My grandfather dug water wells in Indiana and started his business during the great depression.

Although nearly everyone was out of work, people still needed 1, so he didn't lack jobs. 2, in those days, it was awfully hard to get paid for what you did. One morning, a farmer showed up with a 3—a whole side of fresh beef on his shoulder. “I 4 this ought to make us equal on that digging, ”he said to my grandfather．Grandfather 5.

    It was wintertime, so the beef stayed fresh under damp cloth on the cold back porch(门廊). Each day, Nana stepped out onto the porch, 6 good piece of the meat, and carried it into the kitchen 7 it were pure gold.

    After a few days, Nana noticed the 8 had been moved. She asked grandfather if he had touched the beef. He hadn't. “Well, then. ”she said, “somebody's been eating our meat. Do you always lock the back door?” My grandfather told her not to 9. She probably had moved the cloth herself, and had 10 forgotten.

     This 11 for many days. Nana was 12 that someone was taking their meat, and grandfather just insisted she was 13 things. It wasn't until much later that we learned the real story.

     On the morning after grandfather set the meat out on the back porch door, he 14 some footprints near the door. He 15followed the footprints to where they began. Soon the footprints in the snow led my grandfather to a house he instantly 16. It was the home of a poor single mother with two young children. Grandfather 17 turned around and walked back home. He didn't say a word about it to anyone.

    From then on, Nana would carefully 18 the lock on the porch door each night to make sure it was 19. Then grandfather, after waiting for Nana to go to bed, would return to the porch and 20 the lock again. Nana never knew about the family they were helping to feed that winter.

There Really Was a Santa Claus

    Ann worked for a big company. One of the duties of her job was to go to the 1 every day and picked up the company mail. One day in 2, she saw a beggar 3 himself up as a Santa Claus standing on the corner of the street. Each day she saved her 4  and dropped them in his bowl. He would 5 and wish her a Merry Christmas.

    At night the temperature 6 below 0℃, but the Santa Clause 7stood in the cold wind. After she dropped her coins into his bowl, she handed him a pair of  8.

    A week later, a new 9 was standing there. "What happened to the other Santa Claus?" she asked. He told her, "He's very sick today." She prayed for his 10.

    Later that day, a 11 came into her office in tears. "I don't know 12 I'm going to do." "What's wrong?" she asked. "It's my ex-husband," her colleague continued. "I don't have any money to buy my boys anything for Christmas, 13 my ex-husband refuses to send money to them. It breaks my heart that they won't have anything this year." The lady 14 her colleague, "I'm sure everything will 15. It's Christmas. Believe in miracles(奇迹)."

    That evening, she told her husband about her colleague's 16, "I know we don't have much money to help, but I'd like to 17 her fifty or a hundred dollars. We'll just get 18 less this year. Last year we couldn't afford to buy anything for ourselves but we still had a 19 Christmas." Her husband smiled, "Give her one hundred dollars. She needs it more than we do."

    She reached up and held him. Warmth spread through her body. He held her and realized that there 20 was a Santa Claus – and he had married her!

    What do you do when you were born with only two fingers on each hand and your legs were amputated (截肢) at the knees when you were three? Lee Hee-ah1 that in her life. And her legs 2 at her knees. When Lee was born, doctors told her mother Woo Kap-sun that her child wasn't3. But Woo was determined her daughter would4 a successful life.

    When Lee was old enough to go to school, her mother decided that she wanted her daughter to take5 lessons. She felt it would help her6 hands because playing piano could make them stronger. In addition, she felt that7 she could master the piano, she could master8. But for six months, piano schools 9 them down. Then the teacher who did accept the task got10 and wanted to quit.

    It became a 11of wills between the mother and the daughter that led to a 12 in which Woo actually threw her daughter on the floor in 13 Lee got back to the piano bench and for the first time played the children's song she had been trying to learn. That was the14point and one year later Lee15 the prize in a piano concert for kindergarteners. It was at age 7 that :Lee won Korea's 19th National Handicap Conquest Contest and was16 with her award by the President of Korea. Today Lee, 22, has won numerous awards, and is a 17 traveled concert pianist with more than 200 appearances.  Lee thanked her18 for challenging her to master the piano and said that although her training was 19 as time went by, the piano had became her 20 of inspiration and her best friend. Nothing is impossible in life. It's only our thought and belief that matter.

