Two Billion Dollar Dream

Customers: We believe in creating loyal customers by providing a superior experience at a great value. We are committed to direct relationships, providing the best products and services based on standards-based technology, and outperforming the competition with value and a superior customer experience.

  The Dell Team: We believe that our continued success lies in teamwork and the opportunity each team member has to learn, develop and grow. We are committed to being a meritocracy, and to developing, retaining and attracting the best people, reflective of our worldwide marketplace.

  Direct Relationships: We believe in being direct in all we do. We are committed to behaving ethically; responding to customer needs in a timely and reasonable manner; fostering open communications and building effective relationships with customers, partners, suppliers and each other; and operating without inefficient hierarchy and bureaucracy.

  Winning: We have a passion for winning in everything we do. We are committed to operational excellence, superior customer experience, leading in the global markets we serve, being known as a great company and great place to work, and providing superior shareholder value over time.

  Global Citizenship: We believe in participating responsibly in the global marketplace. We are committed to understanding and respecting the laws, values and cultures wherever we do business; profitably growing in all markets; promoting a healthy business climate globally; and contributing positively in every community we call home, both personally and organizationally.

  Company Culture    Dell values worthy idea or original, initiative innovation.

Michael Dell

Michael Saul Dell (born  February 23, 1965 in Houston, Texas) is an American businessman. He attended the  University of Texas in Austin intending to become a physician. While in university, he started a computer company called PC's Limited in his dormitory room.

Dell began the business manufacturing personal computers with some radical ideas, including maintaining no finished-goods inventories and practically no component inventories, building only to order, and selling and delivering the completed PC units direct to customers (direct sales). The company became successful enough that Dell dropped out of college at the age of 19 to run the business full-time. In 1987, PC's Limited changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation, and in 2003, Dell, Inc. The company became the most profitable PC manufacturer in the world, with sales of $35 billion and profits of $2 billion in 2002.

On March 4, 2004, Michael Dell stepped down as CEO of Dell but stayed as Chairman of the Board, while Kevin Rollins, then President and COO, became President and CEO.

Accolades for Dell include: "Entrepreneur of the Year" from Inc. magazine; "Man of the Year" from PC Magazine; "Top CEO in American Business" from Worth Magazine; "CEO of the Year" from Financial World and Industry Week magazines.

In the 2005 publication of the Forbes 400, Dell was listed as the 9th richest man in the United States and the 18th richest in the world with a net worth of around $16 billion. Dell resides in Austin, Texas with his wife Susan and their four children.

 Forbes 400

The Forbes 400 is an annual list published by Forbes magazine of the wealthiest 400 people in the United States. At the top of the list is Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, with a net worth of 48 billion dollars. The 400th wealthiest person in the United States, Norman W Waitt, Jr., co-founder of Gateway, has a net worth of 750 million dollars. Other prominent names include Warren Buffett and Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.Henry Kravis ranked #283 in 2004.

Fortune 500: The 500 richest people in the world listed by Fortune Magazine on annual basis.

Introduction to Dell:

Michael Dell is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Dell Computer Corp. which he founded in 1984 with $1,000 and an innovative idea: sell computer systems directly to customers. By using this approach, Dell has made itself the world’s most preferred computer systems company and a chief provider of products and services needed in information technology and Internet infrastructure. In 18 years, the company’s sales have grown to $31.2 billion for the past year.

Because of the success of the company, Mr. Dell has been honored many times. He was listed as one of the 25 most influential global executives in 2001 and has been named on various occasions and by many important business magazines as “Chief Executive of the Year”, “Man of the Year”, “Top CEO in American Business” etc.

In 1999, Dell wrote the book Direct From Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry, which immediately became a best-seller.

Dell Computer Corporation, major manufacturer of personal computers, computer peripherals, and software. Among the leading producers of computers in the world, Dell sells its products directly to customers through the Internet and mail-order catalogs rather than through retail outlets. The company is based in Round Rock, Texas.

Dell was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell. In 1983, during his freshman year at the University of Texas, he bought excess inventory of RAM chips and disk drives for IBM personal computers from local dealers. He resold the components through newspaper advertisements at prices far below retail cost. By 1984 his sales totaled about $80,000 a month. In April 1984 Dell dropped out of school to launch his company.

