I was a boy of nine in 1960. I used to mow the lawn for Mrs. Long. She paid me little for the job, but 1 to give me a Christmas present.
I spent much time 2 what it would be. Many boys had baseball gloves or ice skates and I was 3 to have any of these. "It would4be a baseball glove," I 5with myself. "She wouldn't know much about Baseball. "So I was 6that she would give me ice skates. I even 7 myself upon the skates.
As Christmas approached, it was with 8that I stopped myself from Reporting to Mrs. Long and demanding my present. On December 22, I9 myself at the door of the house. Mrs. Long sat me in a chair and handed me a small box which under no circumstances could 10 a pair of skates. I was 11. When lifting it from her, I was curious about the 12 of the present. It weighed almost nothing.
"What is it?" I asked.
"A kind of magic," she said. Her words were enough to set my mind dancing with new 13. There were other presents of normal dimension and weight. But Mrs. Long's box dominated all, for it had to do with 14.
On Christmas morning, before the sun was up, I had this box on my knees. With great 15 I opened the box to find inside ten sheets of black paper, each labeled in colorful letters, Carbon Paper Regal Premium. "What is it?" I asked. Mum took two pieces of white paper, placed between them one of the black paper, and wrote my name on the upper sheet. Then she handed me the second sheet, which her pencil had in no way touched. There was my name!
It was a miracle to my 16 mind. In that one moment, I 17the ideas about the duplication (复制) of words and the printing and the mystery of spreading ideas. Thank Mrs. Long for her 18 to guess that a boy might profit from a present totally outside the realm (领域) of his 19 experience.
The average present 20 satisfies a temporary desire; the great one lights up all the years of life that remain.
