Some people like to collect stamps. Others prefer posters or coins. But Pinky Bhutia is different. She collects children. In her mountain village, in Sikkim, she is known as the wonderful young woman who adopts(领养) all the children she can.

    Pinky was 14 when she adopted her first child, a Nepali baby girl, whose patents passed away. Pinky's parents did not mind. Pinky left school and started working full time because she had a baby to feed. Today , she has twelve adopted children, and two sons from her marriage.

    Pinky is about 30 years old and she comes from a common family. If you passed her on the street, you wouldn't give her a second look. She lives in a brown mud-washed(泥刷的) house. There is a vegetable garden outside. Red hens with noisy chicks run all over the garden looking for food.

    If you ask her why she provides a home for so many kids, she smiles shyly. But her eyes are serious. "I know what it is to be poor and hungry." As a child, her only dream was to eat a full meal, and her favorite amusement was watching people with shoes and imagining what it felt like. By adopting poor and homeless children she is making sure that they never feel that hopeless.

    Pinky feels very proud when she sees her children happy and bright, her oldest baby, Aarita Rai, is now 20 years old, Then, there is 19-year-old Nimbe who came to Pinky because her mother was unable to look after her. She started to work in a government office two years ago. Ten-year-old Bhim and 14-year-old Kumar came to Pinky five years ago, after their father's death. They started living on a patch of land given by Pinky and grew vegetables for sale.

    "I like children. It's not one more mouth to feed but one more soul saved," Pinky says.

    For one little boy, it was the coldest winter because his father had an accident and lost a leg. The whole family got into trouble.

    One night, while the boy was hanging out in a small shop, he saw some beautiful bags of coffee. Then he had an idea. He knew his father loved coffee and he also knew stealing wasn't good. But to make his father smile, the boy put a bag of coffee into his jacket and ran back home. His father smiled when he saw the coffee. But, unluckily, before his father could taste it, the shop assistant came and caught the boy. His father became so angry that he beat the boy.

    Years later, the boy became a successful businessman. One day, his mother called and said his father wanted to see him. The boy was busy, so he refused. Weeks later, he received the sad news that his father had died. When he checked his father's things, he found an old box. Inside it was the coffee that he had stolen from the shop. On the bag his father had written：

    "Dear son, I haven't been successful as a father. But I had a dream-to own a coffee shop. Then I could make cups of coffee for you. I'm sorry I didn't make my dream come true."

    The boy felt so sad. He felt guilty about not meeting his father for the last time, and decided to achieve his father's dream. After giving up his own business, he started a coffee business. The coffee business is now a huge success.

    For a 6-year-old kid, what he or she wants most may be delicious food and enough playtime. Sometimes we think children only have some simple wishes. ______ , a 6-year-old girl in the kindergarten(幼儿园) surprised her teacher.

    An Internet user Katt has a little sister called Peyton. Last week, Katt shared her sister's teacher's note(便条) online.Mrs. Petree shared Peyton's act of kindness(善良). It really touched many people's hearts. Here is the thing. Peyton did very well in class and the reward(奖赏)she chose was to sit with a friend at lunch. The teacher thought for sure who Peyton would choose. But Peyton picked a little boy who never got picked for anything. What a surprise! Mrs. Petree said kids learned to be kind when they saw Peyton's kindness. After that, other kids started to play with the boy. The boy is very different now and he's more and more outgoing

    After reading the note, Katt thought her little sister was great and that she would make the world better one day.

    One Thursday afternoon, when I was in Grade 9, a new boy came into my classroom. He was short and thin. He walked up to the teacher and told her, very seriously, that he was new. His name was Christian. He sat down, took a look at me, and then looked away. I didn't think he was very nice and I was sure he wasn't the type I would like to become friends with.

    During that year, I didn't talk to him much, but he smiled at me when our eyes met, always shyly. He never ate lunch with anybody, and he never talked to anybody but me.

    But one day I joined those unkind kids who were making fun of him. We made fun of him though I thought it was wrong.

    "Haven't you got any friends?" a kid asked Christian, who had walked past us alone, head down.

    "No, he hasn't got any friends. He's too stupid and shy," I said. Then Christian looked up at me with the saddest dog eyes I had ever seen. I felt very sorry at that moment.

    That night, I couldn't sleep because I couldn't get Christian's face out of my mind. In the weeks that followed, he never met my eyes in class and never smiled at me. It was really hard for me to decide to write him a note asking him to forgive(原谅)me. But I thought I should.

    The next day in class, I wrote him a note telling him how sorry I felt. About five minutes later, I turned and saw tears in his eyes."You will never realize what your apology(道歉)has meant to me, Jimmly, "he said to me. "I hope we can become friends."

    We had lunch together that noon and we had the best talk I had ever had. Over the years at high school, we were close friends.

    When I think back, I realize that, if I had not apologized, I would never have known what a lovely person Christian was.

    Apologies can really change your life, so never miss the chance to tell somebody you are sorry.

    One day, the teacher held up an apple in class, stood on the platform(讲台) and said, "Please smell the smell in the air!" One student raised his hand and answered, "I have smelled it. It is the smell of an apple."

    The teacher stepped off the platform, passed by each of the students and said," Please smell again to see if the smell of the apple is still in the air."

    Half of the students raised their hands to show that they could smell it. The teacher returned to the front of the classroom and asked again if the students could smell the apple. Everyone raised their hands except one student. The teacher came to the student and asked," You really can't smell the apple?"

    The student answered," No, I can't smell it. I don't think it's a real apple."

    The teacher smiled at the student and said to the class," He is right! This is not a real apple."

    All of the other students were tricked. They might have thought that perhaps the apple was not real, but they didn't have the self-confidence to speak up. They just "followed the leader" and went along with the first student.

    Please remember "Believe in yourself first, and then others will believe in you".

    The cold wind blew strongly outside. Amaya was warm in her house, thinking about an article she'd read at school. The article was about kids who helped out their communities, and she thought it would be really cool to help her own town, Harvard.

    The only problem was that she wasn't sure how to help. In the article, the kids had grown food for people who needed food, but it was winter. She couldn't start a garden. Amaya was deep in thought when her mom said it was time to go shopping.

    As they drove along the road, Amaya saw a family walking on the sidewalk(人 行 道), wearing only light jackets. How could they must be! That gave her an idea! She could collect winter coats, hats and gloves for people who needed them.

    She shared her idea with her mom, who thought it was great. But how would they spread the idea to get plenty of winter clothing? Amaya decided to talk to her teacher, because then she could share her idea with her classmates at least.

    Ms. Monroe agreed when Amaya talked about her idea. They decided to call the project Hats in Harvard. Then they wrote a letter explaining the project. Ms. Monroe even said she could help Amaya talk to the headmaster about it, so they could get the whole school to join in it. They met with the headmaster during lunch time. He was excited about the idea, and said he would make sure copies(复印件) of the letter went home with all the students.

    They collected enough winter clothing in only one week. Then they left the clothes around two parks, so families who needed clothes could get them there. Three days later, Amaya and her mom went shopping again. She saw the same family that had given her the idea for Hats in Harvard. This time, though, the family looked nice and warm in some new coats, hats and gloves. Amaya felt warm in her heart, and was very glad she could help others.