Тексты для экзамена 11 класса

                                     Letters in the Mail

     In general , almost everybody  likes  to  receive  mail  and  probably
nobody in the whole town of Stillwater likes to get letters  more  than  Ray
Buffin. However , the fact was that Ray received fewer letters  in  his  box
at the post – office than anybody else.
    It had been like that almost all his life. Nobody wrote letters to  him
except that once a month he did  get  a  bill  from  the  gas  and  electric
company and occasionally he  found   advertising  matter  in  the  box  like
everybody else in town.
    Of course, since he did not correspond with anybody , he never wrote  a
letter himself. But once, many years before , he had written a letter  to  a
young girl in town. He had written to tell her how beautiful and  lovely  he
thought she was and how much he loved her. He added  the  letter  by  asking
her to marry him, but he had received no answer.
    In Stillwater , mail was delivered once a day. Every afternoon,  expect
Sundays, the bus from New Orleans stopped in  the  town  before   the  post-
office and delivered two or three mail bags full of letters, magazines   and
newspapers. Soon after they were put into the  letter  boxes  ,  Ray  always
closed his shop, where he made very disappointed if there was  no  mail  for
him , but he always had a feeling that once  of  these  days  he  would  get
some.
    Two of the younger men in town, Guy Hodge and Ralph  Barnhill,  decided
to play a joke on Ray. They would send him a letter signed by girl. When  he
received it, someone would ask him if it was a love  letter  ,  and  someone
else would take it from him and read it to everyone who  wanted  to  listen.
They asked Grace Brooks, the switch operator at  the  telephone  company  to
write the letter . Grace was a pretty  girl  although  not  very  young  any
more.
    At first Grace said she would  have nothing to do with their plan.
    ‘I would never do such a thing,” she said.
    The men did not know that it was Grace who had received the love letter
from Ray a long time ago. At that  time  she  was  very  young  and  had  no
thoughts about marrying any man. That was  why  she  had  not  answered  the
letter. In recent years there were times when she was  sorry  she  hadn’t  .
She thought it was because of her that  they  were  both  lonely  all  these
years.
    “Please, Grace”, said Ralph. “ Be a good girl and write the letter  for
us or we will ask someone else to do it.”
    “No , do not do that. I don’t want anybody else to do  it.  I’ll  write
the letter tonight. I think I know what to say.”
    After the men left, Grace cried for a  long  time.  Then  she  wrote  a
letter and in the morning mailed it in the letter-box at the post-office.
    What was the surprise of Ralph, Guy and other people who  came  to  see
Ray get the letter, when they saw that  after  reading  it  he  ran  to  the
telephone exchange. When Guy and Ralph   followed him  they  found  Ray  and
Grace together .
    “Why did the joke work out like that? Do you suppose Grace  signed  her
name by mistake?” asked Ralph.
    “I think it was not a mistake,” said Guy. “Just think  of  it.  He  had
been waiting for this letter most of his life and got it  only  because   of
us!”
    “A joke can go wrong sometimes; that’s all right”, said Ralph. “But the
next time we play a joke, let us be  sure it is doing to work.”

                                                                    ( After
E. Caldwell)
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