When I was well grown, at last, I was sold and taken away, and I never saw her again. She was broken-hearted, and so was I, and we cried; but she comforted me as well as she could, and said we were sent into this world for a wise and good purpose, and must do our duties without repining, take our life as we might find it, live it for the best good of others, and never mind about the results; they were not our affair. She said men who did like this would have a noble and beautiful reward by and by in another world, and although we animals would not go there, to do well and right without reward would give to our brief lives a worthiness¹ and dignity which in itself would be a reward. She had gathered these things from time to time when she had gone to the Sunday-school with the children, and had laid them up in her memory more carefully than she had done with those other words and phrases; and she had studied them deeply, for her good and ours. One may see by this that she had a wise and thoughtful² head, for all there was so much lightness and vanity³ in it.

So we said our farewells, and looked our last upon each other through our tears; and the last thing she said -- keeping it for the last to make me remember it the better, I think -- was, "In memory of me, when there is a time of danger to another do not think of yourself, think of your mother, and do as she would do."

Do you think I could forget that? No.

后来我长大了的时候，我就被人卖了，让别人带走，从此以后就再也没有看见她了。她很伤心，我也是一样，我们俩都哭了；可是她极力安慰我，说是我们生到这个世界上来是为了一个聪明和高尚的目的，必须好好地尽我们的责任。决不要发牢骚，我们碰到什么日子就过什么日子，要尽量顾到别人的利益，不管结果怎样；那不是归我们管的事情。她说凡是喜欢这么办的人将来在另外一个世界里一定会得到光荣和漂亮的报酬，我们禽兽虽然不到那儿去，可是规规矩矩过日子，多做些好事情，不图报酬，还是可以使我们短短的生命很体面和有价值，这本身就可以算是一种报酬。这些道理是她和孩子们到主日学校去的时候随时听到的，她很用心地通通记在心里，比她记那些字和成语都更加认真；而且她还下了很深的工夫研究过这些道理，为的是对她自己和对我们都有好处。你可以从这儿看得出她脑子里虽然有些轻浮和虚荣的成分，究竟还是聪明和肯用心思的。

于是我们就互相告别，含着眼泪彼此最后看了一眼。她最后嘱咐我的一句话——我想她是特意留在最后说的，好叫我记得清楚一些——是这样的：“为了纪念我，如果别人遇到危险的时候，你就不要想到自己，你要想到你的母亲，照她的办法行事。”

你想我会忘记这句话吗？不会的。