拥有亿万美元秘密的男孩

张超

One day in 1965， when I was a librarian at View Ridge School in Seattle， a fourth-grade teacher came up to me. She had a student who finished his work before all the others and needed a challenge. “Could he help in the library？” she asked. I said， “Send him along.”

1965年，我在西雅图维尤里奇学校当图书馆员时，一天，一个四年级老师来找到我说，她有个学生总是最先完成功课，他需要做点对他有挑战性的工作。“他可以来图书馆帮帮忙吗？”她问。“带他来吧！”我说。

Soon a sandy-haired little boy in jeans and a T-shirt stood in front of me. “Do you have a job for me？” he asked. I told him about the Dewey Decimal System for shelving1 books. He picked up the idea at once. Then I showed him a pile of cards for long overdue2 books that I was beginning to think they had actually been returned but were shelved with the wrong cards in them. He said， “Is it kind of detective job？” I answered， “Yes.” And he became a tireless detective.

不一会儿，一个穿着牛仔裤和T恤衫、长着浅棕色头发的小男孩出现在我的面前。“你有活儿让我干吗？”他问。我给他讲了杜威十进制（Dewey Decimal System）分类藏书法。他很快就领悟了。然后，我拿出一大堆过期未还的书的卡片。我想这些书实际上已经归还，只是由于卡片弄错而放错了书架。他问，“这有点像是侦探工作吧？”在我肯定地回答他后，他便成了一名不屈不挠的“侦探”。

He had found three books with wrong cards by the time his teacher opened the door and said “Time for rest！” He argued for finishing the finding job， but the teacher made the case for fresh air. She won.

在他老师推开门宣布到了休息时间时，他已经找到3本夹错卡片的书。他说他还想继续，直到把活儿干完为止。但老师说他得出去呼吸一下新鲜空气。她最后说服了他。

The next morning， he arrived early. “I wanted to finish finding those books，” he said. At the end of the day， when he asked to be a librarian on a regular basis3， it was easy to say yes. He worked very hard.

第二天早晨，他早早地来了。“我想今天把夹错卡片的书全找出来。”他说。到那天下班时，他提出要做一名正常工作的图书馆员，我马上就答应了。他工作很卖力。

After a few weeks I found a note on my desk， inviting me to dinner at the boy’s home. At the end of a pleasant evening， his mother announced that the family would be moving to the school district nearby. Her son’s first concern， she said， was leaving the View Ridge library. “Who will find the lost books？” he asked.

几星期后的一天，我在办公桌上发现了一张请柬，是请我去这个男孩家吃晚饭。在那愉快的晚宴结束前，他妈妈告诉我，他们全家将搬到附近一个校区。她说，她儿子最担心的就是要离开维尤里奇图书馆。“今后谁来找那些丢失的书呢？”他问。

When the time came， I said an unwilling goodbye. Although at first he had seemed an ordinary boy， his conscientious4 attitude had made him different.

分别时，我极不情愿地同他道了别。这男孩乍一看似乎很普通，但他做事那种认真专注让他与众不同。

I missed him， but not for long. A few days later he popped5 in the door and joyfully announced， “The librarian over there doesn’t let boys work in the library. My mother got me transferred6 back to View Ridge. My dad will drop me off on his way to work. And if he can’t， I’ll walk.”

我很想念他，但不久就不用想念了，因为几天以后，他砰地一声打开门，喜笑颜开地宣布：“那儿的图书管理员不让男孩在图书馆工作，我妈妈又让我转学回维尤里奇中学。我爸爸会在他上班时候顺便捎带我上学。如果他办不到的话，我就走路！”

I should have had a thought that such focused determination would take that young man wherever he wanted to go. What I could not have guessed， however， was that he would become a talent of the Information Age： Bill Gates， tycoon7 of Microsoft and America’s richest man.

我当时就该想到，做事这样专心致志的孩子，是可以达成任何目标的。但我万万没料到的是，他會成为今天信息时代的奇才：比尔·盖茨，微软公司的巨头，也是美国最富有的人。