买一小时的时间

Tony came home from work late again, tired and irritated, to find his five-year old son waiting for him at the door. "Daddy, may I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" replied Tony.

"Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?"

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

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

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

"Oh," the little boy replied, head bowed.

Looking up, he said, "Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?"

Tony was furious. "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. Think about why you're being so selfish. I work long, hard hours everyday and don't have time for such childish games."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. Tony sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy's questioning. After an hour or so, Tony had calmed down, and started to think that there maybe something he really needed to buy with that $10.00. Tony went to the door of the little boy's room.

"Are you asleep, Son?" he asked.

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

"I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,'' said Tony.

"It's been a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here's that $10.00 you asked for."

The son sat straight up, beaming. "Oh, thank you Daddy," he yelled.

Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpled up bills. The son slowly counted out his money. "Why did you want more money if you already had some?" the father grumbled.

"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the son replied.

"Daddy, I have $ 20. 00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?" the son said to Tony.

托尼今天又下班很晚，他觉得又累又烦。刚到家门口，便发现五岁的儿子坐在门口等他。“爸爸，我可以问你个问题吗？”儿子一见他便问。

“当然，什么事?”托尼回答道。

“爸爸，你一个小时赚多少钱？”

“不关你的事，你问这干吗？”托尼生气地说。

“我只是想知道，请告诉我吧，您一小时赚多少钱？”儿子祈求道。

“如果你一定要知道，我就告诉你，我每小时赚二十美元。”

“噢！”儿子一边答应，一边低下了头。

过了一会儿，他又抬起头，对托尼说：“爸爸，你可以借给我十美元吗？”

托尼听后很生气，他朝儿子吼道：“如果你想知道我赚多少钱的目的是想跟我借钱去买些幼稚的玩具和其他一些乱七八糟的东西的话，那你立即回卧室睡觉去，好好反省自己的自私行为。我每天那么辛苦地工作，没时间陪你玩这种幼稚的游戏。”

儿子一声不吭地回到房间，关上了门。托尼坐在沙发上，越想越生气。大约过了一个小时，托尼渐渐冷静了下来，他想儿子可能真的需要这十美元买什么东西。于是他走进儿子的卧室，来到儿子的床前。

“睡着了吗，儿子？”他问道。

“还没有，爸爸。”儿子回答说。

“我一直在想，刚才可能对你太凶了。”托尼接着说。

“今天工作很累，我把气都撒在了你身上。给，这是你要的十美元。”

儿子高兴地坐起来，欢呼道：“谢谢爸爸!”

说着，儿子又从枕头底下摸出几张皱皱巴巴的美元，仔细地数起来。看到这一幕，爸爸埋怨道：“你不是有钱吗?为什么还跟我要钱呢？”

“因为我的钱不够，不过现在够了。”儿子回答道。

接着，儿子对托尼说：“爸爸，我现在有二十美元了，我可以买你一小时时间吗？”