A Partnership Is Formed
建立合夥關係
The next morning, I told my best friend, Mike, what my dad had said. As best I could tell, Mike and I were the only poor kids in this school. Mike was like me in that he was in this school by a twist of fate. Someone had drawn a jog in the line for the school district, and we wound up in school with the rich kids. We weren't really poor, but we felt as if we were because all the other boys had new baseball gloves, new bicycles, new everything.
第二天一早，我就把爸爸的話告訴了我最好的朋友邁克。邁克和我可以說是學校裏僅有的兩個窮孩子。他和我一樣由於命運的捉弄而進了這所學校。其實我們倆的家裏並不是真的很窮，但我們感覺我們很窮，因爲其他的男孩都有新棒球手套、新自行車，他們的東西都是新的。
Mom and dad provided us with the basics, like food, shelter, clothes, But that was about it. My dad used to say, "If you want something, work for it." We wanted things, but there was not much work available for 9-year-old boys.
媽媽和爸爸也爲我們提供了基本生活品，像喫的、戴的、穿的，什麼都不缺，但也僅此而已。我爸爸常說：“想要什麼東西，自己掙錢買。”我們想要東西，但的確沒有什麼工作可以提供給像我們這樣大的9歲男孩。
"So what do we do to make money?" Mike asked.
"I don't know," I said. "But do you want to be my partner?"
“我們該怎麼掙錢呢？”邁克問。“我不知道，”我說，“你想做我的合夥人嗎？”
He agreed and so on that Saturday morning, Mike became my first business partner. We spent all morning coming up with ideas on how to make money. Occasionally we talked about all the "cool guys" at Jimmy's beach house having fun. It hurt a little, but that hurt was good, for it inspired us to keep thinking of a way to make money. Finally, that afternoon, a bolt of lightning came through our heads. It was an idea Mike had gotten from a science book he had read. Excitedly, we shook hands, and the partnership now had a business.
於是，就在那個星期六的早晨，邁克成了我的第一個業務夥伴。我們花了整整一個上午去想掙錢的法子，其間常常不由自主地談起那些“冷酷的傢伙”正在基米家的海濱別墅裏玩樂。這實在有些傷人，但卻是好事，它刺激我們繼續努力去想掙錢的法子。最後，到了下午，一個念頭在我們的頭腦中閃過，這是邁克從以前讀過的一本科普書裏得到的主意。
我們興奮地握手，現在我們的合夥關係終於有了實質的業務內容。
For the next several weeks, Mike and I ran around our neighborhood, knocking on doors and asking our neighbors if they would save their toothpaste tubes for us. With puzzled looks, most adults consented with a smile. Some asked us what we were doing. To which we replied, "We can't tell you. It's a business secret."
在接下來的幾星期裏，邁克和我跑遍了鄰近各家，敲開他們的門問他們是否願意把用過的牙膏皮攢下來給我們。迷惑不解的大人們微笑着答應了，有的問我們要它做什麼，對此我們回答道：“這是商業祕密”。
My mom grew distressed as the weeks wore on. We had selected a site next to her washing machine as the place we would stockpile our raw materials. In a brown cardboard box that one time held catsup bottles, our little pile of used toothpaste tubes began to grow.
幾星期過去了，我媽變得心煩起來，因爲我們選了一個靠近她洗衣機的地方放置我們的原料。在一個曾用來盛番茄醬的大罐子裏，積攢在那兒的用過的牙膏皮正在慢慢變多。
Finally my mom put her foot down. The sight of her neighbors' , messy, crumpled used toothpaste tubes had gotten to her. "What are you boys doing?" she asked. "And I don't want to hear again that it's a business secret. Do something with this mess or I'm going to throw it out."
看到鄰居們髒亂、捲曲的廢牙膏皮都到了她這兒，媽媽最後採取了行動。“你們兩個到底想要幹什麼？”她問，“我不想再聽到‘商業祕密’之類的話，趕快處理掉這些股東西，否則我就會把它們全扔出去！”
Mike and I pleaded and begged, explaining that we would soon have enough and then we would begin production. We informed her that we were waiting on a couple of neighbors to finish using up their toothpaste so we could have their tubes. Mom granted us a one-week extension.
邁克和我苦苦哀求，說我們已經快攢夠了，只等一對鄰居夫婦用完他們的牙膏後，我們就可以馬上開始生產了。經過一番口舌，最後媽媽給了我們一週的延期。