**WHAT BRADLEY OWED
** _Adapted from Hugh T. Kerr
_
Home is the place where first lessons are learned. And it is the place where much of what you do, you do for love.
There was once a boy named Bradley. When he was about eight years old, he fell into the habit of thinking of everything in terms of money. He wanted to know the price of everything he saw, and if it didn’t cost a great deal, it did not seem to him to be worth anything at all.
But there are a great many things money cannot buy. And some of them are the best things in the world.
One morning when Bradley came down to breakfast, he put a little piece of paper, neatly folded, on his mother’s plate. His mother opened it, and she could hardly believe it, but this is what her son had written:
Mother owes Bradley:
For running errands 3 dollars
For taking out the trash 2 dollars
For sweeping the floor 2 dollars
Extras 1 dollar
Total that Mother owes Bradley 8 dollars
His mother smiled when she read that, but she did not say anything.
When lunchtime came she put the bill on Bradley’s plate along with eight dollars. Bradley’s eyes lit up when he saw the money. He stuffed it into his pocket as fast as he could and started dreaming about what he would buy with his reward.
All at once he saw there was another piece of paper besides neatly folded, just like the first one. When he opened it up, he found it was a bill from his mother. It read:
Bradley owes Mother:
**
** For being good to him nothing
For nursing him through his chicken pox nothing
For shirts and shoes and toys nothing
For his meals and beautiful room nothing
Total that Bradley owes Mother nothing
Bradley sat looking at this new bill, without saying a word. After a few minutes he got up, pulled the eight dollars out of his pocket, and placed them in his mother’s hand.
And after that, he helped his mother for love.
Atsakymai
Rokas, 2007-03-17 23:24:52
Ketvirtoje klasėje jau girdėjau šią istoriją. Tik ten dar buvo gyvybės davimas – nulis.
Legī et intellexī.
Ignas, 2007-03-23 15:07:14
Ponas Burgi, gražu. Gal kaikas ir nesusimąsto apie tai, o ypač šių laikų vaikai. Nesusimąsto ką jiems davė tėvai, kam jie turi būti dėkingi už tai kad gali gyventi, juoktis… Bijau, kad kuo toliau tuo labiau bus tai pamirštama, o dėl to kalti ne kas kitas kaip tik tėvai… Taigi reiktų ir tėvams paskaityti šią istoriją ir perduoti savo atžaloms.
marius, 2007-03-29 19:36:11
Šiandien jau tikybos mokytoja šitą rodė, tiesa, lietuvišką 🙂 popular with the crowds.