学进去

One day a man was walking through a big city. On a street corner he saw a boy with a number of small birds for sale, in a cage.

He looked with sadness upon the little prisoners flying about the cage, jumping up and down, beating their wings, and trying to get out.

He stood for some time looking at the birds. At last he said to the boy, “How much do you ask for your birds?”

“Fifty cents a piece, sir,” said the boy. “I do not mean how much a piece.” said the man, “ but how much for all of them? I want to buy them all.”

The boy began to count, and found they came to five dollars. “ There is your money,” said the man. The boy took it, well pleased with his morning’s trade.

After giving the money, the man opened the cage door, and let all the birds fly away.

The boy, in great surprise, cried, “What did you do that for, sir？You have lost all your birds.”

“I will tell you why I did it,” said the man. “I was shut up three years in a French prison（监狱）, as a prisoner of war, and I am resolved（下定决心）never to see anything in prison which I can make free.”