I first met Windy, a six-year-old girl, on the beach near where I lived. She was building a sand house there. She looked up, and her eyes were as blue as the sea. Every time when I felt unhappy, I drove to the beach.  

      "Hello, Miss Agnes," she said. I answered, but I didn't really want to stop her. "I'm building," she said. I saw that.

    "What is it?" I asked her. "Oh, I don't know. I just like the feeling of the sand." Oh, that's good, I thought, and took off my shoes to join her. A sandpiper (一种叫做鹬的水鸟) flew by. She told me that it would make me happy. I felt better then.

      A week later on my next visit, I learned that Windy lived in a cottage (小屋) and didn't go to school. Soon after that, my mother died, and I rushed to the beach to be alone. I didn't want to say anything when Windy came up to me. "Why?" she asked.

      I turned to her and shouted, "Because my mother died!" "Oh," she said quietly, "then today is a bad day."

      A month later, I went to the beach but couldn't find Windy. I missed her so much that I visited her house. I learned that Windy had died of leukemia (白血病), but she left a picture of a sandpiper for me.

    Shaking the head doesn't always mean the same in different countries. Maybe some visitors would be surprised when they first come to India. When they talk to an Indian, they would find he would often shake his head. The visitors might think that the Indian doesn't like what they say. But in fact, they would be completely wrong. Indians always shake their heads when they talk to others. It doesn't mean "No". If someone wants to visit India, he should know this, or he will be in trouble.

    One day, a foreign officer went to India on business. He hired a car and asked an Indian to drive him. When he told his driver to take him to his office, the Indian shook his head at once. The officer said again and the driver shook his head again. At last the officer, of course, got angry.

    "How dare you refuse my order?" he shouted. "Drive me to my office at once!"

    The driver answered in quite a loud voice too, "Yes, sir!" But to the officer's surprise, the driver shook his head at the same time.

    The car started and the foreign officer was now too surprised to say a word. He thought about it for a while, and then he nodded with a smile, "'No' means 'Yes' here!"

    Once upon a time, a boy was walking through a wood and he thought he could hear a sad cry. Following the sound be came to a big, round, mysterious, grey fountain. The sad sound seemed to be coming from the fountain pool. The boy swept aside the pool's dirty surface water and saw a group of grey fish swimming in a slow circle through the pond.

    Amused by this, the boy tried to catch one of these incredible talking fish. But when be stuck his arm into the water it turned grey right up to the elbow. As this happened, a huge sadness entered into him, and he suddenly understood how sad the fish were feeling.

    He quickly pulled his am out of the water, and ran from that place. But the arm stayed grey, and the boy continued feeling sad. He tried so many times to cheer himself up, but nothing worked. That was, until he realized that if he were to make the earth happy then that happiness would be, in turn, transmitted back to him through the earth on his arm.

    From then on, he at about looking after countryside. He cared for the plants, and he did what he could to keep the water from being polluted. He encouraged others to do the same. He was so successful that his arm started to recover its normal color. When the grey had disappeared completely, he started feeling happy again, and be decided to go and visit the fountain. When he was still some way from the fountain he could hear the fish singing happily.