A Boy and His Father Become Partners
拉爾夫·穆迪 / Ralph Mody
I like all kinds of chocolate. Best of all， though， I like bitter baking chocolate. Mother had bought a bar of it， and somehow I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
I was helping Father on the winnower. It was right then I got the idea. I could whack a chunk off the end of that bar of chocolate. Mother would be sure to miss it， but before she had any idea who had done it， I could confess I’d taken it. Probably I would not even get a spanking.
I waited until Mother was out feeding the chickens. Then I told Father I thought I’d go in for a drink of water. I got the bar down， but I heard Mother coming just when I had the knife ready to whack. So I slipped the chocolate into the front of my shirt and left quickly. Before I went back to help Father， I went to the barn and hid the chocolate there.
All the rest of afternoon， I didn’t like to look at Father. Every time he spoke it made me jump. My hands began shaking so much that he asked me what was the matter. I told him it was just that my hands were cold. I knew he didn’t believe me， and every time he looked my way my heart started pounding. I didn’t want the chocolate anymore. I just wanted a chance to put it back without being caught.
On the way out for the cows， I calmed down a little and could think better. I told myself that I hadn’t really stolen the whole bar of chocolate， because I meant to take only a little piece. That’s as much as I would have taken， too if Mother hadn’t come along when she did. If I put back the whole bar， I wouldn’ t have done anything wrong at all.
I nearly decided to put it all back. But just thinking so much about chocolate made my tongue almost taste the smooth bitterness of it. I got thinking that if I sliced about half an inch off the end with a sharp knife， Mother might never notice it.
I was nearly out to where the cows were when I remembered what Father had said once—some of the family money was mine because I had helped to earn it. Why wouldn’t it be all right to figure the bar of chocolate had been bought with my own money？ That seemed to fix everything.