There was once a rich man who loved his little boy very much. He wanted to try his best to please him. So, he gave him a horse to ride, beautiful rooms to live in, pictures, books, toys and everything that money could buy. But for all days, the little boy was still unhappy. He wore a frown(皱眉) wherever he went, he always wished for something he did not have. The man didn't know how to make his son happy.

    One day, a magician came to the man and said to him, "I can make your son happy and turn his frowns into smiles, but you must pay me a great price for telling him the secret."

    "All right." said the man, "No matter what you ask for, I'll give you." The magician took the boy into a secret room. He wrote something on a piece of paper, and then gave it to the boy. There on the paper came the words, "Do one kind thing for someone every day." The boy followed the advice and became one of the happiest boys.

    Only those who stop thinking about their own happiness can be truly happy.

    A girl was walking in the woods when she found two weak birds. She took them home and put them in a small cage (鸟笼). She took good care of them. The birds grew strong. Every morning, they greeted her with a beautiful song. The girl felt great love for the birds. She wanted them to sing for her forever.

    One day, the girl left their cage door open. The bigger of the two birds flew out. The girl watched as he rose high into the sky. She was afraid that he would fly away and she would never see him again. As he flew close, she caught him in her hand and held him tightly. She was happy. Suddenly, she felt the bird go limp (无力 ). She opened her hand. The bird was dead! Her love had stolen life from the beautiful songbird.

    The other bird was pushing against the bars (条) of the cage. She could see how much he wanted to be free. She took him out of the cage and gently tossed him into the air. Would the bird fly away? She could hardly bear to watch. But the bird just wanted to stretch its wings. He flew around the girl twice and then came to rest on her shoulder.

    The girl watched the bird with joy in her heart. She wasn't worried anymore. She wanted the bird to be happy. The bird sat by the girl's ear and sang the sweetest song she had ever heard.

    The best way to keep love is to give it wings.

    When I was a child, I was a tomboy(假小子). I had a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. My brothers were two and four years older than I. We often played games together.

    Once, my brothers and I fell in love with playing a game called "stealing horses". Then my parents decided to buy my brothers guns. These were not "real" guns. Because I was a girl, I didn't get a gun. They shot and shot at everything with their new guns. I tried to "fight" them with my bow and arrows (弓和箭). But I was still in the poor position without a gun.

    One day while I was hiding behind a wall, looking out toward the fields, I felt a terrible blow to my right eye. I looked up just in time to see my brother lower his gun. Both brothers rushed to my side. My eye felt great pain and I covered it with my hand. "If you tell that to Mummy," they said, "We will get a whipping(鞭打) from Daddy. You don't want that to happen, do you?" I did not. "Here is a piece of wire(电线)," said the older brother, picking it up from the floor, "Say you stepped on one end of it and the other flew up and hit you." "Yes," I said. To be honest, I didn't want them to be punished. So I did as my brothers told me to do.

    A week after the "accident" my parents took me to see a doctor. Finally I knew my brothers were worried about my eye, so they told our parents what had happened and asked them to take me to see a doctor.