THE SHOEBOX
A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little: old woman had a shoebox in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.
For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.
In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoebox and took it to his wife’s bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two knitted dolls and a stack of money totaling $95,000.
He asked her about the contents.
‘When we got married,’ she said, ‘ my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage: never to argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and knit a doll.’
The little old man was so moved; he burst into tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.
‘Honey,’ he said, ‘that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money?
Where did it come from?’
‘Oh,’ she said, ‘that’s the money I made from selling the dolls.’
Слова и выражения:
closet сущ - шкаф, чуланм, стенной шкаф, шкафчик (wardrobe, cupboard, locker)
caution гл - предостерегать, предостеречь, предупредить, предупреждать (warn)
stack сущ - штабель, груда, поленница (pile, woodpile); куча, множество, масса (heap, set, mass); книгохранилище, пачка (bundle); стеллаж (rack); укладка(laying)
burst into tears гл - расплакаться, залиться слезами, разрыдаться, заплакать, разразиться слезами(tears, sob, cry)
THE PACK OF BISCUITS
Author Unknown
One night there was a woman at the airport who had to wait for several hours before catching her next flight. While she waited she bought a book and a pack of biscuits to spend the time. She looked for a place to sit and waited. She was deep into her book, when suddenly she realized that there was a young man sitting next to her who was stretching his hand, with no concern whatsoever, and grabbing the pack of cookies lying between them. He started to eat them one by one. Not wanting to make a fuss about it she decided to ignore him. The woman, slightly bothered, ate the cookies and watched the clock, while the young and shameless thief of biscuits was also finishing them. The woman started to get really angry at this point and thought, «If I wasn’t such a good and educated person, I would have given this daring man a black eye by now.» Every time she ate a biscuit, he had one too. The dialogue between their eyes continued and when only one biscuit was left, she wondered what was he going to do. Softly and with a nervous smile, the young man grabbed the last biscuit and broke it in two. He offered one half to the woman while he ate the other half. Briskly she took the biscuit and thought, «What an insolent man! How uneducated! He didn’t even thank me!» At last she was happy to hear her flight announced. She grabbed her bags and went towards the boarding gate refusing to look back to where that insolent thief was seating. After boarding the plane and nicely seated, she looked for her book which was nearly finished by now. While looking into her bag she was totally surprised to find her pack of biscuits nearly intact. If my biscuits are here, she thought feeling terribly, those others were his and he tried to share them with me. Too late to apologize to the young man, she realized with pain, that it was her who had been insolent, uneducated and a thief, and not him!
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Слова и выражения:
whatsoever мест - любой(any); whatsoever нареч – вообще (in general);
insolent [ɪnsələnt] прил - наглый, дерзкий, нахальный (impudent); оскорбительный (insulting);
A Good Lesson
Автор неизвестен
Once a rich Englishwoman called Mrs Johnson decided to have a birthday party. She invited a lot of guests and a singer. The singer was poor, but he had a very good voice.
The singer got to Mrs Johnson’s house at exactly six o’clock as he had been asked to do, but when he went in, he saw through a door that the dining-room was already full of guests, who were sitting round a big table in the middle of the room. The guests were eating, joking, laughing, and talking loudly. Mrs Johnson came out to him, and he thought she was going to ask him to join them, when she said, «We’re glad, sir, that you have come. You will be singing after dinner, I’ll call you as soon as we’re ready to listen to you. Now will you go into the kitchen and have dinner, too, please?»
The singer was very angry, but said nothing. At first he wanted to leave Mrs Johnson’s house at once, but then he changed his mind and decided to stay and teach her and her rich guests a good lesson. When the singer went into the kitchen, the servants were having dinner, too. He joined them. After dinner, the singer thanked everybody and said, «Well, now I’m going to sing to you, my good friends.» And he sang them some beautiful songs.
Soon Mrs Johnson called the singer.
«Well, sir, we’re ready.»
«Ready?» asked the singer. «What are you ready for?»
«To listen to you,» said Mrs Johnson in an angry voice.
«Listen to me? But I have already sung, and I’m afraid I shan’t be able to sing any more tonight.»
«Where did you sing?»
«In the kitchen. I always sing for those I have dinner with.»
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The Stonecutter
A chinese tale.
