2013.12.7. 老克來了內容稿 (A String of Blue Beads 課文朗讀)

12/7

#1

A String of Blue Beads


Pete Richards was the loneliest man in town on the day Jean Grace opened the door of his curio shop.

On this winter's afternoon the little girl was standing outside the sore, her forehead against the glass of the window.  Earnest and enormous eyes studied each discarded treasure, as if she were looking for something quite special.  finally she straightened up with a satisfied air and entered the store.

Behind the counter stood Pete himself, a man not more than 30 but with hair already turning gray.  There was a bleak air about him as he looked at the small customer.

"Mister," she began, "would you please let me look at that string of blue beads in the window?"

Pete parted the draperies and lifted out a necklace.  The turquoise stones gleamed brightly against the whiteness of his palm as he spread the ornament before her.

"They're just perfect," said the child, entirely to herself.  "Will you  wrap them up for me, please?"

Pete studied her with a stony air.  "Are you buying these for someone?"

"They's for my big sister.  She takes care of me.  You see, this will be the first Christmas since Mother died.  I've been looking for the most wonderful Christmas present for my sister."

"How much money do you have?" asked Pete warily.

She had been busily untying the knots in a handkerchief and now she poured out a handful of pennies on the counter.

"I emptied my bank." she explained simply.

Pete looked at her thoughtfully.  Then he carefully drew back the necklace.  How could he tell her the price? The trusting look of her blue eyes struck him like the pain of an old wound.

"Just a minute," he said, and turned toward the back of the store.  Over his shoulder he called, "What's your name?" He was very bury about something.

"Jean Grace."






#2

When Pete returned to where Jean Grace waited, a package lay in his hand.  It was wrapped in scarlet paper and tied with a bow of green ribbon.  "There you are," he said shortly.  "Don't lose it on the way home."

She smiled happily at him over her shoulder as she ran out the door.  Through the window he watched her go, while sorrow and loneliness flooded his thoughts.

The child's hair was wheat yellow; her eyes sea blue.  Not long ago, Pete had been in love with a girl with hair of that same yellow and with eyes just as blue.  The turquoise necklace was to have been hers.  But there had come a rainy night--a truck skidding on a slippery road--and the life was crushed out of his dream.

Since then Pete Richards had lived too much alone with his grief.  The blue eyes of Jean Grace jolted him into sharp remembrance of what he had lost.  The pain of it made him recoil from the joy of holiday shoppers.

During the next ten days, trade was brisk.  When the last customer had gone, late on Christmas Eve, he sighed with relief.  It was over for another year.  But for  Pete the night was not quite over.

The door opened and a young woman hurried in.  She looked familiar, yet he could not remember when or where he had seen her before.  Her hair was golden yellow and her large eyes were blue.  Without speaking, she drew from her purse a package loosely unwrapped in its red paper, a bow of green ribbon with it.  Presently the string of blue beads lay gleaming again on the counter before him.  "Did this come from your shop?"  She asked.

Pete raised his eyes to hers and answered softly,  "Yes, it did."




#3

"Are the stones real?"

"Yes.  Not the finest quality--but real."

"Can you remember who it was you sold them to?"

"She was a small girl.  Her name was Jean.  She bought them for her older sister as a Christmas present."

"How much are they worth?"

"The price," he told her solemnly,  "is always a confidential matter between the seller and the customer."

"But Jean has never had more than a few pennies of spending money.  How could she pay for them?"

"She paid the biggest price anyone can ever pay," he said.  "She gave all she had."

There was a silence then that filled the little curio shop.  In some faraway steeple, a bell began to ring.  The sound of the distant chiming, the little package lying on the counter, the question in the eyes of the girl, the strange feeling of renewal of faith in the heart of the man--all had come to be because of the love of a child.

"But why did you do it?"

He held out the gift in his hand.  "It's already Christmas morning," he said.  "And it's my misfortune that I have no one to give anything to.  Will  yo let me see you home and wish you a Merry Christmas at your door?"

And so Pete Richards and a girl whose name he had yet to learn walked out into the beginning of the great day that brings hope into the world for all of us.

老克以這個浪漫的愛情故事 祝環宇聽眾有一個 有愛的 特別的 聖誕節.