Pablo Neruda's Greatest Lesson from Childhood

As a child the renowned poet Pablo Neruda discovered a hole in a fence board from which, suddenly, appeared a tiny hand of a boy about Neruda's own age. The hand just as soon disappeared, and in its place there was a marvelous white toy sheep -- a gift to Neruda. This isolated incident would spark something deep in the poet and influence his work in all the years to come. In this beautiful passage Neruda reflects on that gesture of anonymous kindness and what it meant to him.

http://www.dailygood.org/story/1093/pablo-neruda-s-greatest-lesson-from-childhood-lewis-hyde/