Once upon a time there was a stone cutter. The stone cutter lived in a land where a life of
privilege meant being powerful. Looking at his life he decided that he was unsatisfied with the
way things were and so he set out to become the most powerful thing in the land.
Looking around his land he wondered to himself what is it to be powerful. Looking up he saw
the Sun shining down on all the land. «The Sun must be the most powerful thing that there is, for
it shines down on all things, and all things grow from it’s touch.» So he became the Sun.
Days later, as he shone his power down on the inhabitants of the land, there came a cloud which
passed beneath him obstructing his brilliance. Frustrated he realized that the Sun was not the
most powerful thing in the land, if a simple cloud could interrupt his greatness. So he became a
cloud, in fact, he became the most powerful storm that the world had ever seen.
And so he blew his rain and lightning, and resounded with thunder all over the land,
demonstrating that he was the most powerful. Until one day he came across a boulder.
Down and down he poured and his thunder roared, lightning flashed and filled the sky, striking
the ground near the boulder. His winds blew and blew and blew, and yet, despite all his efforts,
he could not budge the boulder.
Frustrated again, he realized that the storm was not the most powerful thing in the land, rather it
must be the boulder. So he became the boulder.
For days he sat, unmovable, and impassive, demonstrating his power, until one day, a stone
cutter came and chiseled him to bits.
The moral of the story is: sometimes the most important thing to remember is that you have
everything you need already, right inside of you. Power is an illusion.
Слова и выражения:
obstruct гл - препятствовать, мешать, помешать, противодействовать (hinder, interfere, counteract); затруднять, воспрепятствовать, затруднить (impede, complicate); загораживать, заслонять, преграждать, блокировать, преградить (block, obscure); закрывать(shut); Загромождать(clutter)
frustrate гл - расстраивать, разочаровывать, расстроить, расстраиваться, разочаровать (upset, disappoint)
boulder сущ - валун, глыба, булыжник, каменная глыба (rubble, lump, rock, stone block)
budge гл – двигаться (move); сдвинуть с места, сдвинуть (slide); сдвинуться, сдвинуться с места, пошевелиться (shift, move)
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impassive [impæsiv] прил - бесстрастный, невозмутимый, безмятежный (expressionless, imperturbable, serene); безразличный, безучастный, равнодушный (indifferent)
chisel сущ – зубило, долото, стамеска, резец (bit, cutter, punch); chisel [ʧɪzl] гл – высекать (carve); долбить (hammer);
Hit the Floor!
(Из сборника рассказов Фила Хейли и Рика Гленвила)
Jenny and Robert Slater were on holiday in America. They were young and it was their first time away from home in England. They had a car and visited many famous and interesting places.
‘I want to see New York,’ Jenny said one morning. ‘Let’s go there.’
‘Mmm, I don’t know, love. Everybody says New York’s a dangerous place and there are a lot of very strange people there,’ her husband answered.
‘We’ll be careful,’ said Jenny. ‘Then we won’t have any problems.’
So they arrived in New York early in the evening and found a hotel. Later they went out and drove round the streets. They didn’t have any problems. ‘See,’ Jenny said. ‘Nothing to be afraid of.’
They had dinner in a good restaurant and then went to a cinema. They arrived back at their hotel at midnight. Under the hotel was a garage so they drove into it and left the car. It was quite dark there and they couldn’t see very well.
‘Where’s the lift?’ Jenny asked.
‘Over there, I think, near the door,’ Robert answered. ‘Come on, let’s go. I don’t like this dark place.’
Suddenly they saw a very tall young man with a big black dog. They were nervous and walked past him as fast as they could to the lift. The door of the lift opened and Jenny and Robert got in. Before the doors closed the man and the dog jumped in – three people and one big black dog in the lift.
‘On the floor, Girl!’ the tall man said. Jenny and Robert were afraid now, so they quickly got down on the floor. When the lift stopped at the next floor, they stood up, gave the man all their money and got out fast.
‘That man was a robber! Perhaps he had a gun… It’s dangerous here!’ Robert said. ‘We’re going to leave New York now!’
‘Yes, you’re right.’ Jenny answered. ‘There are some dangerous people in New York.’
First thing next morning they took their room key to the desk and gave it to the woman.
‘There’s nothing to pay, Mr Slater,’ she said. ‘A tall young man with a nice dog came to the desk late last night and paid for your room. Oh, wait a minute – he left this for you, too.’ She gave Robert an envelope.
