My first job

　　成长的历程中有许多人生的第一次，也许就是这些第一次对我们今后的人生产生了巨大的影响。以下四篇短文讲述了四位名人的第一次工作经历，他们的故事也许会对我们今天的年轻人有所启示。

　　Farmhand

　　It you don't forgive your enemies, you're going to run out of friends.-Ingram

　　I was 14 when Mr. Ingram knocked on our farmhouse door in Sacred Heart, Okla. The old sharecropper(佃农) lived about a mile down the road and needed help mowing an alfalfa(苜蓿) field. It was the first time I was actually paid for work-about 12 cents and hour, not bad when you consider it was 1939 and we were still mired (陷入困境) in the Great Depression.

　　Mr. Ingram liked the job I did and ended up hiring me to dig postholes(埋桩子的洞). I even helped to deliver a calf. One day he found an old truck that was stuck in the soft, sandy soil of the melon patch. It was loaded up with melons that someone had tried to steal before their truck got bogged down(陷入泥沼)。

　　Mr. Ingram explained that the truck's owner would be returning soon, and he wanted me to watch and learn. It wasn't long before a local guy with a terrible reputation for fighting and stealing showed up with his two full-grown sons. They looked really angry.

　　Calmly Mr. Ingram said,"Well, I see you was wanting to buy some watermelons."

　　There was a long silence before the man answered, " Yeah, I guess so. What are you getting for 'em?"

　　"Twenty-five cents each."

　　"Well, I guess that would be fair enough if you help me get my truck out of here."

　　It turned out to be our biggest sale of the summer, and a nasty, perhaps violents,incidents had been avoided. After they left, Mr. Ingram smiled and said to me, "Son, if you don't forgive your enemies, you're going to run out of friends."

　　Mr. Ingram dies a few years later, but I have never forgotten him or what he taught me on my first job.

　　Best-selling author Tony Hiller-man has received The Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. The latest of his critically acclaimed novels is Hunting Badger(Harper Colins).(英语周报 邮发代号：21-101)