William Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the USA, was born in a small town. When he was a boy, he was very quiet and shy. Because he was so quiet, everyone thought that he wasn't bright. People in the town often put a nickel(五分镍币)and a dime(十分硬币)before him and asked him which to choose. He always chose the nickel and they laughed.

    One day a woman felt sorry for him. She asked, "Why do you never take a dime and always choose a nickel? Do you know a nickel is worth(值……钱) much less than a dime?"

    "Certainly I know it.” William answered slowly. "But if I choose the dime, they will not ask me to choose them any more.”

    It was Mother's Day. But the young mother was a little unhappy. Because she was 800 miles away from her parents. In the morning she phoned her mother to wish her a happy Mother's Day. and her mother told her about the beautiful lilacs(丁香)in the garden.

    Later that day. When she told her husband about the lilacs. He said. "I know where we can find all that you want. Get the children and come on. "So they went. Driving down the country roads.

    There on a small hill. They saw a lot of beautiful purple lilacs. The young woman ran quickly to enjoy the flowers. Carefully. She picked a few here and a few there. On their way home there was a smile on her face.

    When they were passing a nursing home(养老院). The young woman saw an old granny sitting in a chair. She had no children with her. They stopped the car and the young woman walked to the old woman. Put the flowers in her hands. And smiled at her. The old granny thanked her again and again. She smiled happily. Too.

    When the young mother came back to her car. Her children asked her. "Who is that old granny？Why did you give our flowers to her？"

    "I don't know her." their mother said. "But it's Mother's Day. And she has no children. I have all of you. And I still have my mother. Just think how much those flowers meant to her. "

    Mr. Chen was puzzled（闲惑的）and a little suspicious（怀疑的）. He sat in the office and studied a letter apparently（看似）from Mrs. Wang, the mother of one of the pupils in his class. There was something about it which worried him.

    "I don't understand," he said to himself. He shook his head as he circled four mistakes in the letter. "Mrs. Wang is an educated woman. She wouldn't make mistakes like these even if she did write the letter in a hurry. "Mr. Chen took out his class register(名册)and said to himself, "Yesterday was Thursday. Let me see. Ah, yes. I thought so. David was absent on Thursday last week and the week before. Hm. Why is he so often absent on Thursdays? Was he really ill yesterday? Could it be a coincidence(巧合)?”

    Mr. Chen stared at the register as if the answers to his questions were hidden in it somewhere. Then he took out a copy of the timetable(课程表)for his class.

    "I wonder." he told to himself. "I wonder if his absence has anything to do with one of these lessons."

    Mr. Chen looked at the subjects for Thursday: Mathematics, English, P. E. He thought about P. E. He knew that the pupils had P. E. twice a week: once on Monday, when they usually played games on the school field, and once on Thursday, when they did exercises in the gym.

    Mr. Chen glanced round the office to find Mr. Long, the rather strict P. E. teacher, but he was not there.

    "I'd better have a chat with Long and David, "Mr. Chen thought.

The bell rang. "I can't do anything right now," Mr. Chen thought. "It's time to go to Class 2. I'll do it later on."

    Mr. Chen picked up his books and walked off to teach Class 2.

Later, on Friday, Mr. Chen spoke to Mr. Long, the P. E. teacher. Mr. Long agreed that it seemed strange for David to be absent so often on gym days. They thought about it for a while.

    "David is a good athlete(运动员)," Mr. Long finally said, "but he's afraid of heights. I was hard on him once because he wouldn't climb more than a couple of meters up the rope. Do you think that's why he's been absent recently?"

    "Yes, I think so," Mr. Chen said. "I'm going to talk to him this afternoon before he goes home."

    "Well, I've got a suggestion to make," said Mr. Long. "If he's scared of heights, he'd better come and see me after school. Quite a few people suffer from (遭受) vertigo. I'll be glad to help him."

    “That's very kind of you," said Mr. Chen. "I'll get him to come and see you on Monday or Tuesday."

    One day, a man saw an old lady sitting inside her car at the side of the road. Though it was dark, he could see she needed help. So he stopped his car and walked towards her. The old lady was worried, even though she noticed the smile on his face. Was he going to hurt her? "I'll help you start your car, madam. By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson, " he said.

    While Anderson was fitting a spare tired (备胎) to her car, the lady began to talk to him. She thanked him much for coming to help.

    Anderson just smiled as he put his tools away. The lady asked how much she should pay him. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give them the help they needed. He waited until she started her car and drove off.

    A few miles down the road, the lady saw a small restaurant. She went in and a waitress came over with a sweet smile. The old lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant (怀孕的), but she never let the pains and aches change her smile when she served her.

    The lady finished her meal and paid with a hundred-dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change, but the old lady was gone when the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she found there was a note on the napkin (餐巾), "You don't need to give me anything back. Somebody once helped me out the way I'm helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do—do not let this chain (链子) of love end with you."

    Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.