The new company soon began manufacturing its own IBM-compatible computers under the name PCs Limited. Because Dell sold computers directly to users through advertisements in magazines and catalogs, the company could price its machines lower than those sold through retail stores. Sales reached nearly $6 million during the company’s first year, climbing to $34 million the following year. By 1987 Dell was the leading mail-order computer company in the United States. That year it created a sales force to target large corporations and began adding international offices to capture the direct-mail market outside the United States.

While the company continued to grow rapidly, Dell experienced a series of setbacks that hurt profits. In 1990 the company began selling computers through retail stores, an effort it abandoned in 1994. In 1991 Dell launched a line of notebook computers, but quality problems and inadequate production planning forced the company to stop selling them for a year. In 1994 Dell launched a new line of notebook computers and expanded efforts to increase overseas sales. Dell also began focusing on the market for servers, which are computers used to run local area networks.

By the late 1990s, Dell was firmly in place as the world’s number one direct seller of computers. More than 50 percent of the company’s computer sales transactions took place via its Web site, which generated worldwide sales in excess of $40 million a day

Introduction to Bill Gates:

Gates, William Henry, III (1955- ), American business executive, who serves as chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, the leading computer software company in the United States. Gates co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with high school friend Paul Allen. The company’s success made Gates one of the most influential figures in the computer industry and, eventually, one of the richest people in the world.

Introduction to Steve Jobs



Introduction to BMW

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), German manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and aircraft engines. Based in Munich, Germany, the company is the leading auto exporter in Europe. The English translation of the company’s name is Bavarian Motor Works.
The company traces its origins to 1913, when a Bavarian named Karl Rapp began an aircraft-engine shop in Munich named Rapp Motoren Werke. In 1917 Rapp resigned and the company, led by Austrian engineer Franz-Josef Popp, changed its name to Bayerische Motoren Werke. That same year chief engineer Max Friz designed the company’s first aircraft engine, the six-cylinder Type IIIa, which created strong demand for BMW engines. When the 1919 Treaty of Versailles prohibited German companies from producing aircraft and aircraft engines, BMW switched to making air brakes for railway cars. In 1923 Friz developed the company’s first motorcycle, the R32, a model that held world speed records for motorcycles during most of the 1930s.
In 1928 the company entered the automobile business by acquiring Fahrzeugwerke Eisenach (Eisenach Vehicle Factory), a maker of small cars based in Eisenach, Germany. In the 1930s BMW began producing a line of larger touring cars and sports cars, introducing its highly successful model—the 328 sports car—in 1936.
After World War II ended in 1945, Allied forces dismantled the company’s main factories. BMW made kitchen and garden equipment before introducing a new, inexpensive motorcycle to the German market in 1948. The company’s return to auto production in the 1950s resulted in poor sales. In the 1960s the company turned its fortunes around by focusing on sports sedans and compact touring cars, and it began to compete with Mercedes-Benz (see DaimlerChrysler AG) in the luxury-car markets of Europe and the United States. BMW’s U.S. sales peaked in 1986 but then dropped steeply, partly due to competition from two new luxury cars—Lexus, made by Toyota Motor Corporation, and Infiniti, made by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. The 1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall led to a boom in car sales in Europe, and in 1992 BMW models outsold Mercedes-Benz models in Europe for the first time.
In 1990 BMW formed a joint venture with the British aerospace company Rolls-Royce PLC to produce aircraft engines for business jets. In 1992 BMW broke ground for a major automobile plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, its first automobile plant in the United States.
In 1994 BMW acquired 80 percent of the Rover Group—a British manufacturer of small cars, luxury cars, and Land Rover sport-utility vehicles—from British Aerospace PLC. The $1.2 billion acquisition proved unprofitable, however. Rover lost more than $2 billion in 1998 and 1999, and its annual automobile sales dropped nearly 25 percent in 1999. In 2000 BMW sold its Rover car line to a small group of British investors and the Land Rover line of sport-utility vehicles (the only profitable portion of the Rover Group’s holdings) to Ford Motor Company.

Michael Dell’s Two-Billion-Dollar Dream

Warming up

1. What is your dream? Is it a dream about money?

2. What is your idea of “success”? What is the criterion to measure success, according to the money he earns, his position, his reputation or something else ?  

