The situation seemed hopeless.

情况好像不可救药了。

From the first day he entered my junior-high classroom, Willard P. Frank- lin existed in his own world, shutting out his classmates and me, his teacher. My attempts at establishing a friendly relationship with him were met with complete indifference. Even a “Good Morning Willar” received only an inau- dible grunt. I could see that his class- mates fared no better. Willard was strict- ly a loner who seemed to have no desire or need to break his barrier of silence.

自从威拉德·P·富兰克林进入我教的初中班的那天起，他就把自己封闭了起来，不与其他同学交往，也不与我――他的老师――打交道，完全生活在自己的世界里。我试图和他建立起一种友好的关系，但却遭遇冷漠。甚至你跟他说声“早上好，威拉德”，他的回答也只是一声几乎听不见的咕哝声。我明白他的同学受到的待遇也好不到哪儿去，而他完全是一个独行侠，好像不希望也不需要打破这种沉默似的。

Shortly after the Thanksgiving holi- day, we received word of the annual Christmas collection of money for the less fortunate people in our school district.“Christmas is a season of giving,” I told my students. “There are a few students in the school who might not have a happy holiday season. By contributing to our Christmas collection, you will help buy food, clothing and toys for these needy people. We start the collection tomorrow.”

感恩节后不久，我们得到一年一度圣诞节募捐的消息，这些钱将用来捐给我们学校所在社区里的穷人。“圣诞节是个给予的季节，”我告诉学生们，“我们学校有些学生可能不能过一个快乐的节日。你们可以买些食物、衣服或玩具，通过圣诞节的募捐活动，去帮助那些贫困的人。我们明天开始募捐。”

When I called for the contributions the next day, I discovered that almost everyone had forgotten. Except for Willard P. Franklin. The boy dug deep into his pants pockets as he strolled up to my desk. Carefully, he dropped two quarters into the small container.

第二天，当我要求募捐的时候，我发现除了威德拉之外，几乎所有的人都把这件事给忘了。他一边向我的桌子走来一边伸手从裤子口袋里掏东西，然后小心翼翼地把两枚25美分的硬币丢进小箱子里。

“I don’t need no milk for lunch,” he mumbled. For a moment, just a moment, he smiled. Then he turned and walked back to his desk.

“我午餐不需要喝牛奶，”他小声说。在那一瞬间，就那一瞬间，他笑了。然后，他转身回到了自己的座位上。