He opened it carefully and took out a letter. They read it together: ‘Here’s your money and I’m very sorry you were afraid in the lift last night. “Girl” is the name of my dog.’
A Chinese dragon
Once upon a time there lived a dragon in China. He lived alone on a very high rock. Under the rock there was a village. The dragon thought that he was frightening and he never went to the village, because he didn’t want to scare people.
One day the dragon was very tired and he wanted to have a rest. He went to bed but he couldn’t sleep. The people in the village were shouting, laughing and having fun. The dragon tried very hard, but he still couldn’t sleep. The dragon really wanted to sleep, but he couldn’t. It seemed that the people were laughing and shouting even louder. The dragon got very angry with them and he said to himself, “OK, I’ll show you! I’ll go to the village and scare you, because I’m very, very frightening! Then you won’t laugh!»
However, the dragon didn’t know that it was a special day in the Chinese Calendar. It was the day when a new Chinese year starts. On that day all people traditionally make colorful paper dragons and choose the best one. They also sing, dance and have fireworks.
When the dragon flew down into the village he was surprised, because nobody was scared! He saw that the whole village was full of dragons — yellow, pink, purple, red, blue and orange dragons, big dragons and little dragons, dragons with long tails and dragons with short tails, dragons with large wings and dragons with tiny wings. “Oh,” said the dragon to himself, “I can have dragons-friends!” And he happily joined the fun.
All paper dragons flew in the air and the dragon flew with them, all paper dragons waved their tails and the dragon waved its tail, all paper dragons opened their mouths, and the dragon opened its mouth. The children were watching the dragons and laughing.
The night came and people started to light the torches and make fireworks. At first the dragon was a little scared, but he saw that other dragons were not scared and continued dancing with others.
Then the most important moment came. People started to choose the best dragon. Everybody wanted to know who would get the first prize — the golden medal “The Best Dragon». At first the dragon didn’t even understand why people started applauding and stood in a circle around him. Then some person came to the dragon and gave him the golden medal.
That was the happiest moment of the dragon’s long life.
Слова и выражения:
torch сущ - факел, фонарь, светильник (flare, lantern, lamp)
Mistaken identity
by Mark Twain
Years ago I arrived one day at Salamanca, New York, where I was to change trains and take the sleeper. There were crowds of people on the platform, and they were all trying to get into the long sleeper train which was already packed. I asked the young man in the booking-office if I could have a sleeping-berth and he answered: «No.» I went off and asked another local official if I could have some poor little corner somewhere in a sleeping-car, but he interrupted me angrily saying, «No, you can’t, every corner is full. Now, don’t bother me any more,» and he turned his back and walked off. I felt so hurt that I said to my companion, «If these people knew who I was, they…»
But my companion stopped me there,— «Don’t talk such nonsense, we’ll have to put up with this,» he said, «If they knew who you were, do you think it would help you to get a vacant seat in a train which has no vacant seats in it?»
This did not improve my condition at all, but just then I noticed that the porter of a sleeping-car had his eye on me. I saw the expression of his face suddenly change. He whispered to the uniformed conductor, pointing to me, and I realized I was being talked about. Then the conductor came forward, his face all politeness.
«Can I be of any service to you?» he asked. «Do you want a place in a sleeping-car?»
«Yes,» I said, «I’ll be grateful to you if you can give me a place, anything will do.»
«We have nothing left except the big family compartment,» he continued, «with two berths and a couple of armchairs in it, but it is entirely at your disposal. Here, Tom, take these suitcases aboard!»
Then he touched his hat, and we moved along. I was eager to say a few words to my companion, but I changed my mind. The porter made us comfortable in the compartment, and then said, with many bows and smiles:
«Now, is there anything you want, sir? Because you can have just anything you want.»
«Can I have some hot water?» I asked.
«Yes, sir, I’ll get it myself.»
«Good! Now, that lamp is hung too high above the berth. Can I have a better lamp fixed just at the head of my bed below the luggage rack, so that I can read comfortably?»
«Yes, sir. The lamp you want is just being fixed in the next compartment. I’ll get it from there and fix it here. It’ll burn all night. Yes, sir, you can ask for anything you want, the whole railroad will be turned inside out to please you.» And he disappeared.
I smiled at my companion, and said:
«Well, what do you say now? Didn’t their attitude change the moment they understood I was Mark Twain? You see the result, don’t you?» My companion did not answer. So I added, «Don’t you like the way you are being served? And all for the same fare.»
