Once there was a man and a woman. They had been married for more than 60 years. They kept no secrets from each other except that the old woman had a shoe box under her bed. She told her husband never to open or ask about it.

For all these years， he had never thought about the box. But one day the old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would never get better.

The woman said it was time that he should know what was in the box. The old man took the shoe box to his wife's bedside.

When he opened it， he found two beautiful doilies(装饰小垫) and some money. The money was $25,000.

“When we got married，”she said,“my grandmother told me that the secret of a happy family was never to fight. She told me if every time I got angry with you， I should just keep quiet and crochet(编织) one doily.”

The old man was so moved because only two doilies were in the box. He thought she had only been angry with him twice in all those years.

“My dear，”he said， but what about all the money？ Where did it all come from？”

“Oh，”she said，“that's the money I made from selling the doilies. So far， I have sold 2,500 doilies.”

A long time before I was born, my grandma and grandpa moved into the house on Beechwood Avenue. They had a young family of 4 little girls. During that time, it was hard to find a job. So, on weekend grandpa and grandma cleaned the garden to grow some of their own food. They planted tomatoes, beans, cabbages, potatoes and strawberries to feed their growing family. All summer long, the family ate food from the garden.
The family grew up, and before too many years had passed, the grandchildren came to visit. Grandma and grandpa still planted their garden every spring. Everyone still enjoyed the good food from the garden and always took some home.
Then grandpa died in one summer when he was eighty-nine years old. It was a lonely winter for grandma. She sat near the window, looking out at the yard and wondering if she could plant the garden in the spring. It would be hard to care for it by herself. When spring came, she planted only a little.
One nice day in the early summer, grandma heard a noise in the front yard and looked out the window. There were thousands of bees in the air. Grandma wondered what she could do. She decided to wait and think it over. Before long, she decided the bees won't bother anyone, so she went about her business and didn't give them any other thought.
That summer, grandma's little garden grew and grew. The neighbors all puzzled why they grew so well. One day, grandma's brother Frank visited her. Frank said，"In my hometown, the farmers often hired beekeepers to set up bee houses near their fields. The bees helped them to grow." That was when Grandma realized that her bees had helped with her garden all summer.
From that Time on, grandma always believed that since grandpa couldn't be there to help her that summer, he had sent the bees to take his place and make grandma's little garden grow and grow.

    When our son Bradley was ten, the new bicycle he had received earlier that year was stolen. Owning a bicycle was a big deal to our children when they were little. They spent hours and hours, day after day, on their bicycles, riding up and down the footpath, and at the front of the house. We also rode together as a family a lot. Bicycling was a great way to get the kids out of the house and into the fresh air without spending any money.

    Bradley had discovered that his bicycle had been stolen from our backyard in Campbell town, South Australia, when he and his sister went outside for a morning ride. He couldn't believe that someone would do this.

    He got a large piece of cardboard, painted a sign begging for the bicycle to be returned, and tied the sign to the letterbox. The following morning, when I went out to collect the mail, I found a white envelope with the magical words," Buy yourself a new bicycle". There was a $100 banknote inside.

    We were very touched that someone had the heart to do this. We've never been able to thank the person but we suspect（猜想）that it may have been one of our wonderful neighbors. Bradley painted a big"             !" on the sign and we left it outside for a couple of weeks afterwards, hoping the kind stranger would drive down our street.

    A delighted Bradley was able to buy a new bicycle. As the years went on, the bicycles became bigger and more expensive but remained just as important for those family bicycle rides. Now Bradley is 25. Sometimes I miss the days when receiving a bicycle was the best thing in the world to them.

    All these years later we are still thankful for the stranger's kindness. We were a young family with three little children and it meant a lot to us. We still talk about it and, even now, wonder who the kind stranger was.

    Johnnie Martin was born in a worker's family. His parents lived a simple life, saving money for the day when they could send him to a good university. They had dreamed that their son could get a good job and live a better life. However, to Johnnie, school lessons seemed like a wall that was impossible to go through. They were not so easy for him.

    One day when he was in Grade 11, Johnnie went to the school psychologist's (心理学家的) office to ask for help. "I've been trying hard, but…" Johnnie was about to cry.

    The psychologist put his hand on the boy's shoulder, "People have different kinds of talents, Johnnie. There are painters, who were never able to learn math, and some day you will find what you are good at. When you do, you will make all of us very proud of you."

    Johnnie didn't go to university. He found a job in the garden in the town. Soon something amazing happened. People began to notice that Johnnie had what they called a "green thumb". The plants grew well and the roses were in bloom (花). People started to accept his advice for gardening (园艺).

    One day while he was walking, he found an unusual dirty land. He volunteered to make it into a garden. That afternoon he started the work, but he couldn't afford all the tools or the plants. People gave him young trees, rose-bushes, benches and many other things. Before long, it had become a beautiful little park.

    Today Johnnie is the head of the business in gardening. Wherever he and his men go, they spread beauty before the eyes of people.

    "Doctor Johnson, I don't want to eat now, that's because nothing has a taste for me. It's been like this for long. In fact, I didn't have a delicious meal after I caught a terrible cold last month, What can I do?"

    "Here are some medicine, Mrs. Harris. Take three pills three times a day for seven days and come back and see me. But remember, don't eat anything during the week, or you can just drink some water."

    Next week an upset Mrs. Harris came into Dr. Johnson's office. "Doctor! I'm doing it just as you told me, but delicious food is still tasteless for me. I don't know what was in those pills, but the problem is worse! What do you have to say for yourself?"

    "But when and how do you take these pills?" asked the doctor.

    "At first, I took these pills three times a day, just before dinner," continued the woman, "but these pills are too bitter (苦). So I had to take these pills after three meals."

    "Calm down, Mrs. Harris," said the doctor soothingly. "Now that we've fixed your taste problem, It's OK now, we'll work on your hearing!"