The Rich Family
文章来源: 文章作者: 发布时间:2006-09-09 07:51 字体: [ ]  进入论坛
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)

I’ll never forget Easter 1946. I was fourteen, my little sister, Ocy, was twelve and my older sister, Darlene, was sixteen. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with no money and seven school-aged kids to raise.

By 1946, my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter, the pastor1 of our church announced that a special holiday offering2 would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.

When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided3 to buy fifty pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save twenty dollars of our grocery4 money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got as many house- and yard-cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us baby-sat for everyone we could. For fifteen cents we could buy enough cotton loops5 to make three potholders to sell for a dollar. We made twenty dollars on potholders. That month was one of the best of our lives.

Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about eighty people in church, so we figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely6 be twenty times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The night before Easter, we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had seventy dollars for the sacrificial offering. We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard7 in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet.

But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about our old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting in the second row form the front. Mom put in the ten-dollar bill, and each of us kids put in a twenty-dollar bill.

We sang all the way home from church. At lunch, Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried8 potatoes! Late that afternoon, the minister drove9 up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch10 of money. There were three crisp11 twenty-dollar bills, one ten-dollar bill and seventeen one-dollar bills.

Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires12 to feeling poor. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have our Mom and our late Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly13. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night. We had two knives that we passed around to whoever14 needed them. I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never thought we were poor.

That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor, I thought. I didn’t like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed15 -- I didn’t even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!

I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over one hundred students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time.

We sat in silence for along time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally, on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never know we were poor. We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn’t talk on the way. Mom started to sing, but no one joined in, and she sang only one verse16.

At church we had a missionary17 speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks18, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said one hundred dollars would put a roof on a church. The minister added19, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?” We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.

Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene, Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over one hundred dollars. The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering form our small church. He said, “You must have some rich people in this church.” Suddenly it struck us! We had given eighty-seven dollars of that “little over one hundred dollars.”

We were the rich family in the church! Hadn’t the missionary said so? From that day on, I’ve never been poor again.



点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 pastor h3Ozz     
n.牧师,牧人
参考例句:
  • He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
  • We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师:教会的事是由五位执事管理的。
2 offering IIhxb     
n.提供,奉献物,牲礼
参考例句:
  • What is your competition offering?你的竞争者提出的条件是什么?
  • The police are offering a big reward for information about the robbery.警方出大笔赏金要求提供那起抢劫案的破案线索。
3 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
4 grocery FfPxV     
n.食品,杂货;食品杂货店
参考例句:
  • There used to be a grocery store on the corner.以前在这个街角有家杂货店。
  • Her mother began operation of a small grocery.她母亲开始经营一家小杂货店。
5 loops 9ac74365ff1a2e3a744fca94f62c3784     
圈( loop的名词复数 ); 环; 回路; 循环
参考例句:
  • The wire threaded through small loops. 金属丝穿过许多小环。
  • The brook loops around the farm. 小河绕农场流过。
6 surely yrRwj     
adv.确实地,无疑地;必定地,一定地
参考例句:
  • It'should surely be possible for them to reach an agreement.想必他们可以达成协议。
  • Surely we'll profit from your work.我们肯定会从你的工作中得到益处。
7 cardboard DTGyB     
n.硬纸板,卡纸板
参考例句:
  • She brought the shopping home in a cardboard box.她将买的东西放在纸箱里带回家。
  • There is a sheet of stiff cardboard in the drawer.在那个抽屉里有块硬纸板。
8 fried osfz81     
adj.油煎的;油炒的
参考例句:
  • I ate everything fried.所有油炸的我都吃。
  • I prefer fried peanuts.我选择炸花生。
9 drove brAxi     
vbl.驾驶,drive的过去式;n.畜群
参考例句:
  • He drove at a speed of sixty miles per hour.他以每小时60英里的速度开车。
  • They drove foreign goods out of the market.他们把外国货驱逐出市场。
10 bunch CSryD     
n.串,束;群,帮
参考例句:
  • A bunch of girls was[were] sitting on the grass.一群女孩坐在草地上。
  • I received a bunch of flowers yesterday.昨天我收到了一束鲜花。
11 crisp cobzQ     
adj.脆的;清新的;扼要的;n.[pl.]油炸土豆片
参考例句:
  • What a crisp voice she has!听她的嗓音多脆!
  • These pears are sweet and crisp.这种梨又甜又脆。
12 millionaires 3a52cfd402b8a2d058afa8d9b153554d     
n.百万富翁( millionaire的名词复数 );大富翁;大财主;有钱人
参考例句:
  • In Chicago, whose population still ranged about 500,000, millionaires were not numerous. 在还只有大约五十万人口的芝加哥,百万富翁并不多。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
  • Millionaires don't buy things on instalments! 百万富翁是不会分期付款买东西的! 来自新概念英语第一册
13 constantly EvHzqK     
adv.不变地,不断地,时常地
参考例句:
  • The two countries have been warring constantly for years.这两国多年来一直交战。
  • We should constantly urge ourselves on to study hard.我们要经常鞭策自己努力学习。
14 whoever 9gQwK     
pron.无论谁,不管谁;任何人
参考例句:
  • I'll find the person who did this,whoever he is.我要找出干这件事的人,不管他是谁。
  • Whoever does best will get the prize.谁做得最出色谁就得奖。
15 ashamed jNeyS     
adj.感到惭愧,感到害臊,因为羞耻或勉强作某事
参考例句:
  • He is ashamed to show his face at the club.他不好意思在俱乐部露脸。
  • You ought to be ashamed of your foolish behaviour.你应当为自己的愚蠢行为而感到羞耻。
16 verse YLpzl     
n.诗,韵文,诗行
参考例句:
  • He is good at verse.他善于作诗。
  • His book was in parts written in verse.他的书有许多地方是用韵文写的。
17 missionary ID8xX     
adj.教会的,传教(士)的;n.传教士
参考例句:
  • She taught in a missionary school for a couple of years.她在一所教会学校教了两年书。
  • I hope every member understands the value of missionary work. 我希望教友都了解传教工作的价值。
18 bricks ecfd485b7a182bfae368098672fd35c8     
n.砖( brick的名词复数 );砖块;积木;可靠的朋友
参考例句:
  • He compounded water, sand and soil and formed bricks. 他用水拌和沙和泥土做成砖块。
  • The United Auto Workers hit the bricks against General Motors. 联合汽车工人工会举行罢工,反对通用汽车公司。
19 added mzJzm0     
adj.更多的,附加的,额外的
参考例句:
  • They have added a new scene at the beginning.在开头他们又增加了一场戏。
  • The pop music added to our enjoyment of the film.片中的流行音乐使我们对这部电影更加喜爱。
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