The old flowerpot by the school gate had held nothing but dry soil for a whole year. Then, one Monday, Wei saw a small green shoot beside a crack in the clay.
校门口那只旧花盆里，整整一年只有干土。后来，在一个星期一，小伟看见陶土裂缝旁冒出一小截绿色的芽。
He told his teacher, who gave him a plastic bottle of water. Every morning before class, Wei gave the shoot a little drink. He did not tell anyone else, because he wanted to see what would happen first.
他告诉了老师，老师给了他一瓶水。每天上课前，小伟都给那株小芽喝一点水。他没有告诉别人，因为他想先看看会发生什么。
By Friday there were seven shoots. Wei knelt down and looked closely. Each one was different: one had round leaves, one had tiny yellow dots, and one curled like a question mark.
到了星期五，已经有七株小芽了。小伟跪下来仔细看。它们每一株都不一样：一株长着圆叶子，一株有小小的黄点，还有一株卷起来，像一个大问号。
A girl named An stopped beside him. 'It's like a forest for ants,' she said. They laughed, then became quiet, watching a real ant climb a stem. Wei decided the pot needed a sign so nobody would step on it.
一个叫小安的女孩在他旁边停下。“这像是给蚂蚁住的森林。”她说。他们笑了，然后又安静下来，看一只真的蚂蚁爬上一根茎。小伟决定给花盆做一块牌子，免得有人踩到它。
Wei wrote 'SMALL FOREST - PLEASE WALK AROUND' on a card and tied it to a stick. The next morning, someone had added a second card: 'Water on Mondays. An.'
小伟在卡片上写上“小森林——请绕行”，把它绑在一根小棍上。第二天早上，有人添了第二张卡片：“星期一浇水。——小安”
Soon other children left notes, a button, a smooth stone, a paper bee. The pot was still just a pot, but it had become a place where everyone stopped. Wei watered it after school and thought that a forest could be very small and still be a forest.
很快，别的孩子也留下了字条、一颗纽扣、一块光滑的石头、一只纸蜜蜂。那只花盆仍然只是一只花盆，却变成了大家都会停下来的地方。放学后小伟给它浇水，他想，一片森林可以很小，却仍然是一片森林。