The very wealthy English Baron Fitzgerald had only one child,a son,who understandably was the apple of his eye. His wife died when the child was in his early teens. So Fitzgerald devoted himself to fathering the kid. Unfortunately the son died in his late teens.

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald’s wealth greatly increased. He spent a lot on art works of the masters. Later Fitzgerald himself because seriously ill. Before his death, he had carefully prepared his will as to how his wealth would be settled—to sell his entire collection at an auction(拍卖).

Because of the large quantity and high quality of his collection, a huge crowd of possible buyers gathered for the auction. Many of them were museum directors and private collectors eager to bid(出价). Before the auction, the art works were shown, among which was a painting of Fitzgerald’s son by an unknown artist.Because of its poor quality, it received little attention.

When it was time for the auction,the auctioneer gaveled(敲槌) the crowd to attention.First the lawyer read from Fitzgerald’s will that the first art work to be auctioned was the painting of his son.

The poor-quality painting didn’t receive and bidders...except one—the old servant who had served the son and loved him, and who for emotional reasons offered the only bid.

As soon as the servant bought the painting for less than one English pound,the auctioneer stopped the bidding and asked the lawyer to read again from the will. The crowd became quiet, and the lawyer read from the will: “Whoever buys the painting of my son gets all my collection.” Then the auction was over.

A local grocery store here has been remodelled and not a single one of the changes is good for those of us who shop there. The grocery aisles have been rearranged with some going in one direction and others going in another. The aisles have been pushed closer together, making it harder to get through them. It seems like all of these changes have been for the purpose of slowing the shoppers down so they will make more impulse buys. As I walked through the store today, no one was smiling and everyone was unhappy about it.

The change that bothered me the most, however, was in the check-out aisles. Only a few cashiers were left working with huge sections changed into self-scanning check-outs. It saddened me to see this. I knew that people were probably going to lose their jobs because of this change. I got in a cashier aisle and patiently waited while I saw some other people struggling to figure out how the self-scanning machines worked. I swore at that moment never to use one myself even if I had to wait longer every time I shopped there.

When I finally arrived at the front of the aisle, I saw the cashier was someone I knew. I greeted her with a smile. She smiled back with warmth and kindness that touched my soul. We chatted happily while she scanned and bagged up my groceries. I felt a friendship and a connection with her that warmed my heart. I wished her well before I left.

Machines can do a lot for us, but there are many things they can't do. They can't smile or love. Only we can do that. It is time that we should realize that profits aren't more important than people and that machines aren't more important than us. It is time that we should learn that loving each other and this world is what life is all about.

My father Ed Kobbeman built his own house after he married my mother, so it wasn’t too surprising when he proudly showed me his latest creation—the outhouse (户外厕所). The traditional sun and moon were cut out of the front door. There was a fancy (精致的) seat inside. It was, indeed, a fine outhouse. Dad said he wanted to use his creation in the outhouse races, where teams must pull or push their homemade outhouse to compete. To be in this event, Dad found some old wheels in his storage area.

On the day of the race, Dad’s nephews and great-niece arrived. The four made up the outhouse racing team, along with one great-niece weighing a hundred pounds, chosen to ride on the seat inside.

In the sun of that hot day in June, the teams lined up. The starting shot rang out. The red-shirted Kobbeman team led the way and turned to make their way back to the start/ finish line.

Just then, disaster happened. The hard rubber on the wheels started peeling off (剥落). The nephews hung on for the last few meters, barely winning the first race by great strength of will and brute force (蛮力) as they lifted that outhouse off the ground across the start/finish line. But there was no hope for the second round. I stood there, ready to cry.

Ten minutes later I realized Dad was nowhere to be seen. How could he just leave like that? Soon the announcer was telling the participants (参赛者) to get ready. Just then Dad turned up with new wheels. We changed the wheels and won the next four races.

On the way home, I asked my dad, “Where did you go? And where did you get those new wheels?”

My father took a deep breath. “Well,” he said, “I ran two blocks to the car, unlocked it, drove home, ran into the house, got the key to the storage, ran out there, unlocked the garage, pulled my new lawnmower (割草机) out on the grass, took some tools, pulled off the wheels and threw them in the car.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “Dad, why did you do that in this heat? You had a heart attack ten years ago. What if you couldn’t come back on time?”

He smiled, “Well, I just couldn’t let the boys down. They worked so hard. There was a problem, and it just needed to be fixed. That’s all.”