A Lesson from My Father You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give. ---- Winston Churchill We come by business naturally in our family. Each of the seven children in our family worked in our father’s hardware store in Mott, North Dakota, a small town in the countryside. We started working by doing 1 jobs like cleaning and tidying shelves, and later 2 to serving customers. As we worked and watched, we 3 that work was about more than survival and making a sale. One 4 stands out in my mind. It was shortly 5 Christmas. I was in the eighth grade and was working evenings, straightening the toy area. A little boy, five or six years old, came in. He was wearing a dirty, old brown coat. His hair was messy. His shoes were worn out. The little boy looked too 6 to afford to buy anything. He looked around the toy area, 7 up several toys, and carefully put them back. Dad came down the stairs, walked over to the boy and 8 what he could do for him. The boy said he was looking for a Christmas present for his brother. I was proud that Dad treated him with the same 9 that he would give any adult. Dad told him to take his time and look around. He did. After about twenty minutes, the little boy 10 chose a toy plane, walked up to my dad and said, “How much for this, Mister?” “How much you got?” Dad asked. The little boy held out his hand and opened it. His hand was 11 with wet lines of dirt from holding his money. In his hand lay five coins: two dimes, a nickel and two pennies – twenty-seven cents. The 12 on the toy plane he’d picked out was $3.98. “That’ll just about do it,” Dad said when he closed the 13 . Dad’s reply still rings in my ears. I thought about what I’d seen 14 I wrapped the present. When the little boy walked out of the store, I didn’t notice the dirty, worn coat, the messy hair or the old shoes. What I saw was a glowing child with a 15 .