Several years ago, I was shopping in a store with my best friend in California. There we saw a young lady with a small boy moving in the opposite direction. The lady didn’t see us because she was so angry with her little boy, who kept pulling things off the lower shelves. As the mother became more and more irritated, she started to shout at the child. However, it was no use. So the mother began to shake the boy by the arm and tried to take him away.

Seeing this my friend spoke up—-she was a wonderful mother of three and founder of a famous school. She had never treated a child so hard once in her life. I expected my friend to give the boy’s mother a serious mother-to-mother talk about controlling herself and about the effect such behaviour would have on a child. But she didn’t do that. Instead, my friend said, “What a beautiful little boy! How old is he?”

The young lady answered cautiously, “He’s three.”

My friend told the mother how curious the boy seemed and how her own three children were just like him, pulling things off shelves in stores and so interested in all wonderful colors and packages. “He seems so bright and intelligent”. my friend said.

Finally, a shy smile came upon the young lady’s face. Then she had the boy in her arms. Gently brushing her hair out of her eyes, she said, “ Yes, he’s very smart and curious, but sometimes he wears me out.”

My friend nodded in agreement, “Yes, they always do that .They are so full of energy”.

As we walked away, I heard the mother speaking kindly to the boy, “Let’s go home for dinner, honey. I’ll have your favorites—macaroni(通心面）and cheese.”

Typhoons in the northern part of the world have girls’ names. Sometimes they have very beautiful names. Rose is a pretty name but there was nothing pretty about Typhoon Rose. It was the worst typhoon to hit Hong Kong in ten years.

It began to rain in the morning of Monday, August 16th, 1971. At ten o’clock in the morning, Typhoon Rose was still 130 miles away but already the wind was blowing people’s umbrellas away. The wind became stronger and stronger. The typhoon shelters (避风港) were soon full of boats. Ships that were too big to go inside the shelters put down more anchors (锚). Some very big ships went out to sea. It is safer for a big ship to be at sea in a typhoon because it cannot be blown onto rocks. Kai Tak Airport closed. No planes were able to take off or land. At 9:00 in the evening, all the lights went out.   

No one slept well that night. It is difficult to sleep in such bad weather.

In Typhoon Rose, more than one hundred people died. 229 people were hurt and 66 of these had to go to hospital. 1,500 lost their homes. The people of Hong Kong will not quickly forget Typhoon Rose!

“Come on, Daily News!” called Jason, carrying some newspapers under his arm. The little boy was running up and down the street, but twenty papers were still not sold. This was his first day of selling newspapers. He was in bad mood. It was getting dark and fewer people were in the street. He had to go home with the rest papers instead of money. He hoped to make more money to buy a cake for his mother’s birthday. But he failed to sell all his papers. He broke down and cried on the way back.

“You don’t know the secret of selling papers.” Another newsboy Jim told Jason and taught him to shout loudly, “Hot news! More exciting news is on!”

“But it’s not in the paper at all.” replied Jason.

“Right, then just run away quickly before they have time to see.” Jim said.

It was really a new idea to Jason. He thought of the cake for his mother, but at last decided not to tell a lie. Though he was poor, he was taught to be honest by his mother.

The next afternoon, Jason went to the office for his papers again. With a proud smile, Jim announced that he sold sixty the day before. He added that Jason lost the chance of getting more money because he was too foolish.

“You wouldn’t tell a lie yesterday, my boy?” A gentleman at the office came up and said. “You are just the boy I am looking for.” A week later, Jason started his new job. He lost the sale of twenty papers, but got a well-paid job because he told the truth.