THE STONE BLOCKS

“Why is your little sister crying, dear?” asked the Play Angel¹. “I thought you were taking care of her.”
little ister crying on floor wihile big sister holds up doll to her

“So I am, taking beautiful care of her,” said the child. “But the more beautiful care I take, the more she cries. She does not like to have me take care of her.”

“Let me see,” said the Play Angel, and she sat down on the nursery² floor. “Now show me what you have been doing.”

“Look,” said the child. “First I showed her alldecoration62decoration my dolls, and then all my dolls’ dresses. Now I have given her my new stone blocks to play with, but she will not play with them. She puts them in her mouth and cries.”

“Perhaps she is hungry!” said the Play Angel.

So she took a piece of bread and gave it to the baby. The baby stopped crying and ate the bread, and laughed and crowed.

“See!” said the Angel. “Now she is happy. Remember, dear, that when babies are hungry, stone blocks do them no good.”

“You are a very clever angel to know that,” said the child.

“You are a rather foolish child,” said the Angel, “or you would have found it out for yourself.”

—Laura E. Richards.

1 angel   

n.天使，守护神，可爱的人

参考例句：

• The angel of death's in the house!死神在屋里呢！
• I can say without exaggeration that she is an angel.我可以毫不夸张地说她是个天使。

2 nursery   

n.托儿所；苗圃

参考例句：

• They have decided to start up a nursery in the factory.他们已决定要在工厂里开办一个托儿所。
• Her company ran its own workplace nursery.她的公司开办了内部的托儿所。