Many years ago at Christmas time I parked my car in the town centre on my way to the post office to post my Christmas cards. It was the last posting day for Christmas cards if they were to be received before Christmas. As I came out of the car park, I saw a young boy on the other side of the road. He was alone and as he was walking he was sobbing. I thought some bigger boys had perhaps bullied（欺凌）him and he was in pain, I had to go to his aid and see if I could help with his big sadness.

He told me that his big sister had bought him a combined Christmas present. It was a mobile phone. I would say it was his first mobile phone. He had been allowed to use it and only the first day he dropped it and cracked the screen! The little guy ate his heart out, tears rolling down his face as he told all this to me. My heart ached for him. It was clear he valued his present and knew that this was a lot of money for his big sister to spend on him. He’d been to a phone shop and they’d told him it would be £80 to get a new screen.

I had to help. However, it was very close to Christmas and I was nearly penniless（身无分文的）and waiting on my next pay cheque. I had some dealings with guys in the mobile phone repair shop, so I took him there. I knew the guys would have helped me out and my intention was to get the screen on the phone fixed and I would pay for it the following week. I knew they would trust me on this. I brought him with me, but the shop was closed! I had the mobile number of one of the guys’ but I couldn’t get in contact with him. What next? What could I do now?

One rainy day, Lily, a sad little girl, was looking out of the window. Her mother was doing her usual housework. She had been busy preparing dinner and washing clothes. Her daughter, not old enough to go to school, had wanted to play outside, but it was raining. The mother told her little girl to get some paper and a pencil to draw pictures. She hadn’t noticed her daughter was very sad.

Lily was the only child in the family and had no brothers or sisters to play with. She sat on the sofa with her pencil and paper, looked out of the window and began to draw a picture. She drew the window with rain streaming down the glass. Then she drew a little girl in front of the window with ribbons in her hair. The mother passed by as she was going to put the clothes into the dryer. She told her daughter that her drawing was pretty. Lily said thank you, but she still wanted to go out to play. Her mother said, “We have discussed that already. You can’t. It’s raining.”

Lily continued to draw the picture, while her mother went back to the kitchen to check on dinner. The mother could see her daughter’s drawing across the glass door that divided the two rooms. In the drawing, a little girl had big tears rolling down her cheeks. The mother thought about the events of the day in her mind.

Several times that day, Lily had asked her mother for permission to go out and play. The rain had prevented her from going out. She had asked her mother to play and watch cartoons with her. Each time, her mother was too busy with things she had to do. The mother felt guilty, and realized the little girl in the drawing was her daughter’s self-portrait. So she walked into the living room.

She sat down on the sofa by her daughter.

“Where’s my surprise, Mommy?” Lily asked curiously.

Ray was caught up in his thoughts watching the clouds outside the window. Some of the kids were playing with paper planes and others just chatting Their teacher had gone out. And when he returned there was a boy with him. Ray was suddenly brought back to earth. The boy was newly admitted. He looked so tired and his clothes were ragged and dirty. The teacher introduced him to the class. The boy's name was "Richard". He went and sat at a nearby seat behind Ray.

After the class Ray and his friends were chatting together. They heard the new boy's conversation with the nerd(呆瓜) of the class Ben. He was saying that he belonged to a low class family and he was really looking forward to study hard and get good marks. This caught the attention of Ray and his friends. So they called out to him, "Hey new boy, what's up with your clothes?"Another called out, "Didn't have enough money to buy yourself some decent clothing? Do you have enough money to buy food at least?" "And your name's Richard, Rich for short, kind of opposite of what you are." Ray and his friends burst out laughing.

Richard felt embarrassed and he went away with Ben. The next day the same thing happened. They were taunting(奚落) him.

During the evening, Ray was taking a walk across the street. He saw Richard, who was feeding a piece of bread to a puppy which was tied to a pole in front of a very dirty old house as if it had done a terrible crime and was about to be executed(处决). The puppy was having difficulty in breathing. It was tied so tightly around the neck. Richard tried to remove the rope, but as it was about to come out, a tall drunk man came out from the house. He grabbed him around the neck and lifted him upwards. Richard begged him to leave him alone and said that he wouldn't come again, but he was not putting him down.

Seeing this, Ray rushed forward and kicked the man hard from behind.

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After some time they stopped running and Richard thanked Ray.

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