1 . On a warm morning last summer, California bus driver Tim Watson was about halfway through his daily express route from Milpitas to Fremont when an alert from the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) flashed across his dashboard screen. A toddler had been kidnapped in Milpitas, the message read, and it asked that drivers be on the lookout for the boy.

The victim was described as a three-year-old child in plaid shorts and red shoes; the suspect, a man in his 20s wearing jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt. Tim felt his stomach drop when he realized that a man with a toddler in plaid shorts had boarded the bus just ten minutes earlier.

Before alerting authorities, he wanted to confirm their identities. Pulling into a parking lot, he announced that he needed to look for a lost bag. He moved slowly down the aisle, peering under each seat, until he approached the last row. “I saw the red shoes,” says Tim. “But I knew I had to keep cool.”

Back behind the wheel, Tim apologized for the delay and pulled the bus onto the highway. Not wanting to arouse suspicion, he waited a few minutes, then radioed the bus dispatcher, who directed him to continue to his final stop, where police officers would be waiting.

Minutes later, after making the last turn, he stopped the bus and opened the doors. As the man got off the bus with the boy, a police officer grabbed the child out of his arms, threw the suspect to the ground, and handcuffed him behind his back.

The police officers told Tim that the man, David Edington, 23, had snatched the boy from the Milpitas library after he wandered away from his mother. Tim thought about his own sons, ages 17 and 21. “I went back in the bus alone and broke down,” he says. Then he climbed out again to check that the boy was OK. Tim found him sitting calmly in the front seat of a squad car, without a tear in sight. “I just smiled at him,” Tim says. “I knew he was safe.”

Now, Tim is still humble about his actions. “I try to teach my kids to look out for people who can’t defend themselves,” he says. “And that’s what I did.”

2 . Cynthia, 72, has worked as a flight attendant (空乘人员) for Southwest Airlines for almost 20 years. After her granddaughter Hannah, 24, graduated from college and wasn’t sure what to do except traveling, she eventually decided to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps and applied to Southwest. When Hannah got her acceptance notice, she was overjoyed and so was Cynthia.

Cynthia was present at Hannah’s flight attendant graduation in 2022. And behind the scenes, Cynthia was also trying to make sure she’d be on her granddaughter’s first Southwest flight. When Hannah saw her grandma on her first flight, she was very surprised. Working together for the first time was exciting for both of them. It was a long, multi-stop trip—the type Cynthia, with her years of seniority (资历) at the airline, usually avoids nowadays. She made an exception for Hannah.

When she was little, Hannah loved hearing her grandmother’s stories about her job, and had fond memories of flying with her grandmother during her summer vacation. But while Hannah always thought Cynthia’s job was amazing and exciting, she also saw the tough sides of flight attendants’ life. Often her grandmother would have to work on holidays and couldn’t take part in the family activities.

Cynthia also wanted to pass on wisdom to her granddaughter. She kept telling Hannah that flight attendants flew all the time, so everything was pretty simple and easy for them. Passengers sometimes just flew once a year and so flight attendants had to take it into consideration that they had to help these people, showing them the way, answering questions, and showing some enthusiasm.

Hannah says Cynthia brings this empathy (同理心) to every aspect of her life, and it has always inspired her. “That’s one thing that she has taught me—she’s just so sympathetic and so quick to help anyone. I see it when we’re working or outside of work. She really has the best heart,” says Hannah.

3 . Eva, the Belgian Malinois, is home now, getting a well-deserved rest surrounded by new toys after nearly dying while protecting her human from a mountain lion.

The attack happened on May 16 in northern California when 24-year-old Erin Wilson headed down a path toward the Trinity River before she found herself cornered by a mountain lion. “I was just walking down the slope with the dog running ahead of’ me. I turned around and there was this cat just growling at me and it attacked me, ”Wilson told NPR. “I screamed for Eva and she came running. ”

Mountain lion attacks on humans are incredibly rare. Since 1890, California has recorded only six fatal mountain lion attacks because of the animal’s generally shy, reclusive (独处的) nature. Their preferred prey is deer, which are normally in abundance in their forested habitat, but recent drought conditions have made food scarce in some areas. Wilson thought that these conditions made the sudden appearance of a slim woman look like an attractive option.

