A man came home from work late again, tired and irritated（注1）, to find his 5-year-old son waiting for him at the door. "Daddy, may I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" replied the man.

"Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?" （注2）

"That's none of your business! What makes you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.

"I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?" pleaded（注3） the little boy.

"If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour."

"Oh," the little boy replied, head bowed.（注4） Looking up, he said, "Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?"

The father was furious（注5）. "If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed.（注6） Think about why you're being so selfish. I work long, hard hours every day and don't havetime for such childish games."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy's questioning. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money. After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son.（注7） Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10.00, and he really didn't ask for money very often.

The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door. "Are you asleep（注8）, son?" he asked.

"No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy.

"I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier," said the man. "It's been a long day and I took my aggravation（注9） out on you. Here's that $10.00 you asked for." The little boy sat straight up, beaming（注10）. "Oh, thank you daddy!" he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpledup bills.（注11）

The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at the man. "Why did you want more money if you already had some?" the father grumbled（注12）.

"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied. "Daddy, I have $20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?"

1. 又累又烦。irritated：生气的，恼怒的。

2. 你一个小时能赚多少钱？

3. plead：恳求。

4. 低下头。

5. furious：狂怒的，狂暴的。与下文的mad意思相同。

6. 如果你问我赚多少钱的原因只是想买一件愚蠢的玩具或其他什么废品，那你趁早赶紧回自己的房间去上床睡觉。march...straight：径直走向……。

7. 约莫一小时后这个人平静下来，他开始想自己是不是对儿子太严厉了。

8. asleep（睡着的）与下文的awake（清醒的）通常做表语。

9. aggravation：烦恼，激怒。

10. beam：面露喜色。

11. 他从枕头下伸出手来，拿出了另外一些压皱了的钱。

12. grumble：抱怨，发牢骚。