A black boy guarded the oak barrels in his father's winery. Every morning he wiped up every barrel with rag, and then put them in order row upon row. To his anger, the wind reeled the barrels here and there overnight.
The boy was so angry that he wrote a letter to the wind on every barrel with crayon, “Please don't blow down my barrels.”
After seeing that, his father asked the boy with a smile, “Can the wind read your request?”
The little boy said, “I don't know, but I have no way of how to deal with the wind.”
The next morning, when the little boy ran to look at the barrels, he found that the goddamned wind ignored his request, still blowing the barrels here and there. The little boy felt very wronged and burst into tears. His father stroked his head gently and said, “Son, don't be sad. We may have no way of how to deal with the wind, but we may have ways for you, so we can have our own methods to conquer the wind.”
Then the little boy dried his tears and sat near the barrel to think over and over. After thinking half a day, he finally found out a way. He went to the well to pick barrels of water, put them into those empty oak barrels, and then went home to sleep uneasily.
At daybreak, the little boy got up in haste, ran out to and saw the barrels were placed in good order. The little boy smiled happily and told his father, “If we don't want the barrels blown down by the wind, we have no way to the wind, but we have ways to ourselves and the barrels. It's a very simple way, that is, to add the weight of the barrels.”
The little boy's father smiled approvingly.
一个黑人小男孩为爸爸的葡萄酒厂照看橡木酒桶。每天早晨他都用抹布把每个酒桶擦得干干净净，然后一排排码放整齐。让人气愤的是，夜里的风总是把酒桶刮得到处都是。
小男孩生气极了，用蜡笔在每个酒桶上都写了一封信给风看：“请不要刮倒我的酒桶。”
父亲看到了，笑着问儿子：“风能收到你的请求吗？”
小男孩说：“不知道，可我没有办法对付大风啊。”
第二天早上，小男孩跑去看酒桶，他发现讨厌的风根本没搭理他的请求，还是把酒桶刮得乱七八糟。他感到很委屈，大哭起来。父亲轻轻地摸着他的头说：“儿子，别伤心了。我们也许没有办法对付大风，但是如果在你身上下点功夫的话，就找到属于我们自己的征服大风的办法了。”
小男孩擦干眼泪，坐在酒桶旁边冥思苦想。半天工夫，他终于想出了一个办法。他跑到井边打了几桶水，把水倒进空酒桶里，然后就回家睡觉了，可他还是不放心。
破晓时分，小男孩匆忙起床，跑去看到酒桶依然整齐，安然无恙。他开心地笑着告诉父亲：“如果不想让风把酒桶刮倒，我们对风无能为力，可是我们能在自己和酒桶身上做点文章。方法很简单，就是增加自身的分量。”
小男孩的爸爸赞同地笑了起来。
-barrel [ˈbærəl] n. 桶
-goddamned [ˈɡɒddæmd] adj. 讨厌的
-stroke [strəʊk] v. 轻抚
想要屹立不倒，不妨给自己加压。