To act with honesty and good faith was such a habit with Susan that she had never before thought of examining the Golden Rule:” All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” But the longer she thought about it, the more seriously she doubted that she did not always obey it. So she asked her mother about its meaning.

“It implies. ”said her mother, “in the first place, a total destruction of all selfishness (自私): for a man who loves himself better than his neighbors, can never do to others as he would have others do to him. We are bound not only to do, but to feel, toward others as we would have others feel toward us. Remember. it is much easier to blame others for their selfishness than to overcome temptation (诱惑) when we face it. ”

Susan thought carefully and seriously about what her mother had said. She told herself that she would remember and follow the Golden Rule.

It was not long after this that an opportunity to test Susan’s principles occurred. One Saturday evening when she went, as usual, to farmer Thompson’s hotel, to bring back the money for her mother’s washing for the boarders, which amounted to five pounds. She found the farmer in the yard.

He was apparently in a terrible rage (勃然大怒) with some horse dealers with whom he had been bargaining (讨价还价). He held in his hand an open handbag, full of banknotes, and didn’t see the child as she made her request, except to blame her, as usual, for troubling him when he was busy. After that, he handed her a banknote. Glad to escape so easily, Susan hurried out of the gate. and then, pausing to put the money safely in her pocket, she discovered that he had given her two banknotes instead of one. She looked around: nobody was around to see her discovery.

“It is mine, all mine.” she said happily to herself. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Suddenly she turned around and rushed along the road with breathless speed. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It is exciting and enjoyable for one to experience both being fired for being honest and being rewarded. It was a pleasant Tuesday morning. Sunray Mart, a high-end (高端的) supermarket opened its doors to its customers. 60-year-old Billy had just started his first day on the job as the store’s sales associate (业员), and he couldn’t have been happier. Getting a job at 70 was quite challenging, and Billy could not thank his fate enough for somehow bringing him this work.

Wearing a warm smile, he began his work. After a while, he noticed one customer, a man in a clean black suit, approaching the store manager at the checkout....

“Excuse me, young man,” the customer greeted the manager at the billing desk. “Could you please tell me how much this toy costs? I left my glasses in my office, so I can’t see the price clearly. Would you please help me out?” “It’s $ 800, sir!” the manager took a look and said.

Billy was quite surprised and raised a brow (额头). He had just arranged the toys from the collection the man had wanted, all of which cost at most $ 200. So Billy lifted the exact toy from the lower shelf to double check its price and learned that it was actually $ 200, not $800 like the manager had claimed. Without further hesitation, Billy decided to correct the manager and approached the two men at the checkout, “Excuse me, sir, I think there’s been a mistake... That toy costs $ 200, not $ 800,” Billy said, pointing to the toy box his manager held.

Billy’s manager frowned (皱眉) and was clearly frustrated as he stared angrily at him, “apologize on behalf of my new sales associate,” the manager rolled his eyes and turned to the customer. “He’s new here, sir... and is probably a bit confused about the items listed for sale, The toy is $ 800.” Billy realized that his manager was trying to cheat the customer.

But Bill could not openly oppose (反对) him.

All of a sudden, the man Billy “helped” appeared from nowhere.

Earlier in the year, as a group of young and ambitious men, we set out plans for a butterfly garden on an area of greenspace right in the heart of the village. We intended to provide a place for students from nearby schools to learn about nature.

I, the group leader, first drew up a plan showing my ideas and thoughts, where we would depend on donation for us to buy wildflower seeds. As it turned out, my partners, the other group members, had other plans.

While we were waiting to see if our funding would come through, Butterfly Conservation Scotland offered us enough wildflower mix seeds to cover the whole of the area which we’d marked on our plan. But the problem was that the seeds would have to be sown (播种) within the next two weeks, which also meant that the weeds in the area should be removed before we could sow seeds. Then I went to ask the nearby farmers whether they could use their machines to remove the weeds, but no one had time to lend a hand.

