Jane Brown sat carefully putting papers into a folder. She had been at the Gateway Nature Center’s office all morning and was tired of filing. She wanted desperately to work with the animals. She had been a weekend volunteer that whole school year and had done extensive research, reading books and websites on natural history. But her mom, who was the assistant director of the center, said Jane was still too young.

Suddenly, the quiet was broken by Amy bursting in. She had been a volunteer a bit longer than Jane and wandered around like she owned the place. “Hurry up, Jane,” she ordered. Jane willed herself to remain still and just smiled back.

Just then, Jane’s mother rushed into the room with Mr. White, the manager. “The hurricane is now approaching the Gulf Shore Preserve,” Mrs. Brown reported. “It needs help preparing for it. I have to go down there with the staff. We’ll take the bridge, so we shouldn’t be gone long. I need you girls to help Mr. White get the storm shutters (护窗) down in the aviary (鸟舍). Then, stay inside with Mr. White. Call me on my cellphone if there’re any problems,” Mrs. Brown directed as she rushed out. Jane was excited to have an opportunity to help the birds.

Amy announced she was now “in charge”. Jane smiled again, saying nothing. Mr. White and the girls worked quickly and were soon back inside. But when Mr. White called Jane’s mother, a worried expression crossed his face. “A storm has flooded the bridge, and they’re stuck there. Also, the storm is heading our way,” he said. Amy was frightened. After silently considering for a few seconds, Jane said calmly, “We should move the birds to the reptile house (爬行动物馆). It’s on higher ground.” Mr. White and Amy nodded. They rushed out of the building. Once inside the aviary, Jane watched Amy lunge (猛冲) from cage to cage.

Jane told Amy not to jump around so much because the birds would be scared by her sudden movements.

After several hours, the storm stopped, and Mrs. Brown was able to return to the center.

Several days ago, local News Channel reported a story between a mother and her son. The mother was a single woman who had been feeling a great deal of anger and bitterness due to her financial and psychological problem, causing her emotions to be unpredictable. Occasionally, she may not pay enough attention to her son or couldn’t respond to his requirements timely. Sometimes, she would even pour her negative emotions onto her child, which made him feel helpless. In fact, this child is a very outstanding and caring boy.

That day, the mother directed her anger towards her child again because of some small matter. Although the child did not resist, the mother still drove the child out of the house, slammed the door shut and left the child outside to reflect (反省).

It was when the mother became calm and a little regretful that she opened her door and found her child missing. Anxious and scared, she searched everywhere, but the child was nowhere to be found. Her anxiety was gradually increasing.

The worried mother thought of seeking help from the police. Quickly, she went to the police station and explained the situation to the officer on duty. The police officer explained that, as a general rule, they couldn’t file a case for a missing child within the first 24 hours. However, they could provide assistance in other ways, such as posting the child’s photo on social media platforms to expand the search area.

After expressing gratitude for the police officer’s kindness, the mother continued searching for her child. Despite trying various methods, the mother still couldn’t find the child. Unexpectedly, the child was wandering in the streets, he felt lost and alone, not knowing where to go or what to do. He felt the tears forming in his eyes but refused to let them down. He didn’t want to show weakness in front of anyone, and it made him feel even more alone.

Exhausted and hungry, the child kept walking aimlessly until he finally came across a bench along the street.

Soon after, the mother arrived hurriedly.

When Sophie left the grocery, it suddenly started raining — a heavy downpour, in fact. She had neither her jacket nor her umbrella.

Sophie held her paper bag over her head and made a rush. The rain hit her face as she ran up the street. As she stood waiting for the lights to change, Sophie glanced down to see a child’s toy lying on the sidewalk. She looked around, wondering who might have dropped it, but the street was deserted. What should she do? She couldn’t just leave it there. Sophie bent and picked up the toy — a grey elephant with a dirty label, and very wet. As the light went green, she had to make a quick decision. She held the elephant tightly and hurried on her way to her office.

“Why did you bring it with you?” Gemma asked while Sophie poured a coffee. “When they realise they’ve lost it, they’ll probably return to the place. You should’ve displayed it where you found it. Somewhere noticeable.”

That made sense. “It was getting completely wet,” Sophie protested, “It might have been destroyed.”

“It might as well be, if you can’t reunite it with its owner,” Gemma replied. “Some toddler (学步儿童) is going to have trouble getting to sleep tonight without their elephant.”

Oh, dear! Sophie had tried to do a good thing, but acting on impulse (冲动) might not have been the best choice. She decided to go back at lunch — find somewhere to set it up high. For the rest of the morning she placed the elephant on the radiator (暖气片) by her desk. At least it would be a bit drier by the time she took it back. But at lunch time, another heavy shower arrived. She picked up the toy elephant and gave its large ears a rub.

“What am I going to do with you?” she asked, staring at the toy.

The man on the phone, who said his name was Arthur, sounded excited.

