学进去

We come by business naturally in our family. Each of the seven children in our family worked in our father‟s store. _________ we worked and watched, we learned that work was about more than _________ and making a sale.

One lesson stands out in my mind. It was shortly before Christmas. I was working evenings, cleaning up the toy section. A little boy, five or six years old, came in. He was wearing a brown worn coat with dirty sleeves. His shoes were scuffed(磨损)and his one shoelace was worn. The little boy looked poor to me — too poor to _________ to buy anything. He looked around the toy section, picked up this item and _________, and carefully put them back in their place.

Dad came down the stairs and walked over to the boy. His steel blue eyes _________ and the dimple(酒窝) in his cheek stood out as he asked the boy what he could do for him. The boy said he was looking for a Christmas present for his brother. I was impressed that Dad treated him with the same respect as any adult. Dad told him to take his _________ and look around. He did.

After about 20 minutes, the little boy carefully picked up a toy, walked up to my dad and said, “How much for this, Mister?”

“How much you got?” Dad asked.

The little boy held out his hand and _________ it. His hand was creased (起皱) with _________ lines of dirt from holding his money too tightly. In his hand _________ only two pennies and 27 cents. The price on the toy plane he’d __________ was $3.98.

“That’ll just __________ it,” Dad said as he __________ the sale. Dad‟s reply still __________ in my ears. When the little boy walked out of the store, I didn’t notice the dirty, worn coat or the __________ torn shoelace. What I saw was a happy child with a __________.