A little boy invited his mother to attend his elementary school’s first teacher-parent
    conference. To the little boy’s dismay, she said she would go. This would be the first
    time that his classmates and teacher met his mother and he was embarrassed by her
    appearance. Although she was a beautiful woman, there was a severe scar that
    covered nearly the entire right side of her face. The boy never wanted to talk about
    why or how she got the scar. 

    At the conference, the people were impressed by the kindness and natural beauty of
    his mother despite the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed and hid himself
    from everyone. He did, however, get within earshot of a conversation between his
    mother and his teacher, and heard them speaking. 

    "How did you get the scar on your face?" the teacher asked. 

    The mother replied, "When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught on fire.
    Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of control, so I went in. As I
    was running toward his crib, I saw a beam coming down and I placed myself over him
    trying to shield him. I was knocked unconscious but fortunately, a fireman came in and
    saved both of us." She touched the burned side of her face. "This scar will be
    permanent, but to this day, I have never regretted doing what I did." 

    At this point, the little boy came out running towards his mother with tears in his eyes.
    He hugged her and felt an overwhelming sense of the sacrifice that his mother had
    made for him. He held her hand tightly for the rest of the day.

 A little girl whose parents had died lived with her grandmother and slept in an upstairs
 bedroom.  One night there was a fire in the house and the grandmother perished while trying to rescue the  child. The fire spread quickly, and the first floor of the house was soon engulfed in flames. 

 Neighbors called the fire department, then stood helplessly by, unable to enter the house
 because flames blocked all the entrances. The little girl appeared at an upstairs window, crying  for help, just as word spread among the crowd that firefighters would be delayed a few minutes  because they were all at another fire. 

 Suddenly, a man appeared with a ladder, put it up against the side of the house and disappeared  inside. When he reappeared, he had the little girl in his arms. He delivered the child to the  waiting arms below, then disappeared into the night. 

 An investigation revealed that the child had no living relatives, and weeks later a meeting was
 held in the town hall to determine who would take the child into their home and bring her up. 

 A teacher said she would like to raise the child. She pointed out that she could ensure her a
 good education. A farmer offered her an upbringing on his farm. He pointed out that living on a  farm was healthy and satisfying. Others spoke, giving their reasons why it was to the child's
 advantage to live with them. 

 Finally, the town's richest resident arose and said, "I can give this child all the advantages that
 you have mentioned here, plus money and everything that money can buy." 

 Throughout all this, the child remained silent, her eyes on the floor. 

 "Does anyone else want to speak?" asked the meeting chairman. A man came forward from the
 back of the hall. His gait was slow and he seemed in pain. When he got to the front of the room,  he stood directly before the little girl and held out his arms. The crowd gasped. His hands and  arms were terribly scarred. 

 The child cried out, "This is the man who rescued me!" With a leap she threw her arms around
 the man's neck, holding on for dear life, just as she had that fateful night. She buried her face on  his shoulder and sobbed for a few moments. Then she looked up and smiled at him. 

 "This meeting is adjourned," said the chairman.

    There were once two men, both seriously ill, in the same small room of a great
    hospital. Quite a small room, it had one window looking out on the world. One of the
    men, as part of his treatment, was allowed to sit up in bed for an hour in the afternoon
    (something to do with draining the fluid from his lungs). His bed was next to the
    window. But the other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. 

    Every afternoon when the man next to the window was propped up for his hour, he
    would pass the time by describing what he could see outside. The window apparently
    overlooked a park where there was a lake. There were ducks and swans in the lake,
    and children came to throw them bread and sail model boats. Young lovers walked
    hand in hand beneath the trees, and there were flowers and stretches of grass, games of
    softball. And at the back, behind the fringe of trees, was a fine view of the city
    skyline. 

    The man on his back would listen to the other man describe all of this, enjoying every
    minute. He heard how a child nearly fell into the lake, and how beautiful the girls
    were in their summer dresses. His friend’s descriptions eventually made him feel he
    could almost see what was happening outside. 

    Then one fine afternoon, the thought struck him: Why should the man next to the
    window have all the pleasure of seeing what was going on? Why shouldn’t he get the
    chance? He felt ashamed, but the more he tried not to think like that, the worse he
    wanted a change. He’d do anything! One night as he stared at the ceiling, the other man
    suddenly woke up, coughing and choking, his hands groping for the button that would
    bring the nurse running. But the man watched without moving - even when the sound of
    breathing stopped. In the morning, the nurse found the other man dead, and quietly took
    his body away. 

    As soon as it seemed decent, the man asked if he could be switched to the bed next to
    the window. So they moved him, tucked him in, and made him quite comfortable. The
    minute they left, he propped himself up on one elbow, painfully and laboriously, and
    looked out the window. 

    It faced a blank wall.