On the day when my mother let me choose a pet dog from the kennel(养狗场),Diana came over and started biting my shoelaces. She was playfully jumping around and licking me. I knew from the moment I set my eyes on her that she was the perfect dog for me. And, for some reason, her great energy was everything that I needed in my life.

We lived in a remote area, and my mother didn’t like me walking Diana too late after school. But I was a teenager and loved going against the rules, so I ignored her warnings and set out later than usual that day.

As the sun set, I couldn’t help but feel nervous. Thoughts flooded my head about losing my way. Or, worse still, some frightening creature came out of the dark unexpectedly. The hairs on the back of my arms stood on end.

I took a deep breath to try to calm my nerves. I looked around and could just make out the open surface of a dried-up lake. I knew that my home wasn’t far away. I had never walked across the lake before, and my mother had warned against it, but I just wanted to get home quickly. So, rather than going all the way around the lake, I decided I’d feel safer taking the shortcut across the lake.

Diana went first. In the dark light, I could see that the mud directly below her paws(爪)was dry. Following her, I stepped out onto the lake, but my foot went in a little deeper than expected. Cautiously, I took a second step. Diana pulled me forward. Suddenly I lost my balance. Below the hard-looking surface was wet-mud soup. I was sinking deeper.

Diana started to bark. She knew something was wrong. She jumped back to the side of the lake and landed on the hard ground. I saw her reach the safety of the shore.

To my amazement, Diana grabbed the leash(牵狗的皮带)in her mouth and started to pull me.

“What on earth has happened?” my mother asked.

I’d made the drive to visit my sister, Mandi, so many times that I could practically do it on autopilot. That gave me plenty of time to think about all she was going through. Mandi was 34, with two young children, and had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

I turned at the edge of town, barely glancing at the landscape around me. There wasn’t much to see at this time of year. The once colorful leaves had all fallen from the trees, leaving them black and bare. It was a troubling reflection of what Mandi was going through, the joyful things in her life dropping away one by one.

“Are we almost there, Grandma?”

I’d nearly forgotten my young granddaughter was in the car with me. She’d been quietly watching the scenery go by. I needed to focus on something more positive, at least for her sake. “Thank you, God, for this beautiful day,” I said, trying to sound cheerful.

“I see a pretty blue sky,” Jocelyn said. “And the chocolate trees!”

“Chocolate trees?” I was confused.

“Yes,” Jocelyn said. “When the trees don’t have their leaves on them, they look like chocolate.”

Well, she was not wrong. They were deep brown, like dark chocolate. More importantly, when I thought about them that way, the trees no longer looked so sad and hopeless.

I was still thinking about those trees when we got to Mandi’s, so I told her about the chocolate tree story as soon as Jocelyn and I walked in the door.

“I love that!”Mandi said. Jocelyn bounced on Mandi’s bed, and Mandi gave her a weak smile. I listened as Mandi and Jocelyn made up a story about a princess who lived in a forest made of chocolate trees. Jocelyn’s laughter warmed my heart, but I could tell Mandi needed to rest. When Jocelyn left the room, Mandi continued looking out of the window.

“Looking at the trees?” I guessed.

“I was,” she admitted. “I was thinking about how some people see something bare and ugly out there, but our Jocelyn sees chocolate trees. We should all be like that. We should learn to look for the chocolate.”

“It would certainly make the world a lot sweeter,” I laughed.

A few months later, I drove Mandi home from her chemotherapy (化疗) treatment.

I sensed movement beside me.

Sometimes you can count on (指望) people to do the right thing. When Dave Tally found a backpack with a laptop and an envelope full of cash in 2010, he could have considered it a very lucky day. The homeless man counted $3,300 in the bag, an amount that would make a huge difference in his life. However, as tempting (诱人的) as it was to keep the money, deep down he knew it wasn’t the right thing to do.

Back then, Tally was sleeping in the basements of local churches and trying to save up enough money to fix his only source of transportation: his bike. That money could have bought him, a brand new one. Instead, he turned the bag to his boss at the Tempe Community Action Agency, an organization that helps homeless people in the area find jobs. Tally had been working there part-time.

“Finding the envelope with the cash was just exciting. There were lots of crazy thoughts that went through my head,” Tally told ABC News at the time. “I went into the survival mode for a moment, actually more than a moment, thinking about all the things I could do for myself.”

“I beat myself up pretty hard for even thinking I would spend one cent of that person’s money,” Tally added.

After Tally made up his mind to return the bag, he faced the problem of tracking down its owner. There were no identifiers on the backpack or a way to get into the laptop without a password. But then someone suggested checking the flash drive (闪存盘) that they’d also found inside the bag to see if it held any clues (线索).

It sure did. Arizona State University student Bryan Belanger had uploaded his resume (简历) to the drive, easily providing Tally with his contact information. As it turned out, Bryan Belanger was carrying that cash because he was buying a used car from Craigslist website, and he accidentally left his belongings in a station on the way to work.

Belanger was regretful for his carelessness and thought his backpack was gone forever.

Tally said the day he found the money’s rightful owner was the day his life changed.