I have forgotten the name of the old lady, who was a customer(顾客) on my newspaper route when I was twelve. Yet she taught me a lesson that I shall never forget.
On a winter afternoon, a friend and I were throwing stones onto the roof of the old lady’s house near her garden. I found myself a perfectly smooth rock and threw it. The stone was too smooth, however, so it slipped(滑) from my hand as I let it go and headed straight for a small window on the lady’s door. At the sound of broken glass, we knew we were in trouble. We ran faster than any of our stones flew off her roof.
I was too scared about getting caught that first night to be concerned about the old lady with the broken window in winter. However, a few days later, when I was sure that I hadn’t been discovered, I started to feel guilty for her trouble. She still greeted me with a smile each day when I gave her the newspaper, but I was no longer able to act comfortably when seeing her.
I decided that I would save my paper delivery(送) money, and in three weeks I had the seven dollars that I thought would cover the cost of her window. I put the money in an envelope (信封) with a note saying that I was sorry for breaking her window and hoped that the seven dollars would cover the cost of repairing it.
The next day, I handed the old lady her paper. She thanked me for the paper and gave me a bag of biscuits she had made herself. I thanked her and ate the biscuits as I continued my route.
After several biscuits, I felt an envelope and pulled it out of the bag. When I opened the envelope, I was shocked. Inside were the seven dollars and a short note that said, “I’m proud of you.”