3. What kind of person is considered as a success? What qualities do you think a person should have to be successful?

a) How much do you know about Michael Dell and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs?

b) What are the keys to Dell’s success?

c) What are the qualities that distinguish Dell from others?

d) How much do you know about the computer giant?

e) Is there anything you can learn from Dell?

f) List or group words and expressions about business and trade in this passage.

g) Tell the class more about words or expressions concerning computer technology.

Background

Dell History

1984—Michael Dell founded Dell Computer Corporation.

1985—Dell Company introduced the first computer system of its own design: the Turbo, featuring Intel 8088 processor running at eight megahertz.

1987—Dell was the first computer systems company to offer next-day, on-site product service. International expansion began with the opening of subsidiary in United Kingdom.

1988—Dell conducted initial public offering of company stock.

1989—Dell Company introduced its first notebook.1992—Dell was included for the first time among Fortune 500 list of world's largest companies.

1993—Dell joined ranks of the top-five computer system makers worldwide.

1996—Dell opened Asia-Pacific manufacturing center in Penang, Malaysia. Customers began buying Dell computers via Internet at www.dell.com. Dell introduced its first workstation systems.

1998—Dell Company expanded manufacturing facilities in America and Europe, and opened a production and customer center in Xiamen, China. Dell introduces its PowerVault storage products and "E-Support Direct from Dell" online technical support.

2000—Dell Company sales via Internet reached $50 million per day. Dell is No. 1 in worldwide workstation shipments. Dell introduced PowerApp appliance servers.

2001—Dell ranked No. 1 in global market share. Dell introduced Power Connect network switches.

2002—U.S. consumers chose Dell as their No. 1 computer systems provider. Dell shipped its first "blade" server, introduced a standards-based point-of-sale offering for retail customers and entered the projector market with the introduction of the 3100MP projector.

2003—Dell introduced printers and launched Dell Recycling to enable customers to recycle or donate to charity computer equipment. Dell entered consumer electronics.

2004—Present Kevin Rollins becomes Dell's next chief executive officer.
Soul of Dell

 

Michael Dell's Two-Billion-Dollar Dream

One afternoon in 1977, as his parents and two brothers fished in the Gulf of Mexico, 12-year-old Michael Dell sat on the beach, painstakingly putting together a trotline, a maze of ropes to which several fish hooks could be attached. "You're wasting your time," the rest of the family called to Michael, as they pulled in fish. "Grab a pole and join in the fun.”

Michael kept working. It was dinnertime when he finished, and everyone else was ready to call it a day. Still, the youngster cast the trotline far into the water, anchoring it to a stick that he plunged deep in the sand.

Over dinner his family teased young Michael about coming away empty-handed. But afterward Michael reeled in his trotline, and on the hooks were more fish than the others had caught all together!

Michael Dell has always been fond of saying, "If you think you have a good idea, try it!" And today, at 29, he has discovered the power of another good idea that has helped him rise in just a few years from teen to tycoon. He has become the fourth-largest manufacturer of personal computers in America and the youngest man ever to head a Fortune 500 corporation.

Growing up in Houston, Michael and his two brothers were imbued by their parents with the desire to learn and the drive to work hard. Even so, stories about the middle boy began to be told early.

Like the time a saleswoman came asking to speak to "Mr. Michael Dell" about his getting a high-school equivalency diploma. Moments later, eight-year-old Michael was explaining that he thought it might be a good idea to get high school out of the way.

A few years later Michael had another good idea, to trade stamps by advertising in stamp magazines. With the $ 2000 profit he made, he bought his first personal computer. Then he took it apart to figure out how it worked.

In high school Michael had a job selling subscriptions to the Houston Post. Newlyweds, so he figured, were the best prospects, so he hired friends to copy the names and addresses of recent recipients of marriage licenses. These he entered into his computer, then sent a personalized letter offering each couple a free two-week subscription.

This time Dell made $18 000 and bought a BMW. The car salesman was flabbergasted when the 17-year-old paid cash. The next year Dell enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin. Like most freshmen, he needed to earn spending money. Just about everyone on campus was talking about personal computers. At the time, anyone who didn't have a PC wanted one, but dealers were selling them at a hefty markup. People wanted low-cost machines custom-made to their needs, and these were not readily available. Why should dealers get such a big markup for so little added value? Dell wondered. Why not sell from the manufacturer directly to the end user?