As I was saying this, the porter’s smiling face appeared in the doorway and this speech followed:
«Oh, sir, I recognized you the minute I set my eyes on you. I told the conductor so.»
«Is that so, my boy?» I said handing him a good tip. «Who am I?»
«Mr McCleilan, Mayor of New York», he said and disappeared again. 
Rumpelstiltskin
By Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Once upon a time there was a poor woodcutter who had a beautiful daughter. The woodcutter was very proud of her.
One day he boasted to the king, «My daughter can spin straw into gold.»
«If your daughter can do this,» said the king, «bring her to me and I shall see.»
So the woodcutter went home and told his daughter to wear her most lovely dress and come to the king. The king took the girl to a room in his castle that was filled with straw. As he showed her the spinning wheel in the corner he said, «Spin this straw into gold by sunrise or you shall die.»
The woodcutter’s daughter sat on the stool and began to cry. Suddenly, the door opened and a strange little man appeared. «What will you give me to spin this straw into gold?» asked the little man. «I’ll gladly give you my necklace.» «Good,» he said taking the necklace. The little man set to work and by sunrise the room was filled with gold.
When the king saw the gold he became greedy. He got more straw. «By sunrise all this shall be gold.» Once more the woodcutter’s daughter began to cry. In a moment the door opened and in came the strange little fellow. «What will you give me this time?» he asked. «I’ll gladly give you my ring,» said the girl. «Good,» said the little man as he sat down to spin the straw. By sunrise all the straw was gold.
Once more the king was pleased. He got even more straw. «Spin this straw into gold and in the morning I shall marry you and make you my queen.» When the king went away the little fellow returned. «What will you give me this time?» he asked. «I’ve nothing left to give,» replied the woodcutter’s daughter. «Then you shall give me your first child when you are queen.» She promised the little man her first child.
By sunrise the straw was gold and the king married the woodcutter’s daughter. The happy queen had a baby boy and forgot all about her promise. One day the little man came to take the queen’s baby boy. The queen begged to keep her child. The little man said, «You have three days to guess my name. If you can’t, I shall take your baby boy.»
All night the queen thought of every name. In the morning when the little man came she tried all of them. At each one the little man said, «No. It is not I.» On the second day she tried even more names. «No. It is not I,» said the little man.
That night one of the queen’s messengers came to her to tell of a strange event indeed. While riding through the forest he had seen a fire. Around the fire danced an odd fellow who sang a song.
This was what he sang:
«Today I bake, tomorrow I brew,
Then, dear prince, I come for you.
None can guess, none can claim
That Rumpelstiltskin is my name.»
That night the little man came calling.
«What is my name?» he asked, jumping up and down.
«It’s Robin,» answered the queen.
«It is not!»
«It’s Jack,» said the queen.
«It is not!»
«Then Rumpelstiltskin is your name.»
At this the little fellow came into a rage.
«Curses!», he shrieked, and stamped his feet so hard that he fell through the floor and disappeared forever.
Слова и выражения:
greedy прил - жадный, алчный, скупой (avaricious, covetous); прожорливый, ненасытный (voracious, insatiable)
necklace сущ - ожерелье, колье, бусы, цепочка (collar, beads, chain)
claim гл – утверждать (argue); требовать, востребовать (demand, reclaim); заявлять, заявить, провозглашать (declare, proclaim); притязать, претендовать (pretend).
curse сущ - проклятие, заклятье, заклятие (damnation, spell); ругательство (oath)
shriek гл - визжать, пронзительно кричать, завопить, вопить (scream)
Ivan Poddubny — “The Russian Hercules”
Ivan Poddubny was one of the greatest Russian wrestlers. He was born in a small village in 1871.
His parents were farmers. Ivan had to work hard.
It helped him to become a strong man.
When he was 17 years old he left his village and went to Sevastopol. There he worked in a port.
One day in 1896 Ivan and his friends went to the circus. There, for the first time in his life, he saw wrestlers. Ivan wanted to become a wrestler, too. After some training he became a wrestler in a Russian circus.
As a sportsman he went to Europe, Asia, America and Africa. He fought with the strongest men of the world and almost always won. That is why people called him “The Champion of Champions». He is a well-known sports hero in Russia.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands is a country in Europe.
