麦克唐纳家有四个并不相亲相爱的孩子,他们常常斗嘴、打架。在圣诞节即将来临之际,母亲如何通过一个古老的圣诞习俗——同时也是一个游戏——试图让孩子们学会互助互爱,从而领悟圣诞节真谛呢?
这是小编最近阅读到的尤为感动的故事之一。文章比较长,为了能和读者们分享它,小编决定在对其进行适当删节后,分两期进行刊登。文字难度不大,大家可要耐着性子把它读完哦。这绝对是今年最值得期待的圣诞故事之一!——Lavender
文字难度：★★☆
It was another long, winter afternoon with everyone 1)stuck in the house and the four McDonald children were at it again—2)bickering, teasing, fighting over their toys. At times like these, Mother was almost ready to believe that her children didn’t love each other, though she knew that wasn’t really true. All brothers and sisters fight, of course, but lately her little lively bunch had been particularly horrible to each other, especially Eric and Kelly, who were just a year apart. They seemed determined to spend the whole winter making each other miserable.
“3)Gimme that. It’s mine!”
“Is not, 4)fatso! I had it first!”
Mother sighed as she listened to the latest argument coming from the living room. With Christmas only a month away, the McDonald house seemed sadly lacking in Christmas spirit. This was supposed to be the season of sharing and love, of warm feelings and happy hearts. A home needed more than just pretty packages or twinkling lights on the tree to fill it with the Christmas spirit. But how could any mother convince her children that being kind to each other was the most important way to get ready for Christmas.
Mother had only one idea. Years ago her grandmother had told her about an old Christmas custom that helped people discover the real meaning of Christmas. Perhaps it would work for her family. It was worth a try. Mother gathered her four little 5)rascals together and sat them down on the stairs, smallest to tallest—Mike, Randi, Kelly and Eric.
又是个漫长的冬日下午,大家都呆在屋子里,麦克唐纳家的四个孩子又闹了起来——他们斗嘴、挑衅,抢玩具。每当碰到这些时候,当母亲的几乎会相信她的几个孩子并不相亲相爱,尽管她知道事实并非如此。兄弟姐妹之间难免会打打闹闹的,但最近,她那群活蹦乱跳的小不点相互之间变得尤为恐怖,特别是只相差一岁的埃里克和凯利。他们似乎下了决心要使对方这一整个冬天都痛苦不堪。
“把那个给我。是我的!”
“才不是你的,胖子!我先拿到的!”
听着客厅里传来的新一轮争吵,母亲叹了叹气。再过一个月就是圣诞节了,但悲哀的是,麦克唐纳家的房子里似乎缺少了点圣诞气息。这本该是个讲求分享,充满爱、温馨和快乐的时节。要往家里注入圣诞气息,需要的不只是漂亮的礼品盒或是圣诞树上一闪一闪的灯。但哪位母亲能说服她的孩子们去相信要过好圣诞节,友善相处才是最重要的。
母亲只有一个主意。几年前,她的祖母曾告诉她有个古老的圣诞习俗能帮助人们领悟圣诞节的真谛。说不定那在她家也能奏效,值得一试。母亲把她的四个小淘气鬼聚集在一起,让他们按年龄从小到大依次坐在楼梯上——迈克、兰迪、凯利到埃里克。
“How would you kids like to start a new Christmas project this year?” she asked. “It’s like a game, but it can only be played by people who can keep a secret. Can everyone here do that?”
“I can!” shouted Eric, wildly waving his arm in the air.
“I can keep a secret better than he can,” yelled Kelly, jumping up and waving her arm in the air, too. If this was a contest, she wanted to make sure she beat Eric.
“I can do it!” chimed in Randi, not quite sure what was happening but not wanting to be left out.
“Me too, me too, me too,” squealed little Mike, bouncing up and down.
“Well then, here’s how the game works,” Mother explained. “This year we’re going to surprise Baby Jesus when he comes on Christmas Eve by making him the softest bed in the world. We’re going to build a little crib for him to sleep in right here in our house, and we’ll fill it with straw to make it comfortable. But here’s the 6)catch: Each piece of straw we put in the 7)manger will represent one kind thing we do for someone between now and Christmas. The more kind things we do, the more straw there will be for Baby Jesus. The secret part is—we can’t tell anyone what good things we’re doing and who we’re doing them for.”
The children looked confused. “How will Baby Jesus know it’s his bed?” asked Kelly.
“He’ll know,” said Mother. “He’ll recognize it by the love we’ve put into the crib, by how soft it is.”
“But who will we do the kind things for?” asked Eric.
