圣誕賀詞
站立在又冷又窄小的廚房里，滿腹悲傷。有生以來我第一次懷疑仁慈上帝的存在，心里比冰雪還要冷。
the doorbell rang and peggy ran fleetly to answer it, calling that it must be santa claus. then i heard a man talking heartily to her and went to the door. he was a delivery man, and his arms were full of parcels. "this is a mistake," i said, but he read the name on the parcels and there were for me. when he had gone i could only stare at the boxes. peggy and i sat on the floor and opened them. a huge doll, three times the size of the one i had bought for her. gloves. candy. a beautiful leather purse. incredible! i looked for the name of the sender. it was the teacher, the address was simply "california", where she had moved.
這時門鈴響了，佩吉一邊飛奔著去開門，一邊叫著一定是圣誕老人。隨后我聽到一個人與佩吉在熱情交談，便走了過去。他是郵遞員，抱著好幾個包裹。“這弄錯了吧，”我說，但他念出包裹上的名字，確實是給我的。他走后，我吃驚地盯著這些盒子。佩吉和我在地板上坐下來，把包裹打開。一個大大的娃娃，有我給她買的娃娃3倍大，還有手套、糖果、漂亮的皮夾子！難以置信！我找出了寄送者的名字，是那個教師，上面只簡單地寫著“加利福尼亞”，她已經(jīng)搬到那兒去了。
our dinner the nigh was the most delicious i had ever eaten. i forgot i had no money for the rent and only fifteen dollars in my purse and no job. my child and i ate and laughed together in happiness. then we decorated the little tree and marveled at it. i put peggy to bed and set up her gifts around the tree and a sweet peace flooded me like a benediction. i had some hope again. i could even examine the sheaf of bills without cringing.
那天的晚飯是我吃過的最可口的晚飯。我忘了還得交房租，忘了兜里只有15元錢，忘了自己還沒有工作。我和孩子邊吃邊幸福地歡笑著。飯后我們裝點小圣誕樹，裝點得那么漂亮讓我們自己都驚奇不已。我安置好佩吉睡覺，將她的禮物放在圣誕樹的周圍。一種甜蜜的寧靜籠罩著我，像在給我祝福，我心里又燃起了希望。我甚至可以毫不畏懼地打開那一疊賬單了