It is famous for its many beautiful rivers and canals. About a quarter of the Netherlands lies very low, lower than the water in the sea. High and thick dykes around the Netherlands don’t allow the water from the sea to flood the land.
The Netherlands is also famous for its flowers and fruit trees. In spring all the country looks like a flower garden.
The legend about the hero from Haarlem is famous in the Netherlands. Some people in other countries learned about it from the book Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, by Mary Dodge. You can see the monument to Hans in a park in the town of Santpoort-Noord.
Слова и выражения:
dyke сущ - дамбаж, плотинаж (dam)
Харлем — это один из самых старых городов Нидерландов, который существует уже более тысячи лет. В нем сохранилось очень много исторических памятников.
Памятник Хансу Вальдманну – это монумент швейцарскому государственному деятелю, занимавшему в 1483 году пост бургомистра Цюриха. Вальдманну за период своего правления удалось осуществить множество полезных реформ, но его диктаторский нрав, репрессии и непомерные налоги стали причиной крестьянского восстания, в результате которого он был свергнут и в 1489 году казнён.
A boy from Darjeeling
My name is Sunil. I live in Darjeeling. It is in India, near the Himalayan Mountains. I’ve got a father, a mother and four sisters. We live in a small house. There’s a large garden near our house. We have six seasons: spring, summer, the monsoon (муссон) season, early autumn, late autumn and winter. Winter is a warm season. Spring is warmer than winter and summer is very hot. It’s the hottest season of the year. It doesn’t rain in winter, spring or summer. The monsoon season is hot, but there’s a lot of rain. It rains every day. The grass is long and green in the monsoon season and there are a lot of new leaves on the trees. It often rains in early autumn, too. Late autumn is colder than monsoon season, but warmer than winter. In spring, summer and autumn we work in the garden. There’s a lot of fruit: oranges, bananas and pears. We’ve got a lot of potatoes and tomatoes, too. My mother and sisters work in the tea plantations, picking tea leaves. Darjeeling tea is very good. I don’t like monsoon and autumn season. It’s dull when it rains. My favorite season is winter. In winter I often play football with my friends. I can’t ski or skate because it doesn’t snow in Darjeeling.
The snowflake man
Wilson Bentley was born in America in February 1865.
His parents were farmers. He liked snowflakes when he was a boy.
When he was 15 years old his mother gave him a microscope. He looked at the snowflakes through the microscope. He wanted to draw them. But it was very difficult to draw a snowflake because it melted very quickly. So he began to take photographs.
It was difficult to get a good photo of a snowflake. He tried and tried and tried. Finally, after many experiments, Wilson Bentley photographed his first snowflake on 15 January, 1885!
During his life he made more than 5,000 photos of snowflakes. He also saw that all snowflakes are different. Bentley called snowflakes “ice flowers”.
You can see his collection of photos in the Buffalo Museum of Science in the USA.
The Arctic
The North Pole is in the Arctic. There is no land under the ice. There is only water. There are no volcanoes here. The ice on the North Pole is not very thick. It is about 3-5 metres thick.
More than four million people live in the Arctic. They are the Chukchi, Evenki, Koryaks, Nenets and others.
Antarctica
The South Pole sits on a vast area of land. The land’s name is Antarctica. There are a lot of mountains in Antarctica. Some of them are three kilometres high and more! There are many volcanoes under the ice of the South Pole.
The ice in Antarctica is very thick! In some places it is more than 2.5 km!
Antarctica is colder than the Arctic. In 1983 it was very, very cold in Antarctica, -89.3 °C!!!
Nobody lives in Antarctica. But scientists work there. They study Antarctic weather and nature. They study Antarctic animals, for example, penguins.
Buonas dias! Good day!
My name is Violet Romero. I live in Nicaragua [nɪkərægjʊə]. Nicaragua is a small country in Central America. It is a very hot country. Our family is large. I have five brothers and sisters. My father and mother work on the farm. We have horses, pigs and a lot of chickens on the farm. Children in Nicaragua start school when they are four years old. I am seven years old. I am a pupil at a primary school.
Our school is very big. There are 18 teachers and 570 pupils in the primary school. We haven’t got bicycles, so we walk to school every day. Our school year begins in February and ends on the 1st (first) of December. In July we have a short holiday for two weeks. We don’t go to school on Saturdays and Sundays.
