stone什么意思啊 Three Peach Stones

Three Peach Stones  

Observe a child; any one will do. You will see that not a day passes in which he does not find something or other to make him happy
though he may be in tears the next moment. Then look at a man; any one of us will do. You will notice that weeks and months can pass in which day is greeted with nothing more than resignation
and endure with every polite indifference. Indeed
most men are as miserable as sinners
though they are too bored to sin-perhaps their sin is their indifference. But it is true that they so seldom smile that when they do we do not recognize their face
so distorted is it from the fixed mask we take for granted. And even then a man can not smile like a child
for a child smiles with his eyes
whereas a man smiles with his lips alone. It is not a smile; but a grin; something to do with humor
but little to do with happiness. And then
as anyone can see
there is a point (but who can define that point?) when a man bees an old man
and then he will smile again.
It would seem that happiness is something to do with simplicity
and that it is the ability to extract pleasure form the simplest things-such as a peach stone
for instance.
It is obvious that it is nothing to do with success. For Sir Henry Stewart was certainly successful. It is enty years ago since he came down to our village from London
and bought a couple of old cottages
which he had knocked into one. He used his house a s weekend refuge. He was a barrister. And the village followed his brilliant career with something almost amounting to paternal pride.
I remember some ten years ago when he was made a King's Counsel
Amos and I
seeing him get off the London train
went to congratulate him. We grinned with pleasure; he merely looked as miserable as though he'd received a penal sentence. It was the same when he was knighted; he never smiled a bit
he didn't even bother to celebrate with a round of drinks at the "Blue Fox". He took his success as a child does his medicine. And not one of his achievements brought even a ghost of a smile to his tired eyes.
I asked him one day
soon after he'd retired to potter about his garden
8 what is was like to achieve all one's ambitions. He looked down at his roses and went on watering them. Then he said "The only value in achieving one's ambition is that you then realize that they are not worth achieving." Quickly he moved the conversation on to a more practical level
and within a moment we were back to a safe discussion on the weather. That was o years ago.
I recall this incident
for yesterday
I was passing his house
and had drawn up my cart just outside his garden wall. I had pulled in from the road for no other reason than to let a bus pass me. As I set there filling my pipe
I suddenly heard a shout of sheer joy e from the other side of the wall.
I peered over. There stood Sir Henry doing nothing less than a tribal war dance of sheer unashamed ecstasy. Even when he observed my bewildered face staring over the wall he did not seem put out or embarrassed
but shouted for me to climb over.
"Come and see
Jan. Look! I have done it at last! I have done it at last!"
There he was
holding a small box of earth in his had. I observed three tiny shoots out of it.
"And there were only three!" he said
his eyes laughing to heaven.
"Three what?" I asked.
"Peach stones"
he replied. "I've always wanted to make peach stones grow
even since I was a child
when I used to take them home after a party
or as a man after a banquet. And I used to plant them
and then fot where I planted them. But now at last I have done it
and
what's more
I had only three stones
and there you are
one
o
three shoots
" he counted.
And Sir Henry ran off
calling for his wife to e and see his achievement-his achievement of simplicity