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A Boy with a Mission
男孩的使命
In 1945, a 12-year-old boy saw something in a shop window that set his heart racing. But the price—five dollars—was far beyond Reuben Earle's means. Five dollars would buy almost a week's groceries for his family.
1945年，一個12歲的男孩在一家商店櫥窗里看到一樣令他心動的東西，但是——5美元——遠不是魯本·厄爾能付得起的。5美元幾乎夠買全家一周的食品呢。
Reuben couldn't ask his father for the money. Everything Mark Earle made through fishing in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, Canada. Reuben's mother, Dora, stretched like elastic to feed and clothe their five children.
魯本不能向父親要錢。馬克·厄爾的每一分錢都是靠在加拿大紐芬蘭的羅伯茨灣捕魚掙來的。魯本的母親多拉，為了不讓五個孩子凍著餓著，差不多是一個錢當兩個錢用。
Nevertheless, he opened the shop's weathered door and went inside. Standing proud and straight in his flour-sack shirt and washed-out trousers, he told the shopkeeper what he wanted, adding, “But I don't have the money right now. Can you please hold it for me for some time?”
盡管如此，魯本還是推開商店那扇久經風雨的門走了進去。他穿著面粉袋改做的襯衫和洗得褪了色的褲子，站得筆直，絲毫不覺困窘。他告訴了店主他想要的東西，又加上一句：“可我現在還沒有錢買它，您能為我預留一段時間嗎?”
“I'll try,”the shopkeeper smiled. “Folks around here don't usually have that kind of money to spend on things. It should keep for a while.”
“我盡量吧，”店主微笑著說，“這兒的人買起東西來，一般不會花那么大一筆錢的，一時半會兒賣不出去 。”
Reuben respectfully touched his worn cap and walked out into the sunlight with the bay rippling in a freshening wind. There was purpose in his loping stride5. He would raise the five dollars and not tell anybody.
魯本很有禮貌地碰了碰他的舊帽沿兒，走出店外。陽光下清新的微風吹得羅伯茨灣的海水泛起陣陣漣漪。魯本邁著大步，下定決心：他要湊齊那5美元，而且不告訴任何人。
Hearing the sound of hammering from a side street, Reuben had an idea.
聽到街邊傳來的鐵錘聲，魯本有了主意。
He ran towards the sound and stopped at a construction site. People built their own homes in Bay Roberts, using nails purchased in hessian sacks from a local factory. Sometimes the sacks were discarded in the flurry of building, and Reuben knew he could sell them back to the factory for five cents a piece.
他循聲跑過去，來到一處建筑工地。羅伯茨灣的人喜歡自己建房，用的釘子是從本地一家工廠買的，都用麻袋來裝。有時干活時忙亂中麻袋就被隨手丟棄，而魯本知道他可以 5分錢一條把麻袋再賣給工廠。
