A Boy and His Father Become Partners

Ralph Moody

I like all kinds of chocolate. Best of all, though, I like bitter baking chocolate. Mother had bought a bar of it, and somehow I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I was helping father on the winnower①. It was right then I got the idea. I could whack a chunk② off the end of that bar of chocolate. Mother would be sure miss it, but before she had any idea who had done it, I could confess③ I’d taken it. Probably I would not even get a spanking④.

I waited until mother was out feeding the chickens. Then I told father I thought I’d go in for a drink of water. I got the bar down, but I heard mother coming just when I had the knife ready to whack. So I slipped the chocolate into the front of my shirt and left quickly. Before I went back to help father, I went to the barn⑤ and hid the chocolate there.

I told myself that I hadn’t really stolen the whole bar of chocolate, because I meant to take only a little piece. If I put back the whole bar，I wouldn’t have done anything wrong at all.

I nearly decided to put it all back. But just thinking so much about chocolate made my tongue almost taste the smooth bitterness of it. I got thinking that if I slice about half an inch off the end with a sharp knife? Mother might never notice it.

I was nearly out to where the cows were when I remembered what father had said once—some of the family money was mine because I had helped to earn it. Why wouldn’t it be all right to figure the bar of chocolate had been bought with my own money? That seemed to fix everything.

That night I couldn’t sleep. At last I got up，slipped out into the yard, and took the ax from the chopping block. Then I went into the barn and got the chocolate. I took it outside and laid it on the lower rail of the corral⑥ fence. The moon gave enough light for me to see what I was doing.

Just as I was starting to cut，father said:“Son!”

I couldn’t think of a thing to say. I grabbed⑦ up the bar of chocolate and hid it next to my chest before I turned around. Father picked me up by the shoulder straps of my overalls and took me over to the woodpile. I didn’t know anybody could spank as hard as he did!

Then he stood me on my feet and asked if I thought I had deserved it. He said it wasn’t so much that I’d taken the chocolate, but that I’d tried to hide it from him.

“Son,” he said，“I know you help to earn the family money. We might say the chocolate was yours in the first place. You could have had it if you’d asked for it, but I won’t have you being sneaky about things. Now，do you want to keep your money separate from mine—or are we partners?”

I never knew till then how much I wanted my money to go in with Father’s. When I went to sleep my hand was still hurting—from where he squeezed it when we shook hands.

(598 words)

①winnower [ˑwɪnəʊə] n. 扬谷器，风车

②chunk [tʃʌŋk] n. 大块

③confess [kənˑfes] v. 承认，坦白，忏悔

④spanking [ˑspæŋkɪŋ] n. 拍击，打屁股

⑤barn [bɑ:n] n. 谷仓

⑥corral [kəˑrɑ:l] n. 畜栏

⑦grab [ɡræb] v. 夺取，抓住

I. How well did you read?

1. [Given the reason] The boy failed to put the chocolate back because________.

A. he could not resist the chocolate

B. he was found by his father

C. he finished eating the whole chocolate

2. [Note the reason] Why was the father angry?

A. He ate the chocolate.

B. He stole money from his parents.

C. He took action without telling his father.

3. [Draw a conclusion] What did the boy want eventually?

A. He wanted to separate from his father.

B. He wanted to be partners with his father.

C. He wanted to eat the chocolate with his father.

II. Read for words.

Choose one best paraphrase or Chinese meaning for the underlined words and expressions.

1. Then he stood me on my feet (1) and asked if I thought I had deserved (2) it.

(1) A. He stood on me. B. He stood beside me. C. He made me stand up.

(2) A. 应该得到 B. 值得 C. 知错

2. You could have had it if you’d asked for it, but I won’t have you being sneaky about things.

A. 独自地 B. 偷偷摸摸地 C. 偷东西