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Miss Bessie knew that my family, like so many others during the Depression, couldn't afford to subscribe to a newspaper. She knew we didn't even own a radio. Still, she prodded me to "look out for your future and find some way to keep up with what's going on in the world." So I became a delivery boy for the Chattanooga Times. I rarely made a dollar a week, but I got to read a newspaper every day.
貝茜老師知道，像很多在美國經濟大蕭條時期的家庭一樣，我家訂不起報紙。她也知道我們甚至連一臺收音機也沒有。但是她仍然督促我讓我“放眼未來，并想辦法與時倶進”。于是我成了查塔努加《泰晤士報》的一名報童。盡管我一周掙不到一美元，但是我每天都有報紙讀。
Miss Bessie noticed things that had nothing to do with schoolwork, but were vital to a youngster's development. Once a few classmates made fun of my old worn-out overcoat. As I was leaving school, Miss Bessie patted me on the back of that old overcoat and said, "Carl, never worry about what you don't have. Just make the most of what you do have—a brain."
貝茜老師會注意到一些跟學習無關但對青少年的發展至關重要的東西。一次幾個同學拿我的一件破舊的大衣開玩笑。放學的時候，貝茜老師輕輕地拍拍我的背說：“卡爾，永遠不要為你沒有的東西而煩惱，好好利用你所擁有的東西，那就是你的大腦。”
Among the things that I did not have was electricity in the little house that my father had built for $400 with his World War I bonus. But because of her inspiration, I spent many hours beside a kerosene lamp reading Shakespeare and other famous writers.
我所沒有的東西還有電。我們家住的那個小木屋是我爸爸用他那400美元的一戰退伍軍人補助金建起來的。但是由于貝茜老師的鼓勵，我每天會花好幾個小時在煤油燈前讀莎士比亞和其他著名作家的作品。
No one in my family had ever graduated from high school, so there was no tradition of commitment to learning for me to lean on. Like millions of youngsters in today's ghettos, I needed the push and stimulation of a teacher who truly cared. Miss Bessie gave plenty of both, as she immersed me in a wonderful world of simile and metaphors. She led me to believe that I could write sonnets as well as Shakespeare, or verse to put Alexander Pope to shame.
在我家里沒有人上過高中，因此家中沒有用功讀書的先例供我學習。像今天貧民區成千上萬的孩子一樣，我需要從真正關心我的老師那里得到動力和鼓勵。當貝茜老師引導我沉浸在精彩的詩歌的海洋里時，這兩樣我都得到了。她讓我相信我也能像莎士比亞一樣寫出好的十四行詩，能寫出讓亞歷山大·蒲柏都自愧不如的韻文。