Dell knew that IBM required its dealers to take a monthly quota of PCs, in most cases more than they could sell. He also knew that holding excess inventory was costly. So he bought dealers' surplus stock at cost. Back in his dorm room, he added features to improve performance. The souped-up models found eager buyers. Seeing the hungry market, Dell placed local advertisements offering his customized computers at 15 percent off retail price. Soon he was selling to businesses, doctors' offices and law firms. The trunk of his car was his store; his room took on the appearance of a small factory.

During Thanksgiving break, Dell's parents told him they were concerned about his grades. "If you want to start a business, do it after you get your degree," his father pleaded.

Dell agreed, but back in Austin he felt the opportunity of a lifetime was passing him by. "I couldn't bear to miss this chance," he says. After one month he started selling computers again--- with a vengeance.

The quarters he shared with two roommates looked like a combat zone- boxes piled high, computer boards and tools scattered around. One day his roommates heaped all his equipment into a pile, preventing Dell from entering his room. It was time to come to grips with the magnitude of what he had created. The business was now grossing more than $ 50 000 a month.

Over spring recess, Dell confessed to his parents that he was still in the computer business. They wanted to know how classes were going. "I have to quit school," he replied. "I want to start my own company.”
What exactly is it that you want to do?" asked his father.
"Compete with IBM," he answered simply.
Compete with IBM? Now his parents were really worried. But no matter what they said, Dell stuck fast. So they made a deal; over summer vacation he would try to launch a computer company. If he didn't succeed, he would have to go back to school in September.

 Returning to Austin, Dell risked all his savings and incorporated Dell Computer Corp. on May 3, 1484.

He was 19. Under a deadline, his pace was frantic. He rented a one-roam office on a month-to-month lease and hired his first employee, a 28- year-old manager to handle finance and administration. For advertising, he grabbed an empty pizza box and on the back sketched the first ad for Dell Computer. A friend copied it onto paper and took it to the newspaper.

Dell still specialized in direct marketing of stripped-down IBM PCs to which he added custom features. As orders came in, Dell rushed around gathering up the right parts to assemble each order. First-month sales topped $180 000; the second, $ 265 000. Dell barely noticed when the new school year arrived.

 Within a year, he was selling 1000 PCs and hired more staff. Customers phoned orders to an 800 number, and then the staff assembled the units. Parts were ordered only as needed, keeping inventory and overhead low. UPS trucks picked up daily that day's production for delivery. It was very efficient-- and very profitable.

 Just when it seemed the sky was the limit, and sales had topped $3 million, the manager that Dell had hired quit. But, as Dell always told himself, “Every time you have a crisis, something good comes out of it. " From necessity, he learned accounting basics- experience that would prove invaluable in the years ahead. "It's a lot easier to learn something if it's important to you," he says.

 Unlike other manufacturers, Dell gave his customers money-back guarantees. He also realized that when a computer is down, the customer wants it back up and working right away. So Dell guaranteed next- day on site service for his products, and introduced a 24-hour-a-day toll-free line for customers to talk directly with computer technicians. Ninety percent of computer technical problems, according to Dell, can be solved over the phone.

 Constant telephone contact with customers kept the company close to the market. Customers let Dell Computer know directly what they liked or didn't like about a particular model. "My competitors were developing products and then telling customers what they should want, instead of finding out what the market really wanted and then developing products," Dell says.

 By the day Michael Dell would have graduated from college, his company was selling $ 70 million worth of computers a year. Dell quit dealing in souped-up versions of other companies' products, and started designing, assembling and marketing his own.

 Today Dell Computer has wholly owned subsidiaries in 16 countries, including Japan. The company has revenues of over $2 billion, employs some 5 500 persons, and Dell's personal fortune is between $ 250 million and $ 300 million. To encourage even greater productivity, Dell Computer gives its employees awards for ideas worth trying even if they don't pan out. "Our success has forced the giants to become more competitive," Dell says. "That's good for the consumer.”

 Dell, his wife and their two-year-old daughter lead a pretty normal life. His charity is generous but quiet. Recently the couple announced the donation of a parcel of land for a civic center to Austin's Jewish community. Dell also regularly lectures on entrepreneurship to MBA students at the University of Texas Graduate School of Business in Austin.

