Michael was a farmer in Texas．His parents moved to the USA from Ireland in the 1940’s，and they became very rich．Michael decided to go back to Ireland to meet his old grandfather，who was still living on the same farm．

Michael booked his ticket，flew to Shannon airport，hired a car and drove to the small village where his parents had been born．He asked for directions to the Ohagan farm，and in the end he drove up a bumpy path．He was shocked by what he saw：a small field，and in the middle of it was an old house，which looked as if it was falling down．Animals were wandering in and out of the front door，and on the porch an old man was smoking a pipe.

“Are you Mr. Ohagan?”asked Michael.

“Yes，”replied the old mall．

“I'm your grandson，Michael，”said Michael．

“A--ha，”replied the old man．

“Is this your farm?”asked Michael．

“Yes，all the way to the wall over there，”said the old man．

Michael was astonished．“Grandfather,”he said，“I have a farm in Texas．I can get into my car and drive all day and I still haven’t reached the end of the farm．”

“Yes，”said his grandfather．“I used to have a car like that．”

When my daughter Sara was in the fifth grade, she came to me with a problem．“Marcy hates me！”she cried．“Because Kathy is my friend, too She wants me to be her friend and nobody else’s．You talk to Marcy． You tell her that I want to be her friend but I can have other friends, too！”

Oh！I looked at her for a few moments, wondering how I got into this mess, when suddenly an idea came to me．

Picking up two baskets from the living room, I explained, “When everyone is born, he or she has a little basket．This little one here is yours．The big one is mine．As you grow, so does the basket．You can see your little basket is inside mine because when you were born, there were too many things you couldn’t do for yourself．I did everything you couldn’t do on your own．”

She nodded．

“Well, as you grew older and began to do some things on your own, I began placing a few more things in your basket．When you learned to tie your shoes, that went in your basket．”

She said softly, “I can tie my own shoes．”

“Right．As you grow older, there will be more and more things you must do on your own．”As I spoke, I gradually took her basket out of mine and handed it to her．“You will finally carry your own basket with things only you can do．”

She looked up at me and said, “I understand．There are some things that I have to do for myself because they are in my basket．”

Mrs.Black was having a lot of trouble with her skin, so she went to her doctor about it. He could not find anything wrong with her, however. So he sent her to the local hospital for some tests. The hospital, of course, sent the results of the tests direct to Mrs. Black’s doctor, and the next morning he telephoned her to give her a list of the things that he thought she could not eat, as any of them might be the cause of her skin trouble. Mrs. Black carefully wrote all the things down on a piece of paper, which she then left beside the telephone while she went out to a ladies’ meeting.

When she got back home two hours later, she found her husband waiting for her. He had a big basket full of packages beside him, and when he saw her, he said, “Hello, dear. I have done all your shopping for you.” “Done all my shopping?” She asked in surprise. “But how did you know what I wanted?” “Well, when I got home, I found your shopping list beside the telephone,” answered her husband. “So I went down to the shops and bought everything you had written down.”

Of course, Mrs.Black had to tell him that what he had thought were all the things the doctor did not allow her to eat.