Our school lessons are forty-five minutes long. The first lesson begins at seven o’clock in the morning. We have six lessons every day. The first lesson is English, the second is Math and the third is Spanish. After Spanish we have a fifteen-minute break for a snack of bread and milk. After the break we have Nature Study, Crafts and PT. My favorite lesson is Nature Study because I like animals. At a quarter to twelve, when our PT lesson ends, we go home.
A Magic Ring
(An English Legend)
Once upon a time there lived a young farmer. He worked very hard but was very poor. One day when he was far from home in the forest, an old woman looking like a peasant came up to him and said, «I know you work very hard, and all for nothing. I will give you a magic ring! It will make you rich, and your work won’t be in vain. When you turn the ring on your finger and say what you wish to have, you’ll have it at once! But there is only one wish in the ring, so think carefully before you wish.»
The astonished farmer took the ring given to him by the peasant woman, and went home. In evening he came to a big city. There he went to a merchant and showed him the magic ring. When the merchant heard the astonishing story, he thought of a plan. He invited the farmer to stay in his house for the night. At night he came up to the sleeping peasant, carefully took the ring off the man’s finger, and put on another ring, which looked exactly like the one he had taken off.
In the morning when the farmer had gone away, the merchant ran into his shop, shut the door, and said while turning the ring on his finger, «I wish to have a hundred thousand pieces of gold.» And down they came, on his head, shoulders, and arms, like a rain of gold! The frightened merchant tried to get out of the shop, but in vain. In a few minutes he was dead.
When the farmer returned home, he showed the ring to his wife. «Take a look at this ring,» he said. «It’s a magic ring! It will make us happy.”
The astonished woman could hardly say a word «Let’s try. Maybe the ring will bring us more land,» she said at last.
“We must be careful about our wish. Don’t forget there’s only one thing that we may ask for,» he explained. «Let’s better work hard for another year, and we’ll have more land.”
So they worked as hard as they could and got enough money to buy the land they wished to have. «What happy people we are!» said the farmer.
“I don’t understand you,» answered his wife angrily. «There’s nothing in the world that we can’t have, and still we spend days and nights working as hard as before, because you don’t want to use your magic ring!”
Thirty, then forty years had gone by. The farmer and his wife had grown old. Their hair became as white as snow. They were happy and had everything they wanted. Their ring was still there. Although it was not a magic ring, it had made them happy. For you see, my dear friends, a poor thing in good hands is better than a fine thing in bad hands.
What’s the Miracle’s Cost?
Tess was eight years old. One day she heard that her Mom and Dad were talking about her little brother, Andrew. All she knew was that he was very ill and they were completely out of money. They were moving to an apartment complex the following month because Daddy didn’t have the money for the doctor bills and the house. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and there was no-one to loan them the money. She heard Daddy say to her tearful Mother, “Only a miracle can save him now.”
Tess went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jar from the closet. She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to be exactly perfect. No chance here for mistakes. She carefully put the coins back in the jar and she slipped out the back door and made her way to Rexall’s Drug Store.
She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention but he was talking to another man. Tess twisted her feet to make a noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with a disgusting sound. No good. Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on the glass counter. That did it!
“And what do you want?” the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice. “I’m talking to my brother from Chicago. I haven’t seen him in ages,” he said without waiting for a reply to his question.
“Well, I want to talk to you about my brother,” Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone. “He’s really, really sick … and I want to buy a miracle.”
“I beg your pardon?” said the pharmacist.
“His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?”
“We don’t sell miracles here, little girl. I’m sorry but I can’t help you,” the pharmacist said.
“Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn’t enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs.”
The pharmacist’s brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked the little girl, “What kind of a miracle does you brother need?”
“I don’t know,” Tess replied. There were tears in her eyes. “I just know he’s really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy can’t pay for it, so I want to use my money.
“How much do you have?” asked the man from Chicago.
“One dollar and eleven cents,” Tess answered. “And it’s all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to.”
“Well, what a coincidence,” smiled the man. “A dollar and eleven cents — the exact price of a miracle for little brothers.” He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he took her hand and said, “Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let’s see if I have the kind of miracle you need.”
That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specializing in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn’t long until Andrew was home again and doing well. Mom and Dad were happily talking about this event. “That surgery,” her mom whispered, “was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost.”
Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost… one dollar and eleven cents… plus the faith of a little child.