行善的快乐

Blessing of a Good Deed

股票和信贷经纪人埃弗里特在一笔交易中赚了2，000美元，不禁欣喜异常；可贷出去的300美元却无法收回，他又懊恼不已。不过一瞬间，这一切似乎都变得不再重要：真正让他体会到快乐的，是他慷慨掏出的20美元。

＂I should like to do that, every day, for a year to come,＂ said Mr. William Everett, rubbing his hands together quickly, in irrepressible2 pleasure. Mr. Everett was a stock and money broker2, and had just made an ＂operation,＂ by which a clear gain of two thousand dollars was secured. He was alone in his office： or, so much alone as not to feel restrained by the presence of another. And yet, a pair of dark, sad eyes were fixed intently upon his self-satisfied countenance,3 with an expression, had he observed it, that would, at least, have excited a moment＇s wonder. The owner of this pair of eyes was a slender, rather poorly dressed lad, in his thirteenth year, whom Mr. Everett had engaged, a short time previously, to attend in his office and run upon errands4. He was the son of a widowed mother,