Something caught my eyes when I was walking down the street. Two silver coins were shining in a melting snow bank, so I dug through the snow looking for more. Of course, I just ended up with really cold hands. I slipped the two coins into my pocket and went home, colder but richer. I began to think about how to spend the money.

    Two days later, Mary and her little sister were searching the snow banks. "Finders are keepers" was my first thought. I didn't want to hand them out even though Susy was already crying." I dropped them right here," she said between tears. Her hands were cold and red for digging in the snow. "Maybe they slid down the street with the melting snow. Let's dig over here. "Mary's voice sounded confident.

    "They'll never know" was my second thought, and I walked past them. "Phil, have you seen two silver coins?" asked Mary. Susy looked up from digging. Her eyes were hopeful.

    "Tell a lie" was my third thought. As a matter of fact, I hesitated," I dug two coins out of that snow bank just a few days ago. I wondered who might have lost them." Susy hugged me with a big smile, "Oh, thank you, thank you."

    Brother Bear and Sister Bear know quite a lot about Bear Country. They know where the best honey trees are. They know the best places to see a rainbow (彩虹). But they don't know much about money. When they get some money, they run quickly to the Bear Country Mall and spend it. Sometimes, Sister puts her money in her piggy bank. But she usually spends it just a moment later. Brother doesn't even have a piggy bank!

    One day, Brother and Sister go to the mall. They see a new video game. It looks exciting. They run home to ask Papa to buy it. Papa gets angry. He shouts, "Video game! At the mall! You must think money grows on trees!" "You must make your money! Life is about working, making money and saving (存钱) for a rainy day!" Now Brother and Sister know how serious (严重的) it is. They begin to think about making money.

    In fact, Brother and Sister are very good at making money. They sell flowers by the side of the road. They sell strawberries door to door. They take visitors to see the most beautiful rainbow. They take care of pets for neighbours. Sister's piggy bank is full. Brother has to borrow Mama's sugar bowl to keep all his money.

    "I think that's enough. Look at them!" says Papa. "Yes. In the past, they didn't care about money. But now they care too much about it," says Mama. "Come here, children." says Papa. "Are you going to spend all your money?" "Yes!" Brother and Sister say together. "That's not good," says Mama. "You should spend only some of the money on useful things. And put some money there for a rainy day."

    Brother and Sister ask, "Where do we put our money?" "I think the Bear Country Bank is a good place, says Mama. "Good," says Papa. "The money can be your nest egg (存款)." That day the Bear family goes to the bank and opens an account (帐户) for Brother and Sister.

    A few days ago I got a call from my old college friend whom I haven't seen for a very long time. We talked about all the good old times that we had. Then he started talking about his father. His father was badly ill in hospital and couldn't sleep at night, he often talked to himself and made a lot of noise. My friend was angry about this and shouted at his father to stop talking, but after his father stopped talking, he died a few days later.

    My friend was very sorry for speaking the ill words towards his father, he was so sad that he cried like a baby on the other end of the telephone. He said that from that moment on, he prayed every day, asking God to let his father forgive him.

    Sometimes, we complain our parents, but do we realize that our parents take care of us and always stay around us from the day we were born to our adulthood (成年), imagine how sad our parents will be when they hear an unlucky word of "no" come out from our mouths.

    There are so many unlucky children who have neither fathers nor mothers. My dear friends, we can make promises to ourselves that from now on there will be no bad words that come out from our mouths to our parents, take good care of our parents, even if it takes only a second to stay with them, they will be very happy.

    I was going back to work to finish a few things one evening, and my two children were busy sewing（缝纫） things on the sewing machine. My 11-year-old daughter was going to help her older brother make a little cushion（垫子）. I left and in a few hours returned to find a mess in the kitchen and front room while both children were sitting in front of the television. Having had a long day, I was very short with my greeting to them. But then I noticed the material they had used for the cushion. I had bought it to make a blanket. Not stopping to listen to them, I shouted at the children and explained how angry I was at what they had done.

    My daughter listened to me sheepishly, not trying to say anything to herself at all, but the pain could be seen written across her face. She went to her room quietly and spent some time alone before she came out to say good night and once again apologized for the mistake she had made. A few hours later, as I was preparing to go to bed, there on my bed lay a beautiful little cushion, with the words “I LOVE MUM”. Next to it was a note apologizing again.

    To this day, I still get tears in my eyes when I think of how I reacted and still feel the pain of my actions. It was I who then sheepishly went to her and apologized for my actions. I display the cushion on my bed with great pride and use it as a constant reminder that nothing in this world is greater than a child's love.  

    Once there was a boy. He loved candies very much. He always asked his father for candies. The boy's father thought hard about how to stop (阻止) the child from asking for so many candies. A great man lived nearby (附近). The boy's father wanted to take the boy to him. He could make the child give up (放弃) candies. So they went to the great man. The father asked the great man to help him. But the great man liked candies himself. He told the father to bring his son back after a month.

    In this month, the great man tried to give up eating candies. At last he did it. When the boy and his father came back after a month, the great man had a talk with the boy. From then on, the boy did not ask for candies any more. The boy's father felt surprised, "Why didn't you ask my son to give up candies when we came to you a month ago?" The man answered, "How could I ask a boy to give up candies when I loved candies myself? In the last month I gave up eating candies."

    A person's example (榜样) is always more important than (比) words. We should not ask others to do what we can't do ourselves.