朋友之間的先令
Fifty years ago during the World War II, I married my soldier sweetheart. Six weeks later, he left to fight in Korea. While he was away for that first year of our marriage, I stayed with my mum and worked hard to save a deposit for our first home. After John returned, we found a home and applied for a War Service Home Loan, which at that time took about six months to come through.
The builder of our home lived in the same street as our house and he allowed us to move in and pay rent until our loan came through. The rent was one pound and ten shillings per week, which we thought fair. As we got to know our neighbors, several told us to watch our landlord as he was “sharp” and may cheat us in some way. We always replied that he had given us no cause for complaint.
The loan money came through shortly before Christmas. Our finances were strained but we were happy to have our own home. One night, two weeks before Christmas, there was a knock at our door. It was our landlord and his wife. We invited them in and our landlord said, “As you know, your loan has come through and you do not have to pay me rent any more. I did not set that rent, the estate agent did, and I thought it was a bit high. Every time you paid me I put ten shillings away in a box. It came to 11 pounds.”
We were stunned and delighted. To us, it was a small fortune just in time for Christmas. We were able to buy gifts for our entire family. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for us and we vowed that we would never judge anyone on hearsay.
50年前的二戰期間，我嫁給了當時身為軍人的戀人。6個星期後，他離開我去了韓國參戰。這是我們結婚第1年，他走後我和我的母親一起生活。為了攢夠買第一所房子的錢，我拚命工作。約翰回來後，我們找了所房子，並申請了需要大約6個月時間審批的戰爭服役房屋貸款。
屋主和我們住在同一條街道上，他同意我們搬進去並支付租金，直到我們的貸款批下來。租金是每周1英鎊10先令，我們覺得很公平。和鄰居們漸漸認識後，有人告訴我們說要當心我們的房東，因為他很“精明”，可能會在某些地方欺騙我們。我們總是回答說，他沒有什麽可讓我們抱怨的。
聖誕節前不久，貸款終於批了下來。盡管經濟拮據，我們仍然很高興擁有了自己的房子。聖誕節前兩周的一個晚上，我們家傳來了敲門聲，原來是房東和他的太太。我們邀請他們進屋，房東說道：“如你所知，你們的貸款已經獲得批準，不需要再付給我房租了。房租不是我定的，是地產代理商定的，我認為是高了一點。每次你付給我房租的時候，我都把其中的10先令用一個盒子存起來。現在有11英鎊了。”
我們吃了一驚，但很高興。對我們來說，這是及時到來的一筆聖誕節小財富，用它我們能夠給全家買禮物。這是他人為我們做過的最好的事情，我們發誓絕不會憑傳言來評判任何人。