By Eddie Ogan from Chicken Soup for the Soul
I』ll never forget Easter 1946. I was fourteen, my littlesister,Ocy, was twelve and my older sister, Darlene, was sixteen.We livedat home with our mother, and the four of us knew what itwas to dowithout. My dad had died five years before, leaving Momwith nomoney and seven school-aged kids to raise.
By 1946, my older sisters were married and my brothers hadcenterhome. A month before Easter, the pastor of our churchannouncedthat a special holiday offering would be taken to help apoorfamily. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.
When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decidedtobuy fifty pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month.Thiswould allow us to save twenty dollars of our grocery money fortheoffering. Then we thought that if we kept our electriclightsturned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to theradio, we』dsave money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got asmanyhouse- and yard-cleaning jobs as possible, and both of usbaby-satfor everyone we could. For fifteen cents we could buyenough cottonloops to make three potholders to sell for a dollar.We made twentydollars on potholders. That month was one of the bestof ourlives.
Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved.Atnight we』d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor familywasgoing to enjoy having the money the church would give them. Wehadabout eighty people in church, so we figured that whateveramountof money we had to give, the offering would surely be twentytimesthat much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had remindedeveryoneto save for the sacrificial offering.
The night before Easter, we were so excited we could hardlysleep.We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter;we hadseventy dollars for the sacrificial offering. We couldhardly waitto get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring.We didn’t ownan umbrella, and the church was over a mile from ourhome, but itdidn’t seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene hadcardboard in hershoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart,and her feet gotwet.
But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talkingaboutour old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and Ifeltrich.
When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting inthesecond row form the front. Mom put in the ten-dollar bill, andeachof us kids put in a twenty-dollar bill.
We sang all the way home from church. At lunch, Mom had asurprisefor us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiledEaster eggswith our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon, theminister drove upin his car. Mom went to the door, talked with himfor a moment, andthen came back with an envelope in her hand. Weasked what it was,but she didn’t say a word. She opened theenvelope and out fell abunch of money. There were three crisptwenty-dollar bills, oneten-dollar bill and seventeen one-dollarbills.
Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, justsatand stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling likemillionairesto feeling poor. We kids had such a happy life that wefelt sorryfor anyone who didn’t have our Mom and our late Dad forparents anda house full of brothers and sisters and other kidsvisitingconstantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware andseewhether we got the spoon or the fork that night. We had twoknivesthat we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew wedidn’t havea lot of things that other people had, but I』d neverthought wewere poor.
That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had broughtusthe money for the poor family, so we must be poor, I thought.Ididn’t like being poor. I looked at my clothes and worn-outshoesand felt so ashamed -- I didn’t even want to go back tochurch.Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!
I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the topofmy class of over one hundred students. I wondered if the kidsatschool knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quitschoolsince I had finished the eighth grade. That was all thelawrequired at that time.
We sat in silence for along time. Then it got dark, and we wenttobed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, andnoone talked much. Finally, on Saturday, Mom asked us what wewantedto do with the money. What did poor people do with money? Wedidn’tknow. We』d never know we were poor. We didn’t want to go tochurchon Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunnyday, wedidn’t talk on the way. Mom started to sing, but no onejoined in,and she sang only one verse.
At church we had a speaker. He talked about how churches inAfricamade buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but they neededmoney to buyroofs. He said one hundred dollars would put a roof ona church. Theminister added, 「Can’t we all sacrifice to help thesepoor people?」We looked at each other and smiled for the first timein a week.
Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. Shepassedit to Darlene, Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it toOcy. Ocyput it in the offering.
