John wore the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big grin. "Ho. did the kids like your coat?" I asked. "They loved it," he said, carefully folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. I started calling him "Lord Chesterfield" and "The Great Gatsby."
第二天約翰就穿著它去上學了。放學回來他笑逐顏開。我問他：“那些孩子覺得你的大衣怎么樣？”“他們非常喜歡。”他一邊說，一邊在椅子背兒上把衣服仔細地疊起來，并甩手把它展平。我于是就開始叫他“切斯特菲爾德大人”和“了不起的蓋茨比”。

Over the next few weeks, a change came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness, quiet, reasoned discussion replaced argument. He became more judicious, more mannerly, more thoughtful, eager to please. “Good dinner, Mom," he would say every evening.
在接下來的幾周內，約翰慢慢地變了：變得聽話而不再故意作對，遇事能心平氣和地商討而不再強詞奪理。他變得更明事理、更有禮貌，也更體貼人了。他也樂于討人歡喜。每天晚上都要說：“媽媽，晚飯好極了。”

He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him on the niceties of behaviour; without a word of objection, he would carry in wood for the stove. One day when I suggested that he might start on homework before dinner, John -- a veteran procrastinator – said, “You’re right. I guess I will.”
他會很慷慨地把自己的磁帶借給弟弟，并告誡他如何有良好的行為舉止；他會毫無怨言地把燒爐子用的劈柴抱進來。有一天當我建議他在晚飯前開始做作業時，約翰這個一貫拖拉的家伙居然說：“您是對的，我想我會做的。”