My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat simultaneously. It was hanging on a rack at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass, crammed in with shoddy trench coats and an assortment of sad, woolen overcoats -- a rose among thorns. 

    在馬薩諸塞州北安普頓市的一家出售二手服裝的店里，我和我14歲的兒子約翰同時盯上了那件大衣。它就掛在衣架上，夾在劣質的軍用風雨衣和各式各樣寒酸的羊毛大衣當中，然而它卻像荊棘叢中的一朵玫瑰。

    While the other coats drooped, this one looked as if it were holding itself up. The thick, black wool of the double-breasted chesterfield was soft and unworn, as though it had been preserved in mothballs for years in dead old Uncle Henry's steamer trunk. The coat had a black velvet collar, beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and an unbelievable price of $28. We looked at each other, saying nothing, but John's eyes gleamed. Dark, woolen topcoats were popular just then with teenage boys, but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better, bearing that touch of classic elegance from a bygone era. 

    其他的大衣都顯得沒精打采，惟獨這件衣服趾高氣揚。厚厚的黑色羊絨柔軟而蓬松，這件雙排扣暗鈕長大衣顯然還沒上過身，看樣子，就像用樟腦球在老亨利叔叔的扁平旅行箱里保存了多年。其做工精細：領子是黑天鵝絨的，商標是第五大街的，價錢讓人難以置信，只賣28美元。我們彼此看著對方，一言不發，可約翰的眼里卻閃著欣喜的光。黑色的羊絨輕便大衣那時在小伙子們中很流行，買一件新的要花好幾百美元，而這一件質地更好一些，還帶有一種逝去年代的古典美。

    John slid his arms down into the heavy satin lining of the sleeves and buttoned the coat. He turned from side to side, eyeing himself in the mirror with a serious, studied expression that soon changed into a smile. The fit was perfect.

    約翰將胳膊伸進了袖管里——襯里是厚厚的緞子，系上了扣子。他在鏡子面前轉過來調過去地打量著自己，臉上的嚴肅表情不一會兒就變成了微笑。衣服合身極了。

    John wore the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big grin. "Ho. did the kids like your coat?" I asked. "They loved it," he said, carefully folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. I started calling him "Lord Chesterfield" and "The Great Gatsby."

    第二天約翰就穿著它去上學了。放學回來他笑逐顏開。我問他：“那些孩子覺得你的大衣怎么樣？”“他們非常喜歡。”他一邊說，一邊在椅子背兒上把衣服仔細地疊起來，并甩手把它展平。我于是就開始叫他“切斯特菲爾德大人”和“了不起的蓋茨比”。

    Over the next few weeks, a change came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness, quiet, reasoned discussion replaced argument. He became more judicious, more mannerly, more thoughtful, eager to please. “Good dinner, Mom," he would say every evening. 

    在接下來的幾周內，約翰慢慢地變了：變得聽話而不再故意作對，遇事能心平氣和地商討而不再強詞奪理。他變得更明事理、更有禮貌，也更體貼人了。他也樂于討人歡喜。每天晚上都要說：“媽媽，晚飯好極了。”#p#分頁標題#e#

    He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him on the niceties of behaviour; without a word of objection, he would carry in wood for the stove. One day when I suggested that he might start on homework before dinner, John -- a veteran procrastinator – said, “You’re right. I guess I will.” 

    他會很慷慨地把自己的磁帶借給弟弟，并告誡他如何有良好的行為舉止；他會毫無怨言地把燒爐子用的劈柴抱進來。有一天當我建議他在晚飯前開始做作業時，約翰這個一貫拖拉的家伙居然說：“您是對的，我想我會做的。” 

    When I mentioned this incident to one of his teachers and remarked that I didn't know what caused the changes, she said laughing. "It must be his coat!" Another teacher told him she was giving him a good mark not only because he had earned it but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend who had not seen our children in a long time, “Could this be John?" he asked, looking up to John's new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.

    當我對他的一個老師提起這件事，并說我不知道這是為什么時，她笑著說：“一定是因為他的大衣！”另一個老師告訴他，她要給他一個好成績，不僅僅因為他理應獲得，還因為她喜歡他的大衣。在圖書館里我們遇見了一位朋友，他已經很長時間沒有看見我們的孩子了。看著約翰長高的個子，品評著他大衣的樣式，這位朋友不禁問道：“這是約翰嗎？” 同時向約翰伸出了手，完全是紳士間的行為。

    John and I both know we should never mistake a person's clothes for the real person within them. But there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see, for practising standards of excellence in though, speech, and behaviour, and for matching what is on the inside to what is on the outside. 

    約翰和我都知道不應該以貌取人，可穿著優雅為世人看，在思想上、言語上、行動上實踐優秀的標準，以達到內外的和諧統一，這又另當別論。

    Sometimes, watching John leave for school, I've remembered with a keen sting what it felt like to be in the eighth grade -- a time when it was as easy to try on different approaches to life as it was to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast panorama where all the doors are open. And if I were there right now, I would picture myself walking through those doors wearing my wonderful, magical coat. 

    有時看著約翰上學去，我就不禁怦然心動，想起自己上8年級時的感覺——那時嘗試不同的生活方式就如同試衣服一樣簡單。整個世界、整個未來在你面前展開，猶如一幅巨大的畫卷，那里的每一扇門都敞開著。如果此刻我能回到那兒，我會在這些門間穿行，身上就穿著那件奇妙的、帶有魔力的大衣。