Bobby was getting cold sitting out in his backyard in the snow. Bobby didn’t wear boots; or rather, he didn’t own any. The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in them and they did a poor job of keeping out the cold.

Bobby had been in his backyard for about an hour already. Try as he might, he could not come up with an idea for his mother’s Christmas gift. He shook his head as he thought, “This is useless. Even if I do come up with an idea, I don’t have any money for a gift.”

Wiping tears from his eyes, Bobby started walking down to the street where the shops were. It wasn’t easy being six without a father, especially when he needed a man to talk to.

Bobby walked from shop to shop, looking into each decorated window. Everything seemed so beautiful but so out of reach. It was starting to get dark and Bobby reluctantly turned to walk home when suddenly his eyes caught the glimmer (微光) of the setting sun’s rays reflecting on something on the roadside. He reached down and discovered a shiny dime (10美分硬币).

Never before has anyone felt as wealthy as Bobby did at that moment. As he held his newly-found treasure, warmth spread throughout his entire body and he walked into the first store. His excitement quickly turned cold when salesperson told him that he could not buy anything with only a dime.

He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in line. When the shop owner asked if he could help him, Bobby presented the dime and asked if he could buy one flower for his mother’s Christmas gift. The shop owner looked at Bobby and his offering ten-cent. Then he put his hand on Bobby’s shoulder, saying. “You just wait here and I’ll see what I can do for you.”

The sound of the door closing as the last customer left pulled Bobby back to reality. All alone in the shop, Bobby began to feel alone and afraid.

During breakfast, Alan suggested going to the Lego Land to have fun and his mom agreed.

“We’ll stop by the supermarket and buy some snacks and fruits. Now hurry and eat and then we’ll go. It’s going to be a lovely day. Grandma is coming with us. She’ll be here any minute.”

Alan ate his breakfast and then ran into his room to get his shoes. The problem was that he could only find one of them. He looked under his bed, but all he could see were dirty pants. He moved some of his toys out of the way, but still couldn’t find his shoe. After he had checked everywhere in his room, he ran into the kitchen. “Mom, I can’t find my shoe. Will you wait while I look for it?” he asked.

His mom thought about how many times she’d told Alan to clean his room up. She said something to Alan’s grandma in a low voice. Then, she said to Alan,“You will have to stay home. Your dad and I will take your brother Alex to the Lego Land. Grandma will stay at home with you.”

“No! Please wait for me. I want to go to the Lego Land,” Alan cried. “I’m sorry, Alan. I’ve told you a dozen times to clean your room and you did not do it. You can’t find your shoe now. It’s your own fault for not cleaning your room.You will stay home.”

Alan ran into his bedroom, crying. His mom came to the door and said, “Alan, clean that room of yours before I get home. I’ve told Grandma not to give you any sweets until you make your room clean and tidy.” She went out with Alex and the brothers’ dad. After a minute, they drove away.

Alan sat on his bed and cried for a long time.

Alan and his grandma were sitting at the table, eating when his mom, dad and Alex came home.

I couldn’t forget the way I was frozen in front of the class today. My teacher, Mr. Liu had divided the class into groups to do speeches. Today was my turn. However, my hands shook so badly that I couldn’t read my notes. My voice became softer even to silence. Mr. Liu kindly ended my part of speech even though I clearly didn’t finish. He also asked me to stay after class for a moment.

“Betty, I know you are shy, but you worked so hard on this project. I’d hate to see you give up on yourself.” Mr. Liu said, “If I give you another chance until tomorrow, do you think you can find courage?” I nodded, grateful for the chance. I went as quickly as I could to my next class, keeping my head down and hoping the school day would end soon.

When I reached home that afternoon, I could see an inviting light coming from the kitchen windows. Mum was baking(烘焙). She studied my face as I came into the kitchen. “What’s wrong, Betty?”

Tears shone in my eyes. I told her the whole story. Mum was silent for a moment with her hands busy with the cake. “Why is it that you can talk to me about anything and everything but you can’t talk to your class?” Mum asked. She set the time right and then said, “Let me show you something.”

I followed her to the bedroom. There she showed me a book filled with pictures. In it there was a blue ribbon(丝带) that said “First Place” and a picture of herself when she was very young, standing with her parents.

“I won it for public speaking. I started the school year as the shyest girl on the speech team, but I ended the year as the blue ribbon winner. It wasn’t easy at first—not sure of myself at all. I worked hard, and mostly I faced my tears. You just need to find your courage.”

One day, my brother and I were in our apartment. My parents had both gone for a party and had left me in charge of everything. I was doing my homework while my younger brother was watching TV. All of a sudden, the doorbell rang. Ding­dong! Ding­dong! My younger brother had rushed to the door before I decided to answer the door. We both thought that our parents had come home. As a result, he unlocked the door and opened it.

Outside of the house stood a man who wore a black raincoat and black rubber boots. He looked no different from other people and said that he was a salesman and asked politely if our mother or father was at home so he could talk with them.

Without thinking, my brother said，“No.” He asked if we would like to buy some comic books (漫画书), which he was selling. I quickly explained to him that we were not supposed to buy anything without our parents’ permission. However, it seemed that he was not willing to follow my advice and he had an intention to enter our house.

Then, I realized something terrible would happen. As I was about to close the door, he forced his way into our house. He forced me to tie up my brother’s hands with the rope which he took out from his pocket. I tied up his hands but tied it in a special way so my brother could untie (解开) it himself as we often did. The man then tied my hands up and locked both of us in the kitchen.

Soon, he went upstairs to search the bedroom for something valuable. I managed to teach my brother to untie the rope on his hands. He then untied it for me. I rushed to the telephone to call the police, but the line was dead.

The doors were all locked from the outside and what’s more, I did not have the keys.

Just at the same time our parents came back home.

The sound of glass breaking was immediately recognizable. I had been telling my best friend a silly story and had spun around in the living room when I heard that sound and froze.

When I looked down at the rug(地毯), it was covered with tiny shards(碎片) of sparking red, pink and clear glass. Missi said, “Oh, no, not the vase.”

“Why? What did I do?” My face reddened.

“Abby, that glass vase was one of the few items my relatives brought when they came to America,” Missi replied nervously. “If you’d broken anything else in the department, I would have gladly said I did it. But you’re going to have to tell my mom that it was your fault, and she’s going to be really mad.”

I was terrified. I’d destroyed a priceless family heirloom (传家宝). Why did I have to spin around like that?

We gathered up the broken pieces. I kept saying that maybe it could be fixed, but Missi said it didn’t look possible. I insisted we keep the pieces. The glass was so delicate, like a colorful light bulb had exploded. Some of it broke even more as we tried to sweep it up carefully.

Missi said her mom would be home by six. My stomach was in knots. Would her mom yell at me or punish me? Would she tell me that I couldn’t stay in their department for the weekend? Although it was hot then, I was in a cold sweat and couldn’t stop playing the scene over in my mind. The only thing I could think of to say was “I’m sorry”.

A couple of minutes after six, we heard a key turn in the door. Missi’s mom was home.

Right from the start, we could see she was in a good mood.

“Oh, thank you! I always hated that ugly vase! You’ve done me a huge favor!” Missi’s mom screamed with delight.