It was suggested that we buy a machine. But without much money, where could we find a machine to remove the weeds? When we didn’t know what to do, a teacher called Lily from a nearby school approached us and asked if we needed some help. I told her the truth about the situation. “My father is a farmer and has his own machine. Don’t worry, I can get him to help,” she said. We thanked her several times for it.

On Sunday, as expected, Lily’s father brought a weeding machine and removed the weeds in person. Meanwhile, all the group members including me were busy in the field. Considering the tight schedule, I sent out a call on the Internet for volunteers to help. One of my partners joked, “No one will have the time to help us for free, so let’s pick up the weeds ourselves.” I believed there were many helpful people around us, so I just smiled back.

Just then, Lily came, followed by her students.

The next year, I gathered Lily and her students in the garden.

As I was packing up, I noticed my colleague had left his laptop bag in my office. Since he was already home, I decided to bring it to him. It was 4:30 p. m. The snow wasn’t supposed to start until later according to the previous warning, but just to be safe, I decided to use the country roads near his home instead of the highway, which could fast become a skating rink (滑冰场).

After I dropped off the laptop case and got right back on the road, the snow started. Within minutes I was in a whiteout. I rolled down my window, thinking I could follow the edge of the road and keep to a straight line. But really, I hadn’t a clue where I was or even which side of the road I was on. I had to stop because I was afraid of driving into a farmer’s field, or worse. I called 911, only to be told that nobody was coming to get me until morning at the earliest.

Those seconds after the call were the worst of my life. Getting out to walk in a whiteout and high winds when it was -10°C wasn’t an option. So I texted my colleague whose laptop bag I had just returned. I joked about my good deed ending in disaster. But he had an idea. “Pin your location on Google Maps and send it to me,” he said.

I did, and soon he texted me back a screenshot of the satellite view of where I was. We figured out that I was on a road in between two farms. I posted this new information to my Facebook community group, pleading (恳求) for anyone who knew someone living here to help me get rescued.

Soon enough, people started responding on my post. I got a message from someone who was going to put me in touch with the family living there. At 8 p. m., my mobile phone rang. It was the son of the farmer who owned the land beside the road I was stranded (使滞留) on. He told me that his dad was coming to get me!

Then, about 45 minutes later, I saw a tall figure walking toward me in the dark, carrying a flashlight.

As his wife treated me to hot drinks, André went into the storm again and brought back another two families stranded on the road.

“Bang. . !” Sara pushed the door open. She threw her school bag onto the floor and called out, “I’m home!” No answer. The house was silent. It sounded empty, but she knew it wasn’t. Her mum and dad were working upstairs.

Sara got a glass of orange juice, went into the conservatory (玻璃房) and sat down in her favourite chair. The garden was still in the dark afternoon. On one side, her mum’s garden was neat and tidy with boring short grass, boring straight flowerbeds and boring straight paths. But on the other side, Sara’s Nature Garden looked wild and exciting with big dead sunflowers and tall grasses.

“Nobody is interested in me. Mum and dad only think about their work,” she thought sadly.

Then she recalled: One month earlier, she learned in a magazine that many dogs were abandoned because their owners got bored with them; One hour earlier, she saw a cute dog wagging its tail and licking her friend’s face.

Sara knew today was special. Today things were changing. She couldn’t wait any longer. It’s time to talk to her parents.

So Sara got up from her chair and climbed all the way to the loft (阁楼). “Mum, I want a talk.” said Sara. “Just a minute!” Her mum clicked on the keyboard, took off her glasses and turned to her daughter. Sara coughed, took a deep breath, and told her mum that she wanted a dog. “No, Sara. That’s impossible,” her mum said firmly. Sara went to her father but got the same answer. She rushed into her room angrily and slammed the door shut.

Later, Sara’s mum knocked at the door and went in. “Darling, we know this is important to you. You can have a dog if you take the responsibility. But look at your Nature Garden, your school bag, your bedroom! What a mess! Do you think you can take good care of a dog?” said her mum.

Sara was lost in thought and decided to make some changes.

With the dog’s company, Sara began her busy but joyful life.