 What concerns Michael Dell is that our country is losing its competitive edge. "There's too much of an entitlement attitude nowadays," he says. "' I deserve this' needs to he replaced with 'I earned this.' "

 He credits his own success to the fact that Alexander and Lorraine Dell expected their three sons to learn and work hard- and draws a lesson. "The reason our schools are failing isn't because classroom sizes are too big. I can show you schools in Thailand where kids study in unbelievably crowded classrooms - and yet they're learning much more than our students. Why? Because they want to learn. Because they want to work hard. Because their parents and their teachers expect that of them. "

 Back when his firm was two people in one room, Dell told his friends his dream was to become the world's largest personal-computer maker. He was unrealistic, they said.

 Why would anyone want to be second or third or tenth?" he replied. His message to us all: why not at least try to realize your dream, what deep down you would truly love to achieve?

Where have all the birds gone? SUKUMARAN C. V.

It is April and another Vishu came and is gone. It is the New Year festival of Kerala, and closely related to the beginning of agricultural activities. In the past, immediately after Vishu paddy would be sown, and agricultural activities would start anew. Farmers believed in the rain god and the rains never failed them. But even if the rains played truant, there was one bird — vishupakshi — which never failed to wake up farmers with its vitthum kaikkottum (seed and spade) song. Every year starting in the first week of March, the bird was heard singing its never-ending vitthum kaikkottum. It was a reminder to the farmers and background music to the beginning of farming activities. I have never heard any other bird, except the cuckoo, that sings so beautifully as vishupakshi. And this song would be heard only in March and April.

This summer, the bird might have watched that even if it urges the people to take to the seed and shovel, nobody has seeds to take and it might also have observed that in the district which was once called the granary of Kerala, there is no place for sowing the seeds and it might have decided not to sing or even visit us (I think it is a migratory bird. It sings even at midnight. It perches only on the top of very big trees and their felling may be the reason why the bird did not turn up). Not only are the song and sound of vishupakshi missing today; there are many other birds which won't be seen and heard again.

We were an agrarian people. And my main hobby in my early teens was to wander through paddyfields to see the different kinds of birds and how they nest. On the outskirts of the paddyfields, there had been many coconut trees and black palm trees. Beautifully crafted nests of the weaver-birds — thookkanaam kuruvikal — would be seen dangling from the ends of palm leaves. Hundreds of these little birds would land on the paddy to squeeze the milk from the tender rice. They would come to the fields when the young stalks come out of the rice-plants. At this stage of the paddy, my father would send me to our field with a tin-drum to scare these birds away. But often I have enjoyed the sight of these little birds balancing on the tender stalks and squeezing the milk out of the green rice. When the paddy is ripe enough to harvest, flocks of parrots would land there and cut the ripe stalks with their sharp beaks and fly away with the stalks dangling in their beaks. I have always liked to see this sight also.

The nests of parrots were neatly crafted holes in the trunks of palm trees. I continued to wonder how they made these holes on the hard trunks until I saw the patient work of the woodpeckers. They were the carpenters and their long, sharp and strong beaks, chisels. They make the holes (in search of worms inside the weak spots of the trunks) and the parrots occupy them. If I heard the sound tak, tak, tak, I knew it was a woodpecker chiselling a hard trunk. I would go after him. It seems that the woodpecker is the only bird which can walk perpendicularly on the tree trunks! How beautiful the sight was! Its strong legs, red crest, the dark red stripe on the face and black beak and the tak, tak, tak sound used to captivate me.

One of the coconut trees near the pond was thunderstruck. It was a headless trunk for a long time and there were at least three parrot nests on its top. I have seen many parrots entering the holes and coming out to bring food to their little ones. One day, I saw the tree was being cut. I rushed to the site and begged the tree cutters to spare the trunk as it was the home of many a parrot. But I was laughed at and the tree fell with a great thud. I ran to the top end to see two just hatched chicks thrown out of their nest and smashed to death. I looked into all the nests and saw smashed eggs in two of them and one little chick in the other one. Fortunately, the little one survived the fall. I brought it home. The chick can be identified as a parrot only by the shape and colour of its beak. No feathers had come out. I carefully fed it with milk and within two weeks it began to eat bananas; and two months later, it started to fly and I let him fly away. But he wouldn't fly long. He used to linger on the coconut trees in our compound and when I reached home from school, he would fly down and land on my head!

