That morning while I was going over my students’ homework, I found a piece that made my tears run out of my eyes at the moment. It was a diary by a girl student in my class, just like this, “These days my grandmother, my mother’s mother could not get up early enough to make breakfast for me, of course, I know why. She’s been ill. How I wish my mother could be with me, just like anybody else’s in my class….yesterday I called her. You don’t know how happy I was when I heard the familiar voice of my mother on the other side but I didn’t say anything at all because I felt choked at the throat, tears running down my cheeks. Having hung up the phone I ran out into the yard under a small tree where I let my tears out freely….” Now I couldn’t keep the tears of my own. Taking my pen in hand I wrote at the end of the diary, “Your teacher is weeping with you.”

After the class I had her called to my office. I praised her for her good deeds these days, saying, “You should have breakfast in the morning. Here’s a note of ten yuan and a candy. The candy is for your noble behavior and with this note you can buy something for your breakfast..”  Of course she would not accept though I insisted and at last I said, “Listen to me, my dear, if you don’t like to accept my help you can borrow money from me, as we are good friends, you know, and whenever you can afford you can return it to me.” With this she accepted, tears to run out of her eyes.

Her parents divorsed only a few months after her birth. Now her mother has been working here and there in a remote city so she is left with her grandma, but her father is now a father of two children in another family. You can imagine how hard their life would be but this girl works so hard that all of our teachers like her very much. Besides, she is so kind that she is always ready to help others. She is hihgly praised by all the students in the class, too.

When I came back to my office that afternoon I found an envelop with my own name in the middle in fine Chinese characters on my desk. It was from that girl and I trust my guess really. Opening it I found the ten yuan note and a letter. I recognised it because I had kept it for several days and I had tried several times to spend it but I couldn’t as there was no convenient change at the moment. This time I found the note was pressed level and folded carefully. Opening the letter I read, “Dear my teacher, thank you for your candy and then your note. I have had your candy, it’s so sweet. And now I can afford to return your money. Thank you again for your kindness.” Again I was deeply toutched.

That evening in order to educate my daughter I told her the story of that student of mine. She was also touched deeply. She took me in her arms, saying it was really happy to have a mother. But how to help her was a still a question in my heart. I couldn’t get into sleep that night.

The next morning I bought some more bread than usual. My daughter seemed surprised at this. Looking at the bread with large eyes she cried, “Did you buy it for that girl in your class?” I nodded without saying anything.

One afternoon several weeks later while I was checking papers of an examination I found something unususl. The title of the ariclein the paper was What are You Thinking about While You are Working On This Article in the Classroom. Through these articles I could see what their inner activies were at this moment. I believe this is a good idea. With this article they had many things to say, they could open their mind to the outside world and at the same time they could improve their writing skills. I was right. It was true that many of them could write freely and let their imagination fly as far as possible. Some thought how their parents worked hard to serve society and at the same time made worldly materials for their families. Some thought about their teachers working hard day and night without any complaint to make them grow up happy and healthy. And some thought about their classmates doing their papers carefully to show the result of their hard working on all the subjcts. Suddenly I found a special one with a different thinking. The writer, the same girl I talked about just now, wrote like this;

“Sitting in this bright classroom and doing this paper makes me think about the children in the earthquake areas. Have they found their parents? Can they sit in a classroom though simple, just like me doing their papaers? Have they got out of the darkness of the terror from the earthquake?…. But I say my brothers and sisters. You are not alone. The 1.3 billion people of the whold Chinese will always stand on your side and with the support of the whold country I believe there is nothing we can not overcome….”

What do you think about this small girl, my dear reader? To tell you the truth, I was deeply impressed by this article, exactly to say, by the fact that what she thought about was not about something of herself or something around her but the whole world, especially those in trouble yet she was only a girl of twelve.

The next day I read the article to the class and praised the writer about her noble thinking. While talking I noticed her expression on the face. To my surprise, she didn’t seem so pleased as before when I praised her for something. I could see her expression on the face was always serious but why?

I wrote this for my English lovers. Let's share story.