“It’s simple,” said Mother. “We’ll do them for each other. Once every week between now and Christmas, we’ll put all of our names in this hat, mine and Daddy’s too. Then we’ll each draw a name and do kind things for that person for a whole week. But here’s the hard part. We can’t tell anyone whose name we’ve drawn for that week, and we’ll each try to do as many favors as we can for our special person without getting caught. And for every secret good thing we do, we’ll put another piece of straw in the crib.”
“But what if I pick someone I don’t like?” frowned Kelly.
“孩子们,今年你们想不想来个新的圣诞节计划?”她问道,“这个计划就像个游戏,但只有那些能保守秘密的人才能玩。你们都能做到吗?”
“我能!”埃里克喊道,他激动地挥舞着手臂。
“我比他更能保守秘密。”凯利大叫道,她也跳起来,在空中挥舞着手臂。如果这是个比赛,她要确保自己能打败埃里克。
“我可以做到!”兰迪插嘴道。他不确定在发生什么事,但不想自己被遗漏。
“我也能,我也能,我也能。”小迈克跳上跳下地长声尖叫道。
“噢,那么,我讲讲游戏规则。”母亲解释道,“今年,当小耶稣在平安夜来我们家时,我们准备给他一个惊喜——为他造一张世上最柔软的床。我们准备为他造一张小婴儿床,让他就睡在我们屋子里,我们要在婴儿床里铺上稻草,使小床躺起来更舒适。其中的挑战就在于:我们放进马槽里的每根稻草将代表从现在到圣诞节这段时间内,我们为他人做的一件好事。我们做的好事越多,小耶稣得到的稻草就会越多。要保密的是——我们不能告诉任何人我们在做什么好事,也不能说我们是为谁而做的。”
孩子们看上去很困惑。“小耶稣怎么知道那是他的床呢?”凯利问道。
“他会知道的。”母亲说道,“从我们为婴儿床投入的爱,从床如此柔软,他会认出来的。”
“可是我们要为谁做好事呢?”埃里克问道。
“很简单。”母亲说道,“我们要互相为家人做好事。从现在到圣诞节这段时间里,每周一次,我们会把我们所有人的名字放进这个帽子里,我和爸爸的名字也会放进去。接着,我们每个人抽一个名字,然后一整周要为那个人做好事。难就难在,我们不能告诉任何人我们那周抽到了谁的名字,并且,我们每个人要努力尽自己所能帮助那个特别的人,但又不能被发现。我们每次秘密地做了一件好事,就可以往婴儿床里添上一根稻草。”
“但要是我抽到的是我不喜欢的人怎么办?”凯利皱起了眉头。
Mother thought about that for a minute. “Maybe you could use extra fat straws for the good things you do for that person, because they might be harder to do. But just think how much faster the fat straws will fill up our crib. Then on Christmas Eve we’ll put Baby Jesus in his little bed, and he’ll sleep that night on a mattress made of love. I think he’d like that, don’t you?”
“Now, who will build the crib for us?” she asked.
Since Eric was the oldest, and the only one of the children allowed to use tools, he marched off to the basement to give it a try. For the next couple of hours loud banging and sawing noises came from the basement. Then for a long time there were no noises at all. Finally Eric climbed back up the stairs with the manger in his arms. “Here it is,” he grinned. “The best crib in the world! And I did it all myself.” For once, everyone agreed: the little manger was the best crib in the world. It had been built with love—and about a hundred bent nails—and it would certainly last a long time.
“Now we need some straw,” said Mother, and together they headed out to the car to go searching for some in the nearby fields. At last they spotted a small vacant patch of land that had been covered with tall grass in summer. Now, in mid-November, the grass had dried down to yellow stalks that looked just like real straw. Mother stopped the car and the kids scrambled out to pick handfuls of the long grass.
“That’s enough!” Mother finally laughed, when she saw that the cardboard box in the trunk was almost overflowing. So home they went, where they spread the straw carefully on a tray Mother had put on the kitchen table. The empty manger was placed gently on top.
“When can we pick names!” shouted the children.
“As soon as Daddy comes home for dinner,” Mother answered.
