One day, I saw a boy shop alone at the shop I worked. He chose some school things he wanted and went to the checkout (付款台).

    The young shop assistant (店员) told him he needed to pay $37.60. The boy became very sad and said he only had $20. He took out one thing at a time, and at last he got down to his $20. With eyes full of tears, he asked if he could call his mom to pick him up. When he got through, it seemed that his morn was too busy to pick him up in a minute.

    He tried to stop the tears and walked outside to wait on the chair in front of the shop. This was too much for the young assistant. She kept looking outside to see if the boy was all right. Then she said, "I wish I could pay for the rest (剩余部分) of his  things." One of the other girls said she had a few  dollars. Then two others said they could help, too.

    These four young girls pooled their money and found they had more than enough to pay for the boy s things. Then they chose more school things, and gave them all to the boy. The boy laughed happily. His morn arrived much later, but he didn't just run to the car; he ran back into the shop and called out, "Thank you!"

    I was so proud (骄傲的) of my team that day. They did something wonderful for that boy and also found the pleasure (快乐) of giving.

    Today, I would like to tell a story about the wild horse Calypso and me. He saved me from a terrible accident. I got Calypso along with two other wild horses when I was 26. When I got the wild horses home, I began learning how to introduce them to the human world. I had four domestic (驯养的) horses. I thought they could show the new horses how to act. And I was learning how to be with these new horses.

    One afternoon, I was riding a domestic horse around the outside of a riding arena(策骑场), with Calypso watching from inside. As my horse neared somewhere close to several trees, he got scared by something and ran around crazily. He was big and strong and it was difficult for me to control him. There was nothing I could do but stay on his back and pray everything would be OK.

    It was a difficult situation that I couldn't seem to get out of. Calypso was watching carefully. Suddenly he hurried into the place my horse refused to go. As Calypso came to a sudden stop with a screech (尖叫), two big wolves ran away with their eyes looking at me.

    I'm 65 now and I hardly ever ride, but Calypso, my lifesaver, is with me all the time.

    A father and his son went to a kite-flying festival. The son was full of joy when he saw the sky filled with colorful kites. He wanted to fly a kite, too. The father then bought a kite for him.

    The son started to fly the kite. Soon, his kite was high up in the sky. After a while, he said, "Father, it seems that the string (线) is stopping the kite from flying higher. If we cut it, the kite will be free and fly even higher. Can we cut it?" The father cut the string. The kite started to go higher. This made the little boy happy.

    But then, slowly, the kite started to come down. And finally it fell to the ground. The son was surprised to see this. He asked his father, "I thought that after cutting the string, the kite would fly higher. Why did it fall down?"

    The father explained, "The string was not stopping the kite from going higher, but was helping it stay in the sky. You helped the kite go up in the right direction using the string. But when you cut the string, it could no longer support the kite."

    Sometimes, we may feel like there are certain things that are holding us back (阻碍) and stopping us growing. But in fact, these might be the things that support us the most.