There is a wonderful story about a young girl who had no family and no one to love her.

One day, feeling very sad and lonely, she was walking through a grassland when she noticed a small butterfly caught in a thorn (荆棘) bush. The young girl carefully released the butterfly. Instead of flying away, the little butterfly changed into a beautiful fairy. The young girl rubbed her eyes in disbelief.

“For your wonderful kindness, ” the good fairy said to the girl，“I will give you any wish you would like.” The little girl thought for a moment and then replied, “I want to be happy.”       The fairy leaned toward her and whispered in her ear. Then the fairy disappeared.

As the little girl grew up，there was no one in the land as happy as she. Everyone asked her secret of happiness . She would only smile and answer，“The secret of my happiness is that I listened to a good fairy when I was a little girl.”

When she was very old and on her deathbed, the neighbors all gathered around her, and       feared that her unbelievable secret of happiness would die with her. “ tell us，please, ” they begged，“ tell us what the good fairy said. ” The lovely old woman simply smiled and said，“ She told me that everyone，no matter how safe they seemed，no matter how old or young，how rich or poor, had need of me.”

Mr. Harris used to work in Dover, but then he changed his work, and he and his wife moved to another town. They did not have many friends there, but they soon met a lot of interesting people, and after a few weeks, they often went to dinner or to parties at other people’s houses.

Then Mrs. Harris said to her husband, “We’ve been to a lot of other people’s houses, and now we must invite them to our house, mustn’t we?”

“Yes, certainly,” answered her husband, “A big party will be the easiest thing, won’t it? Then we can start to invite people to dinner in small numbers next month.”

So Mrs. Harris said, “Yes, I’ll invite all our friends here to a big party on 5th December.”

“How many will that be?” Mr. Harris asked. “Don’t invite too many.”

Mrs. Harris was beginning to write the invitations when her husband saw that she was writing, “Party: 6:30 p.m.to 8:30 p.m.”

“That isn’t very nice, is it?” he said. “You’re telling our guests that they must go at 8:30.” So Mrs. Harris just wrote “Party: 6:30 p.m.”

A lot of guests came, and they all had a good time, so they did not go home at 8:30. In fact they were still there at midnight when the door bell rang and a policeman arrived. He said, “You must stop making a noise, because someone has complained.”

Mr. Harris said he did not want to quarrel with the policeman, so everyone went home. They were sorry to have to go.

When Mr. and Mrs. Harris were alone again, she said to him. “That was a surprise, wasn’t it? Who complained about the noise?” “I did,” Mr. Harris answered in a tired voice.

A young father was visiting an old neighbour. They were standing in the old man's garden, and talking about children. The young man said, "How strict should parents be with their children?"

The old man pointed to a string(细绳索) between a big strong tree and a thin young one.

"Please untie that string," he said. The young man untied it, and the young tree bent over to one side.

"Now tie it again, please, " said the old man. "But first pull the string tight so that the young tree is straight again."

The young man did so. Then the old man said, "There, it is the same with children. You must be strict with them, tie the string tight again. But when you find that they are ready to stand alone, you can take the string away."