An old man died and left his son a lot of money. But the son was a foolish young man, and he quickly spent all the money, so that soon he had nothing left. Of course, when that happened, all his friends left him. When he was quite poor and alone, he went to see Nasreddin, who was a kind, clever old man and often helped people when they had troubles.

    "My money has finished and my friends have gone," said the young man. "What will happen to me now?"

    "Don't worry, young man," answered Nasreddin. "Everything will soon be all right again. Wait, and you will soon feel much happier. "

    The young man was very glad. "Am I going to get rich again then?" he asked Nasreddin.

  "No, I didn't mean that," said the old man. "I meant that you would soon get used to being poor and to having no friends. "

    Zhang Lin is a middle school student. He is a good boy. Uncle Wu lives next to him. Uncle Wu has no child and can't see anything. He works in the factory (工厂) near Zhang Lin's school. He goes to work at 7:30 in the morning and comes home at 4:30 in the afternoon. Zhang Lin walks to school at 8:00 in the morning and comes home at the same time as Uncle Wu in the afternoon. On weekdays Zhang Lin gets up early to take Uncle Wu to the factory. After school he takes him home. On Sundays Zhang Lin helps Uncle Wu clean the house and do some cooking. Uncle Wu thanks Zhang Lin very much. He says, “Zhang Lin is a good boy. He is like my son.”

    For years I wanted a flower garden. I'd spend hours thinking of different things I could plant that would look nice together.

    But then we had Matthew, and Marvin, and the twins, Alisa, and Alan, and then Helen. Five children. I was too busy raising them to grow a garden.

    Money was tight (拮据的), as well as time. Often when my children were little, one of them would want something that cost too much, and I'd have to say, "Do you see a money tree in the yard？Money doesn't grow on trees, you know."

    Finally, all five got through high school and college and were off on their own. I started thinking again about having a garden.

    Then, one spring morning, on Mother's Day, I was working in my kitchen. Suddenly, I looked out of the window and there was a new tree, planted right in my yard. I thought it must be a weeping willow (垂柳), because I saw things blowing around on all its branches. Then I put my glasses on — and I couldn't believe what I saw.

    There was a money tree in my yard!

    I went to have a look. It was true! There were dollar bills, one hundred of them, taped all over that tree. There was also a note among them, "Thank you for your time, Mom. We love you."

    Later, my children bought me tools, a sunflower stepping stone and gardening books.

    That was three years ago. My garden's now very pretty, just like I wanted. When I go out and take care of my flowers, I don't seem to miss my children as much as I once did. It feels like they're right there with me.

    I live in a city where winters are long and cold, and summers are too short. But every year now, when winter sets in, I look out of my window and think of the flowers, I'll see next spring in my little garden. I think about what my children did for me, and I get tears in my eyes— every time.

    I'm still not sure that money grows on trees. But I know love does!

    What do we do when we go camping? First, we make a plan. We take food, clothing, a knife, and things for cooking and eating. We take things to keep us away from(远离)insects(昆虫) and the sun.

    Then we put everything into the car and we drive to the woods(森林). We look for a place for campers(露营者) and we look for a good place for our tent(帐篷). The place should have a lot of moving air. This will keep some insects away. High land with water on both sides of it is good. Then we put up our tent. We put everything into the tent, and we are ready for fun. We can swim in the lake, walk in the woods, climb a mountain, row a boat, or go fishing.

    In the evening we come back to the tent, and we build a big fire because it can keep the insects away. We sit around the fire and talk. We may tell interesting stories or we may sing songs.

    At night we lie down on the grass. We can look up at the stars. It is a busy day, so we try to go to sleep early.

    Everything is dark. Everything is quiet. We hope we won't hear music from the radio in the next tent. We hope it won't rain.