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When I returned, there was another urgent call from my wife.
我餐后回來，妻子又打來一只緊急電話。
"Did you have a nice lunch?" she asked sweetly. I had had a marvelous steak, but knew better by now than to say so.
"你午餐吃得不錯吧？"她用悅耳的聲音問道。我吃的牛排好極了，但這次我學乖了，還是不說為妙。
"Awful," I reported. "Some sort of sour fish. Eel, I think."
"糟透了，"我報告說。"一種什么酸溜溜的魚，我想大概是鰻鱺吧。"
Your college sons have hired their younger brothers and sisters and a couple of neighborhood children to help for five dollars each. Assembly lines have been set up. In the language of diplomacy, there is 'movement.'"
"不錯嘛。你的大學生兒子已經雇了他們的小弟妹和兩三個鄰居的小孩幫忙，工錢一人五塊，建起了流水作業線。用外交術語來說，事情'有進展'。"
"That's encouraging."
"這確實令人鼓舞。"
"No, it's not," she corrected. "It's very discouraging. They're been as it for hours. Plastic bags have been filled and piled to the ceiling, but all this hasn't made a dent, not adent, in the situation! It's almost as if the inserts keep reproducing themselves!"
"不，并非如此，"她糾正說。"相反，非常叫人泄氣。他們干了好幾個小時了。裝好的塑料袋，一直堆到天花板，但一切努力收效很小。這些廣告宣傳品簡直就像是不停地自行生產出來一樣！"
"Another thing," she continued. "Your college sons must learn that one does not get the best out of employees by threatening them with bodily harm."
"還有一件事，"她接著說，"你那上大學的兒子必須明白，威脅雇員，說要揍他們，是不可能使他們賣力的。"
Obtaining an audience with son NO. 1, I snarled, "I'll kill you if threaten one of those kids again! Idiot! You should be offering a bonus of a dollar every hour to the worker who fills the most bags."
我跟大兒子一通上話，便咆哮道，"你如果再威脅那些孩子，我就對你不客氣了！白癡！你應該給獎金，對裝袋最多的工人每小時獎勵一塊。"
"But that would cut into our profit," he suggested.
"可那要減少我們的利潤啦，"他提醒道。
"There won't be any profit unless those kids enable you to make all the deliveries on time.If they don't, you two will have to remove all that paper by yourselves. And there will be no eating or sleeping until it is removed."
"那些孩子不幫你按時將所有的廣告投送出去，你就什么利潤也得不到。如果他們不干，你們倆就得親手搬走所有的廣告。而在把它們搬掉之前，你們吃不成，也睡不成。"
There was a short, thoughtful silence. Then he said, "Dad, you have just worked a profound change in my personality."
電話里出現了短暫的沉默，他在思考。接著，他說，"爸爸，你剛才使我深受啟迪，令我恍然大悟。"
"Do it!"
"那就干吧！"
"Yes, sir!"
"是，閣下！"