When the offering was counted, the minister announced that itwasa little over one hundred dollars. The missionary was excited.Hehadn’t expected such a large offering form our small church.Hesaid, 「You must have some rich people in this church.」 Suddenlyitstruck us! We had given eighty-seven dollars of that 「littleoverone hundred dollars.」
We were The Rich Family in the church! Hadn’t the missionarysaidso? From that day on, I』ve never been poor again. (接下頁)
富裕家庭
作者 埃迪·奧根
我永遠忘不了1946年的復活節。
那年我14歲，妹妹奧茜12歲，姐姐達琳16歲，我們和媽媽一起艱難地生活著，爸爸5年前去世了，丟下了媽媽和7個待育的我們，沒有錢。1946年時，姐姐們都結婚成家了，哥哥們也離開了家。復活節前的一個月，我們教堂的牧師說要搞一個特別的假日奉獻，幫助一家貧困的家庭。他號召每個人都集攢一點錢來作奉獻。
回家後我們討論起我們能做些什麼，最後決定買50磅土豆作這個月的口糧，這樣我們就能省下20美元的生活費來作捐獻。爾後我們又想出儘量隨手關燈並不聽收音機的辦法，省下這個月的電費。達琳想辦法再多接些替別人打掃屋子和院落的活，我們倆琢磨再攬些替別人照看孩子的事。我們花15美分買棉線織出的防燙布墊，能賣1美元。那一個月是我們一生最美好的時光。
每天我們都在數今天又攢了多少錢。晚上，坐在黑暗的屋子裡，我們談著那家貧困家庭得到教堂的捐贈時會是怎樣的欣喜。我們教堂有80多人，我們計算著捐贈總數大概會有多少，總該是80的20倍吧，畢竟，牧師每個星期天都提醒大家為捐贈攢錢呀。
復活節的前一天晚上，我們興奮得睡不著覺，我們一點也不在意自己過節沒有新衣服穿，我們攢了70美元耶！我們都等不及去教堂了！星期天早晨大雨瓢潑，我們沒傘，教堂離我們家有一英裡地，可我們不怕淋溼衣衫。達琳用紙板墊在鞋裡堵住破洞，紙板很快浸透，她的雙腳全溼了。
但我們非常自豪地坐在教堂裡。我聽到有幾個孩子在指指點點說我們穿的舊衣服。看著他們穿著的新衣服，我感覺自己同樣非常富有。
捐贈儀式開始時，我們坐在教堂前排的第2排。媽媽放入一張10元紙幣，我們每個孩子放入了一張20元的紙幣。
回家的路上，我們一路高歌，午飯時媽媽還給了我們一個驚喜，她買了雞蛋，那天中午，除了油炸土豆，我們還吃了復活節煮蛋！下午晚些時分，牧師開車來到我們家，媽媽開門迎的他，回屋時手裡拿著一個信封。我們問那是什麼，她一聲未吭，打開信封，掉出一摞錢來，是3張20美元、1張10美元和17張1美元的紙幣。
媽媽把錢放回信封，我們突然一下無語了，靜坐著盯著地板，剛剛還覺得自己百萬富翁似的，突然間感到自己原來一貧如洗。我們原本如此幸福，我們同情那個沒有一個像我們這樣的媽媽和去世的爸爸、沒有我們這樣一個充滿兄弟姐妹的家庭的那個孩子。那晚吃飯，我們會分著享用我們家僅有的那套銀餐具，看誰會拿到勺、誰會拿到叉，兩把刀得大家合用，誰需要就傳給誰。我們本覺得這非常有趣，我知道很多別人有的東西我們沒有，但我從未感覺自己貧困。
可是，這個復活節讓我感到了。牧師給我們送來了捐贈給那個貧困家庭的錢，那我們一定很貧困了。我不喜歡做貧窮家庭！看著自己破舊的衣服和的鞋子，我突然有一種羞愧感，我再也不想去教堂了！
我突然想到學校。我已上9年級，是100個學生中最拔尖的學生。我不知道學校的同學是否知道我們貧困，我決定退學，既然我已習完8年課程，法律要求讀完8年就可以了。
我們默默坐了很長時間，後來，天黑了，我們上床睡覺。那一個星期，我們雖然還照常上學、回家，可大家都不怎麼說話。到了星期六，媽媽問我們怎麼處置這些錢。窮人會怎麼處置？我們不知道。我們從未覺得自己貧窮。星期天，我們不想去教堂了，可媽媽說一定得去。那天雖然陽光燦爛，可我們一路無語。媽媽開始唱歌，可沒人和著她一起唱，她只唱了一段就惺惺然停下來了。
這個星期天教堂裡新來了個演說者，說起非洲的一些教堂，是用日頭天然曬乾的磚頭砌成的，現在他們需要一些錢來蓋屋頂，他說100美元就能為一個教堂蓋屋頂。牧師接著補充說，「我們大家能為他們作些捐獻嗎？」我們全家相互對視，會意地笑了，這是這一周以來我們第一次露出的笑臉。
媽媽取出錢包，拿出信封遞給達琳，達琳傳給我，我交給奧茜，奧茜將它放入了捐贈箱。
數完所有捐贈以後，牧師宣布說，總共100美元多一點。牧師很激動，他沒料到我們這麼一個小教堂會有那麼大數目的捐贈。「你們這個教堂一定有些很富裕的人。」頓時，我們被打動了！在那「100美元多一點」中，有我們的87美元呀。
我們是這個教堂裡富裕的家庭！牧師不是這麼說的嗎？從那天起，我不再貧窮！（新東方專稿）（編輯：趙露）
（何朝陽，中國科學技術大學外語系）
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