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    Nick, 13, is tall and strong. He is good at running. Two weeks ago a new student came. His name is David. He is thin and short. He plays soccer well, and he can run very fast. Larry told Nick about it. Of course, Nick did not believe it.

    “Why not have a race with him?” said Larry.

    “Good idea!” said Nick. “I'll have a race with him after school.”

    After school, Nick went to the playground. He did some warm-up exercises for half an hour, and got ready for the race. He was sure that he could win it. Larry had to take part in a club activity that afternoon, so he could not watch the race between Nick and David.

    That evening Larry went to see Nick. They began to talk about the afternoon race. Nick's grandmother heard them in the next room. She came in and asked, “Which place?”

    “The second place,” answered Nick.

    His grandmother was very happy to hear that, and asked, “Which place did David win, then?”

    “The last but one.”

    John was well known in his village as a mean(吝啬) man. One day, he said to a poor hungry boy, "I will give you three meals and twenty-five pence if you are willing to do a day's work for me." The boy agreed. But in fact, he was more interested in the meals than the money.

    "You can have breakfast," said John, "and then you can start work." After John gave the boy a very small breakfast, he said, "Now you can have your lunch. This will save us a lot of time." The boy agreed and had a poor lunch. Then John said, "What about having dinner now?"

    When the boy finished his dinner, John looked very pleased and said, "Now you can do a long day's work." "Sorry," said the boy as he stood up to leave John's house, "I never work after dinner."

    I taught high school for years and had the joy of knowing many wonderful kids. One student, Scott Wood, was especially close to my heart. What I taught was Creative Writing. Scott wrote quite well His talent is beyond the teacher's ability to teach. He was able to express through his written words well and it enabled me to light his way a little.

    Scott and other students were often in my home, at my kitchen table, sharing supper .It was amazing to me that what I said to them about life and love, and making time for the important things influenced them in their daily life. I watched them use these lessons they learnt in their lives as I followed their lives after graduation. Scott, especially, did this, and still does this today.

    Recently I told him I feel particularly down these days. I couldn't stop thinking about the sad and unpleasant things in the life. Here is what he emailed back to me.

    I remember you coming into the class one day late .You continued to tell all of us hat you were late because of very special reason. It had snowed the night before but instead of cleaning the ice off your windows in the car, you let the car heater lake cane of t and you sat and watched in wonder as he water slowly started flowing down your window. I think about this a lot when the weather begins getting cold, how most of us miss the simple treasure-ice melting. Life is full happiness and sadness. But every day is a gift, right? Life is not a lack of beauty, but lack of the find the beauty .Is that not what you always told us? That is how you lived and that is how you toll t to live.

    Ice melting. I do not remember his thing but, thinking back, it seems very true. That is what I believed, that is what I taught.

    You know, just to make it clean, an "ice -melting moment "to me is that moment you stop time for-you stop everything for -because it is too precious to miss .Scott, my student long ago, made me remember to never be too busy to stop the world, stop the clock for the magical moments in our daily lives.

I think the most terrible thing in life for my little brother is getting up in the morning. He is almost sick when my mother calls," Herbert! It's seven o'clock! Get up!" Hebert answers," I'm coming!" and goes right back to sleep. I'm not all like my brother. I don't like to go to bed at night but I don't mind getting up in the morning. I usually wake up before my mother calls me. I jump out of bed and go into the bathroom to take a shower. I get dressed, brush my teeth, comb my hair, and get ready to go downstairs for breakfast as soon as my mother calls.

    But not for Herbert. He just sleeps. After calling a few more times my mother has to come upstairs and pull Herbert out of bed. It's that way every day with my little brother. Perhaps some day he'll learn to get up on time, but I really don't think so.