To protect her human, Eva leapt between Wilson and the lion, tackling the wild cat and embarked on a life-and-death struggle between the two animals. After a short fight, the mountain lion got its jaws around Eva’s head and Wilson fought to free her dog. hitting the lion with rocks in an attempt to break its grip. Eventually, Wilson ran back to her truck and flagged down passing motorist Sharon Houston Fetching an iron bar from her truck. Wilson and Houston ran back down the trail and their combined efforts managed to frighten the big cat off.

Wounded herself and shaken by the experience, Wilson still managed to carry Eva back to the Animal Hospital. The 2-year-old dog didn’t need surgery, but her wounds were still extensive. Eva left the animal hospital on May 19 with surgical tape wrapped around both her front paws, and the veterinarian said she might lose sight in her left eye.

4 . Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir Tree. It was the sun shining on him and the fresh air surrounding him that made him gorgeous. In summer, children often came and sat down near him and said, “What a nice little fir!” In winter, when the snow lay glittering on the ground, a hare hopped over the little tree. But he never felt any pleasure. What the little Fir wanted so much was to grow into a big tree as his neighbors.

“Oh! Were I but such a high tree as the others are,” thought he. “Then I should be able to spread out my branches, and with the tops to look into the wide world!”

When Christmas came, quite young trees with the finest looking were cut down. And so was the Fir Tree. He found himself, in the middle of the living-room, stuck upright in a bucket that was filled with sand and decorated with the most splendid things-apples, colorful lights and at the very top a large golden star, which made him incomparably beautiful.

“What a splendor!” thought the Fir Tree, believing he would take root here and forever stand covered with decorations!

However, the splendor never came back again. After the Christmas, the servant dragged him out of the room, and up the stairs into the loft in a dark corner, where no daylight could enter.

“If it only were not so dark here, and so terribly lonely. Not even a hare!” he sighed. “They surely stored me here for the next Christmas.”

One day, the tree was pulled out and a man drew him towards the stairs, where the daylight shone. Feeling the fresh air and the first sunbeam, now he was out in the courtyard. Seeing all the beauty of the flowers and the freshness in the garden, he firmly believed he would be replanted there.

“Now a merry life will begin again,” thought the tree, spreading out his branches only to find they were all withered and yellow！When seeing the gardener getting close with an axe (斧头), he recalled his first youth in the wood and sighed so deeply! Each sigh was like a shot.

8 . When I was at the age of nine, my parents took us to the lake, 10 miles away, every day for a whole summer, me and my two brothers, Hap and Danny. To be honest, we were all a little too wild.

At that time, our car had only an outdated AM radio. A trip to the lake meant over an hour in the car, along with winding mountain roads where the AM radio could not pick up any signal. My parents must have figured out early that if they didn’t keep us three boys busy and focused, we would eventually start fighting just to have something to do. They made up various games. They told wonderful stories. He could even recite (背诵) “Casey at the Bat,” “The Raven,” “Dangerous Dan McGrew” or any of the other narrative poems at the drop of a hat.

One of the poems that fascinated me most was a bit of nonsense verse (打油诗) which I later found out was called “The Dying Fisherman’s Song.” It begins: “It was a summer’s day in winter / And the rain was snowing fast / As a barefoot girl with shoes on/ Stood sitting in the grass...” I was hooked. These lines in my head were kept repeating over and over, week after week, until they burned new electrical pathways in my brain.

I did what any 9-year-old poetry addict would do, given the circumstances: I read CRICKET magazine, hungrily. I was greatly influenced by their poems, and I am so thankful for what its publisher, Marianme Carus, did—creating such a prefect magazine for 9-year-olds. Yes, I fell in love with funny children’s poetry. It’s a love affair that continues to this day, 10 books related with poetry (of my own) later.