那些年他在我们家借宿，每次都带鱼、牡蛎，或是他家园子里的蔬菜。还有几次我们收到他特意寄来的东西——新鲜嫩菠菜或甘蓝叶包裹的鱼和牡蛎…每片叶子都仔细清洗过。得知他得步行三英里邮寄，得知他自己的收入那么低，这些礼物在我们心里变得倍加珍贵。

When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. "Did you keep that awful-looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people! "

每当我收到这些小小的礼物时，常想起老人首次借宿的次日清晨，我们隔壁的邻居对我说：“昨晚你收留那丑八怪老头了吗？我把他支出去了！你要留他过夜非吓跑房客不可！”

Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their illness would have been easier to bear. I know our family will always be grateful to have known him. From him, we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God.

可能我家的确失去了一两次房客，但是啊，如果他们能认识这位老人，或许他们的病痛将不再那么难以承受。我知道，我的家人总是为认识这位老人而心存感激。从他那里，我们学到了什么是坦然面对不幸而毫无怨言，并怀着感恩的心接受上帝赐予的美好。

Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse. As she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all... a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise,it was growing in an old dented,rusty bucket.

最近，我拜访了一位朋友，她有一个花房。她带我观看她的花时，我们来到花房中最美丽的一处——一株绽放的金菊。但令我特别惊奇的是，它竟然生长在一个凹陷的、生了锈的铁桶里。

I thought to myself, "If this were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!" My friend changed my mind.

我心里想，“如果这是我的花，我会把它放到我最可爱的花盆里去！”朋友改变了我的想法。

I ran short of pots, she explained, "and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind starting out in this old pail. It's just for a little while, until I can put it out in the garden."

“当时我缺花盆”，