I would show him my finger and he would jump on to it from my head and drink the milk I offered him in a little plate. By putting the sharp end of the upper beak stationary in the plate, he would drink the milk by moving his tongue and lower beak to and fro. Then he would fly on to my shoulder and eat paddy from my palm. He put each grain between his upper and lower beaks and deftly removed the chaff, pressing the lower beak against the upper beak; and swallowed the rice. After filling his little stomach he would go into his cage and sleep putting his head inside his right wing. I will close the cage and put it near my pillow. At 6 sharp in the morning, he would start to be restless and the moment I opened the cage, he would fly on to my head and from there to my hand and then would drink some milk in haste and fly away like an arrow.

When he became a fully grown up one, he began to go far and wide. I didn't know where he went, but after six o' clock in the evening he would be waiting for me on the coconut tree. If I was not home someday, he would not come down. He would roost on the coconut tree and fly away in the morning. The most interesting fact was that all fellow parrots would be there on the coconut tree to take him with them in the morning and all of them accompanied him to the coconut tree in the evening.

They would be wonderstruck at the sight of his landing on my head and fly away together, making musical sounds in a chorus. For more than three years he had been my intimate friend whom I had given all the freedom he was born to. At last, he stopped coming. His family bonds might have become stronger than his friendship with me. Still I miss him, but I am happy that he was not denied the joys and ecstasy of the arboreal life to which he was born.

Today, this real story is the one my five-year-old younger daughter wants to hear again and again. I have recounted the story umpteen times. And every time after hearing it, she asks me to show her a woodpecker which makes nests for parrots.

Alas, they are not seen nowadays! Not only woodpeckers, even the parrots are not seen in our locality. And what happened to the weaver-birds? Not even a single nest is seen today. How can they be seen? Paddy cultivation is disappearing from my village and can these birds, who feed mainly on paddy, survive the man-made ‘climate change' or rather the ‘cultivation change'? But where have all the woodpeckers gone? What happened to them? In the yesteryear, the bird was spotted in pairs almost everyday, but now I have not been able to show my five-year old younger child even a single woodpecker! I have been listening long since to hear the sound — tak, tak, tak…tak, tak, tak…

Sukumaran C.V is a former JNU student

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A NICKEL AT A TIME By Indra Sharma

In 1945 in Bay Roberts, Nfld., a 12-year-old boy saw something in a
shopwindow that set his heart racing. But the price-five dollars-was
far beyond Reuben Earle's means. Five dollars would buy almost a week’s
groceries for his family.
Reuben couldn't ask his father for the money. Everything Mark Earle
made fishing, Reuben's mother, Dora, stretched like elastic to feed and
clothe their five children.
Nevertheless, he opened the shop's weathered door and went inside.
Standing proud and straight in his flour-sack shirt and washed-out
trousers, he told the shopkeeper what he wanted, adding, "but I don't
have the money now. Can you please hold it for me? "
"I'll try," the shopkeeper smiled. "Folks around here don't usually
have that kind of money to spend on things. It should keep for a
while."
Reuben respectfully touched his worn cap and walked out into the May
sunlight. The bay rippled in a freshening wind that ruffled his short
hair. There was purpose in his loping stride. He would raise the five
dollars and not tell anybody.
Hearing the sound of hammering from a side street, Reuben had an idea.
He ran towards the sound and stopped at a construction site. People
built their own homes in Bay Roberts, using nails purchased in burlap
sacks from a local factory. Sometimes the sacks were discarded in the
flurry of building, and Reuben knew he could sell them back to the
factory for five cents apiece.
That day he found two sacks, which he took to the rambling wooden
factory and sold to the man in charge of packing nails. The boy's hand
tightly clutched the small five-cent pieces as he ran the two kilometers
home.
Near his house stood the ancient barn that housed the family's goats
and chickens. Reuben found a rusty baking soda tin and dropped his
coins inside. Then he climbed into the loft of the barn and hid the can
beneath a pile of sweet-smelling hay.
It was suppertime when Reuben got home. His father sat at the big
kitchen table, working on a fishing net. Dora was at the black kitchen
range, ready to serve dinner as Reuben took his place at the table.
He looked at his mother and smiled. Sunlight from the window gilded
her shoulder-length blond hair. Five foot three, slim and beautiful,
she was the centre of the home, the glue that held it together.
Her chores were never-ending. Sewing clothes for her family on the old
Singer treadle machine, cooking meals and baking bread, planting a
vegetable garden, milking the goats and scrubbing soiled clothes on a
washboard. But she was happy. Her family and their well-being were her
highest priority.

