One day a poor farmer was taking a bag of rice to town. Suddenly the bag fell off his horse on the road. He didn’t know what to do about it because it was too heavy for him to lift by himself. He only hoped that somebody would soon pass by and help him.

Just at this moment a man riding a horse came up to him. But the farmer was very disappointed(失望) when he saw who he was. It was the great man living nearby. The farmer had hoped to ask another farmer or a poor man like him.

But to his surprise, the great man got off his horse as soon as he came near. He said to the farmer, “I see you need help, friend. How good it is that I’m here just at the right time.” Then he took one end of the bag, the farmer took the other. They together lifted and put it on the horse.

“Sir.” asked the farmer, “how can I pay you?”

“It’s quite easy,” the great man answered with a smile, “wherever you see anyone else in trouble, do the same for him.”

Once there was an owner of a garden who loved flowers very much. He looked after his garden carefully every day. But he was very old, so he wanted a young man to take over his garden.

The next day the owner made a decision: All the children in the town could come to his garden. And he would give them special flower seeds (种子). He said, “Whoever can show me the most beautiful flowers in a year will be the next owner of the garden.” All the children went to the garden to get flower seeds and wanted to be the new owner of the beautiful garden. So did Ping. He looked forward to his flower but nothing grew. Spring came. All the other children came to the garden with their beautiful flowers happily, but Ping only brought his empty flowerpot (花盆). He was so sad because he could miss the chance to become the new owner.

The owner noticed Ping’s flowerpot and said, “Actually, the seeds were impossible to grow because I cooked them. I’m glad to see that Ping is honest and shows me the truth. Now he is the new owner of the garden! Remember that being honest is the most important thing in your life.”

A group of boys stood around a tree. “What a tall tree!” they said to each other, “It would be exciting to climb to the top!”

The group of boys then decided to play a game to see who could climb to the top first. Their mothers were sitting not far away, looking at their children as they played.

One of the climbers was an 8-year-old boy named David. He was the shortest child in the group. Nobody thought he would win.

Then the game started. All of the boys tried their best to climb as high as they could. Although the other boys climbed faster than David in the beginning, he reached the top of the tree fastest in the end.

His mother was proud. She asked him, “David, how did you reach the top of the tree so quickly?” “It was easy,” David said, “The other children kept looking down and were afraid of falling down. However, I looked only up. When I saw how close I was, I kept going higher and higher until I reached the top.

It is true in life that if we just keep going forward without looking back, we are more likely to reach our goals (目标).