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. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________