Every day after chores and school, Reuben scoured the town, collecting
the burlap nail bags. On the day the two-room schoolhouse closed for
the summer, no student was more delighted than Reuben. Now he would
have more time to devote to his mission.
All summer long, despite extra chores at home-weeding and watering the
garden, cutting wood and fetching water-Reuben kept to his secret task.
Then all too soon the garden was harvested, the vegetables canned and
stored, and the school reopened. Soon the leaves fell and the winds
blew cold and gusty from the bay. Reuben wandered the streets,
diligently searching for his burlap treasures.
Often he was cold, tired and hungry, but the thought of the object in
the store window sustained him. Sometimes his mother would ask:
"Reuben, where were you? We were waiting supper for you."
"Playing, Mom. Sorry."
Dora would look at his face and shake her head. Boys.
Finally spring burst into glorious green and Reuben's spirits erupted.
The time had come I He ran into the barn, climbed to the hayloft and
uncovered the tin can. With shaking hands, he poured the coins out and
began to count.
Then he counted again. He needed 20 cents more. Could there be any
sacks left anywhere in town? He had to find four and sell them before
the day ended.
Reuben hid the tin and ran down Water Street, searching.

The shadows were lengthening when Reuben arrived at the factory. The
sack buyer was about to lock up.
“Mister! Please don’t close up yet.” The man turned and saw Reuben,
dirty and sweat stained.
“Come back tomorrow, boy.”
“Please, Mister. I have to sell the sacks now – please.” The man heard a
tremor in Reuben’s voice and could tell he was close to tears.
“Why do you need this money so badly?”
"It's a secret."
The man took the sacks, reached into his pocket and put four nickels
into Reuben's hand. Reuben murmured a quiet thank-you and ran home.
Then, clutching the tin can, he headed for the store. "I have the
money," he solemnly told the owner, pouring his coins onto the counter.
The man went to the window and retrieved Reuben's treasure. He wiped
the dust off and gently wrapped it in brown paper. Then he placed the
parcel in Reuben's hands.
Racing home, Reuben burst through the front door. His mother was
scrubbing the kitchen range. "Here, Mom! Here!" Reuben exclaimed as he
ran to her side. He placed a small box in her work roughened hand.
She unwrapped it carefully, to save the paper. A blue-velvet jewel box
appeared. Dora lifted the lid, tears beginning to blur her vision.
In gold lettering on a small, almond-shaped brooch was the word Mother.

It was Mother's Day, 1946.
Dora had never received such a gift; she had no finery except her
wedding ring. Speechless, she smiled radiantly and gathered her son
into her arms.

In 1947 Mark Earle moved to Toronto. Dora and the children stayed in Bay
Roberts until Mark could afford to send for them. Two years later the
Earle family was joyously reunited.
Dora Earle died in 1983 in Toronto, at 75. In her will, she left her
most valued possession to her son Reuben. Now in his late 60s, with two
sons and five grandchildren, Reuben lives in Bradford, Ont, hating
retired from his career as a real-estate agent two years ago. His wife
of 47 years, Lillian, says, "Reuben has never changed from the loving
boy who gave his mother that brooch.'
Reuben's eyes mist at the memory of his mother. "She was the most
beautiful person in the world.'


It was a lot of money, but the boy was tireless

a boy with a mission by indra sharma

in 1945,a 12-year-old boy saw something in a shop window that set his heart racing.but the price-five dollars-was far beyond Beuben Earle's means.five dollars would buy almost a week's groceries for his family.

Beuben could not ask his father for the money.everything Mark Eerle make through fishing in Bay Roberts.newfoundland,Canada,Beuben's mother,Dora,streched like elastic to feed and clothe their five children.

   nevertheless,he opened the shop's weathered door and went inside.standing proud and straight in his floursack shirt and washed-out trousers,he told the spokeeper what he wanted,adding ,"but i do not have the money right now.can you please hold it for me for some time?"