At the supper table that night, the six names were written on separate pieces of paper, folded up and 8)shuffled around in an old baseball hat. Then the drawing began. Kelly picked first and immediately started to giggle. Randi reached into the hat next. Daddy glanced at his scrap of paper and smiled quietly. Mother picked out a name, but her face never gave away a clue. Next, little Mike reached into the hat, but since he couldn’t read yet, Daddy had to whisper in his ear and tell him which name he had picked. Eric was the last to choose, and as he unfolded his piece of paper a frown crossed his face. But he stuffed the name in his pocket and said nothing. The family was ready to begin. The week that followed was filled with surprises. It seemed the McDonald house had suddenly been invaded by an army of invisible 9)elves, and good things were happening everywhere. Kelly would walk into her room at bedtime and find her little blue nightgown neatly laid out and her bed 10)turned down. Someone cleaned up the sawdust under the workbench without being asked. The jelly 11)blobs disappeared magically from the kitchen counter after lunch one day while Mother was getting the mail. And every morning, while Eric was brushing his teeth, someone crept quietly into his room and made his bed. It wasn’t made perfectly, but it was made. Mother noticed other changes during that week, too. The children weren’t teasing or fighting as much. An argument would start and then suddenly stop for no good reason. Even Eric and Kelly seemed to be getting along better. In fact, all the children wore secret smiles and giggled to themselves at times.
By Sunday, everyone was anxious to pick new names again, and this time there was even more laughter and 12)merriment during the picking process, except for Eric. Once again he unfolded his paper, looked at it, and stuffed it in his pocket without a word. Mother noticed, but said nothing.
(To be continued.)
母亲想了一会儿。“你为那个人做了好事就可以往婴儿床添进更大更粗的稻草,因为这些好事更不容易做。但想想,粗壮的稻草使我们能更快地给婴儿床添满稻草。那么,到了平安夜,我们会把小耶稣放进他的小床里,让他睡在一张用爱编织的床垫上。我想他会喜欢的,你们说是不是?”
“现在,谁来帮忙造婴儿床?”她问道。
因为埃里克是大哥哥,也是孩子中唯一被允许使用五金工具的,所以他大步迈向地下室,尝试造张婴儿床。接下来的几个小时里,地下室里敲击切锯声大作。接着,声响沉寂了好一会儿。最后,埃里克从地下室楼梯里走上来,手臂里抱着那马槽小模型。“做好了。”他咧嘴笑道,“这是世上最好的婴儿床!全是我自己做的!”唯一一次,每个人都同意:这个小马槽是世上最好的婴儿床,是用爱——和大概100颗弯钉——做成的,肯定很耐用。
“现在,我们需要一些稻草。”母亲说道。他们一同走出去,走到车子那边,想开车到附近的田野找些稻草。最后,他们发现了一小块空地,夏天里,那块地上长满了高高的草。现在是11月中旬,草已经干黄,剩下的杆子看上去就像真的稻草。母亲停下车,孩子们争先恐后地下车去拔一把把长草。
“够了!”母亲看着车尾厢的纸箱里堆得几乎溢出来的稻草,最后笑了。他们于是回家。母亲在厨房的桌上放了一个盘,孩子们小心翼翼地把稻草铺放到盘子里。那个空空的婴儿床被轻轻地放在最上面。
“我们什么时候抽名字呢?”孩子们喊道。
“等爸爸回家吃饭就马上抽。”母亲答道。
那晚,在餐桌上,六个名字被写在不同的纸片上,纸片被折好,打乱了放进一顶旧棒球帽里。接着,抽签开始。凯利先抽,她抽完立刻开始咯咯地笑了起来。接着是兰迪把手伸进了帽子里。父亲看了看自己抽到的纸片,静静地笑了笑。母亲抽出一个名字,可她的脸上从不泄露一丝线索。接着,小迈克把手伸进帽子里,但因为他还不会认字,所以父亲轻声在他耳边告诉他抽到了谁。埃里克最后一个抽,打开那张纸片时,他脸上闪过一丝愁容。但他把名字塞进口袋里,没说什么。全家人开始行动了。
接下来的一周里充满了惊喜。麦克唐纳家仿佛突然闯进了一队看不见的小精灵,随处都有好事发生。到了睡觉时间,凯利走进她的房间,发现她那件蓝色的睡衣摆放得整整齐齐,床单掀开了;有人主动清理了工作台下的锯屑;一天午饭后,当母亲正在收邮件时,厨房灶台上的果冻污迹神奇地消失了;每天早上,当埃里克正在刷牙时,某人悄悄溜进他的房间,为他整理床铺。整理得不完美,但总算是整理过。那周,母亲也留意到其他的一些改变。孩子们少了挑衅和打架。一场争吵开始后会突然毫无缘由地停了下来。甚至埃里克和凯利似乎也相处得更好了。事实上,所有的孩子都露出了一脸神秘的笑容,还不时自己一个人在那咯咯地笑。
周日到了,每个人都急着再抽名字,而这次,在抽签过程中,欢声笑语就更多了,但埃里克除外。他又一次打开他的纸片,看了看,把它塞进口袋里,什么也没说。母亲留意到了,也没说什么。
(待续)