    How did you do it, Dad? How have you managed not to take a drink for almost 20 years? It took me almost 20 years to have the 1 to even ask my father this very personal question. When Dad first 2 drinking, the whole family was on pins and needles every time he got into a 3 that, in the past, would have started him 4 again. For a few years we were 5 to bring it up for fear that the drinking would begin again.

    "I had this little poem that I would recite to myself at least four to five times a day," was Dad's 6 to my 18-year-old unasked question. "The words were a constant 7 to me that things were 8 so hard that I could not deal with them," Dad said. Then he 9 the poem with me. The poem's 10, yet profound words immediately became 11 of my daily routine as well.

    About a month after this 12 with my father, I received a gift in the mail from a friend of mine. It was a book of daily sayings of wisdom with one 13 for each day of the year.

    It has been my 14 that when you get something with days of the year on it, you naturally turn to the page that lists your own 15.

    I 16 opened the book to November 10 to see 17 words of wisdom this book had in store for me. I was 18 when I looked at the page, and then tears of disbelief and appreciation 19 down my face. There, on my birthday, was the exact same poem that had 20 my father for all these years! It is called the Serenity (平静) Prayer.

    God grant me

    the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

    the courage to change the things I can;

    and the wisdom to know the difference.

    I grew up on a 50-acre farm in the small rural community of Catawissa, Missouri, as the sixth of seven children. My parents, Archie and Altha, often 1 during meals how everything on the table came from the 2.

    Besides running the farm, Dad was also a 3. In the fall of 1970, he was working on a house when the ladder broke 4. His back was fractured in two places an 5 needed rescue.

    He stayed in the hospital for three weeks, 6 his back to align (校准) correctly so the bones would 7 perfectly.

    On Thanksgiving, Dad was still in the hospital. We always butchered pigs the day after the holiday so that we had enough pork 8 for the next year, and that year my uncle 9 with a couple of cousins to help my three older brothers prepare our year's supply.

    After Dad returned home, he was in a back brace, saddened for 10 to work. Worse still, the doctor told us his chance of complete recovery was 11. I was too young to realize our family had no money coming 12 as Christmas approached.

    One night we heard a car coming up the long driveway. Always 13 to company, we kids were curious about who was visiting.

    Peggy Phelan was at the door, holding an envelope 14 with money which, according to her account, she had 15 in the community. And she was there to 16 it!

    Dad tried to 17 but Peggy would have none of it. I can still hear her saying, "Archie, whenever someone's baler (压捆机) is broken, you bale their hay. Every time someone passes away, Altha is cooking. It's our 18."

    That evening, I understood what being a good neighbor was, and that 19 my parents were good neighbors, their 20 would be paid back.

    I am a nurse working in a hospital. It was a 1 morning when an elderly gentleman 2 to have his heart condition checked by the doctor. He said he was in a hurry 3 he had an appointment at 9:00 a. m.

    I had him take a seat. Since there were a lot of people 4 to see the doctor, I knew it would be over an hour 5 the doctor would be able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch 6 while waiting. To make him not feel so 7 with nothing to do for long hours, I decided to go over and 8 with him for a while. The gentleman told me that he 9 to go to the nursing home to have breakfast with his mom. His mother had been suffering from a disease and had 10 there for several years.

    As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit 11. He replied, "She can't 12 me now." I was 13, and asked him, "And you still go every morning, 14 she doesn't know who you are?" He smiled and said, "She doesn't know me, but I 15 make out who she is—the woman who gave me not only 16 but a mother's whole love." I was moved to tears and felt very 17 on such a winter day. The 18 between parents and children is everlasting (永恒的).

    Just then, a young man came up and said to the man, "Grandpa, now it's my 19 to see the doctor. I am not in a hurry, so you can do it first." The elderly man was very 20 and went in the doctor's to have his heart examined.