   "i will try"the shopkeeper smiled."folks around here do not usually have that kind of money to spend on things.it should keep for a while."

   Beuben respectfully touched his worn cap and walked out into the sun light with the bay rippling in a freshing wind.there was purpose in his loping stride.he would raise the five dollars and not tell anybody.

   hearing the sound of hammering from a side street,Beuben had an idea.

   he ran towards the sound and stopped at a construction site.people built their own homes in Bay Roberts, using nails purchased in hessian sacks from a local factory.sometimes the sacks were discarded in the flurry of building,and Beuben knew he could sell them back to the factory for five sents a piece.

  that day he found two sacks which he took to the rambling  wooden factory and sold to the man in charge of packing nails.

   the boy's hand tightly clutched the five sent pieces as he ran the two kilometers home.
  near his house stood the ancient barn that housed the family's goats and chickens.Beuben found a rusty baking-soda tin and dropped his coins inside.then he climed in it the loft  of the barn and hid the tin beneath a pile of sweet-smelling hay.

it was dinner time when Beuben got home.his father sat at the big kitchen stove,working in a fishing net.Dora was at the kitchen stove,ready to serve dinner as Reuben took his place at the tabke.

  He looked at his mother and simle.sunlight from the window gilded her shoulder-length blonde hair.slim and beautiful,she was the centre of the home,the glue that held it together.

  Her chores were never-ending .sewing clothes fot her family on the old singer treadle bread,planting and tending a vegetable garden,milking the goats and scrubbing soiled clothes on a washboard.but she was happy.her family and their well-being were her highest priority.

  Every day after chores and school.Reuben scoured the town,collecting the hessian nail bags.on the day the two-room school closed for the summer ,no student was more delighted than Reuben.now he would have more time for his mission.

  All summer long,despite chores at home-weeding and watering the garden,cutting wood and fetching water-Reuben kept to his secret task.

  Then all too soon the garden was harvested,the vegetables canned and stored,and the school reopened,soon the leaves fell and the winds blew cold and gusty from the bay.Reuben wandered the streets,diligently searching for his hessian treasures.

  Often he was cold,tired and hungry,but the thought of the object in the shop window sustained him.sometimes his mother would ask:”Reuben,where were you?”we were waiting for you to have dinner.

  “playing,Mum,sorry.”

   Dora would look at his face and shake her head.boys.

   Finally spring burst into glorious green and Reuben’s spirits erupted.the time had come! He ran into the barn,climbed to the hayloft and uncovered the tin can. He poured the coins out and began to count.

   Then he counted again. He needed 20 cents more . could there be any sacks left any where in town? He had to find four and sell them before the day ended.

  Reuben ran down Water street.

  The shadows were lengthening when Reuben arrived at the factory. The sack buyer was about to lock up.

“mister! Please do not close up yet.” The man turned and saw Reuben,dirty and sweat stained.

“Come back torrow, boy.”

“please, mister. I have to sell the sacks now---please!”the man heard a tremor in Reuben’s voice and could tell he was close to tears.

“why do you need this money so badly.”

“it is a secret.”

The man took the sacks,reached into his pocked and put four coins in Reuben’s hand. Reuben murmured a thank you and ran home.

Then clutching the rin can,he headed for the shop.

“I have the money”,he solemnly told the owner.

The man went to the window and retrieved Reuben’s treasure.

He wiped the dust off and gently wrapped it in brown paper.then he palced the parcel in Reuben’s hands.

Racing home, reuben burst through the front door. His mother was scrubbing the kitchen stove.”here, Mum! HERE!”Reuben exclaimed as he ran to her side. He placed a small box in her work-roughened hand.

She unwrapped it carefully, to save the paper. A blue-velvet jewel box appeared.Dora lifted the lid,tears beginning to blur her vision.

In gold lettering on a small,almond-shaped brooch was the word Mother.

It was Mother’s day,1946.Dora had never received such a gift;she had no finery except her wedding ring. Speechless,she smiled radiantly and gathered her son into her arms.




What did Reuben's father do for a living?

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2.

Why did Reuben not ask his father for money?

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3.

Which sentence in paragraph 4 suggests that Reuben decided to keep his plan a secret?

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Why did Reuben keep to his task of collecting sacks?

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Why did Reuben feel that his mother deserved the Mother's Day gift?

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