked him, "Do you see those strings tied to each of the bird's legs?"

    "Yes," the man answered.

    "Well, you pull those strings," the pet store owner told him."That will make the parrot talk."

    The man asked, "Do you mind if I try?"

    "Not at all," the pet store owner said.

    The man walked up to the parrot and pulled the string on its left leg. The parrot said, "Good morning."

    The man pulled the string on the parrot's right leg. This time the parrot said, "How are you today?"

    "That's not very interesting," said the man."Any parrot could do that." Then he laughed, "But what would happen if I pulled both strings at the same time?"

    "I'll fall off my perch, you fool!"the parrot said.

    One day, the Earth was very sick. He felt so bad that an earthquake happened. After the earthquake, it rained every day. Then the Sun told him to go to the hospital.

    The Moon looked at the Earth and said, "Look! Your skin should be the blue sea and the green land, but it is turning more and more yellow… "

    "It is the desert," the Earth said.

    The Moon put on her glasses and looked at him carefully. She saw that some people were cutting down trees near the desert.

    "I'll make these trees into chairs and beds. I'm going to get married in a few days," a young man said happily.

    "I want to make a wonderful piece of art with this tree," an artist with long hair said.

    "I'm too poor and I have a big family. I need to sell these trees to make money," an old man said while cutting down the small trees.

    "Winter is coming! I need more wood to make my house warmer," an old woman said.

    At that moment, a truck came with giant machines. A group of men got off the truck.  They began to cut down the trees with the machines quickly. Soon, all the trees disappeared and the truck took them away.

    The Earth began to cry. The Moon was too surprised to do anything. The desert laughed at the Earth, "Ha! Ha! You have nothing to do with me!"

    When he was small, Hill was a famous bad boy.

    At the age of 9, his father married his stepmother. At that time they lived poorly in the countryside while his stepmother was from a wealthy family.

    His father introduced Hill to his stepmother as he said, "Dear, I hope you notice in the entire shire this is the worst boy, who has made me have no other way. Maybe before tomorrow morning he will throw a stone at you, or do a bad thing you will never imagine."

    To Hill's surprise, his stepmother went up to him with a smile, held up his head and looked at him carefully. She then turned around to tell her husband, "You're wrong. He is not the worst boy in the entire shire, but the cleverest and most creative boy. Only he doesn't find a place to show himself."

    His stepmother's words warmed his heart, his eyes full of tears. With this, he started building friendship with his stepmother. And this became the drive of his life, making him create 28 successful golden rules, which helped tens of thousands of ordinary people walk on the road to success.

    Before his stepmother came, no one praised him smart, and his father and neighbours considered him as a bad boy. However, his stepmother's words changed his life.

    When Hill was 14 years old, his stepmother bought him a used typewriter and said to him, "I believe you will become a writer." Hill accepted his stepmother's gift and expectation, and started writing things to a local newspaper. He understood his stepmother's strong feeling of interest in his family while he saw with his own eyes she had changed his family. Therefore, he would do as well as she expected him to.

    The strength from his stepmother made him a rich man and famous writer in the United States and one of the most important persons in the 20th century.

    Praise will never be unnecessary, especially for children. A sincere(真诚的)praise may be better than 10, 000 bad words.