爱的教育(外研社双语读库)(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)

作者：Edmondo De Amicis 艾德蒙多·德亚米契斯

出版社：外语教学与研究出版社

格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT

爱的教育(外研社双语读库)试读：

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.

开学日

Monday, 17th.

星期一，17日

Today is the first day of school. These three months of vacation in the country have passed like a dream. This morning my mother conducted me to the Baretti schoolhouse to have me enter for the third elementary course: I was thinking of the country and went unwillingly. All the streets were swarming with boys: the two book-shops were thronged with fathers and mothers who were purchasing bags, portfolios, and copy-books, and in front of the school so many people had collected, that the beadle and the policeman found it difficult to keep the entrance disencumbered. Near the door, I felt myself touched on the shoulder: it was my master of the second class, cheerful, as usual, and with his red hair ruffled, and he said to me:—

今天是开学第一天。在乡间的三个月假期像梦一样地过去了。今天早晨母亲带我到巴莱缇校舍去，让我报名参加小学四年级的课程：我不情不愿地去了，心里还想着乡间。所有的街道都挤满了学生；两家书店里塞满了正在购买书包、文件夹和字帖的家长们。学校前面已经聚集了很多人，弄得仪仗官和警察很难保持大门的畅通。到了校门口，我感觉有人碰了一下我的肩膀——是我三年级的班主任，他和往常一样欢快，红色的头发乱卷着，对我说道：

"So we are separated forever, Enrico?"“那么我们就永远分开了，安利柯？”

I knew it perfectly well, yet these words pained me. We made our way in with difficulty. Ladies, gentlemen, women of the people, workmen, officials, nuns, servants, all leading boys with one hand, and holding the promotion books in the other, filled the anteroom and the stairs, making such a buzzing, that it seemed as though one were entering a theatre. I beheld again with pleasure that large room on the ground floor, with the doors leading to the seven classes, where I had passed nearly every day for three years. There was a throng; the teachers were going and coming. My schoolmistress of the first upper class greeted me from the door of the class-room, and said:—

我知道得很清楚，但这些话还是让我痛心。我们好容易才进到里面。夫人们、绅士们、普通妇人们、工人们、官员们、修女们、仆人们，都一手牵着小男孩，一手抱着成绩册，占满了接待室和楼梯。他们发出的声响如此嘈杂，就像走进了戏院一样。我又满心欢喜地看了一下一楼那个巨大的房间，它的房门通往七个班级，三年来我几乎每日都要穿过这个房间。那里有一大群人，老师们来来往往的。我二年级时的女老师在教室门口跟我打招呼，她说：

"Enrico, you are going to the floor above this year. I shall never see you pass by any more!" and she gazed sadly at me. The director was surrounded by women in distress because there was no room for their sons, and it struck me that his beard was a little whiter than it had been last year. I found the boys had grown taller and stouter. On the ground floor, where the divisions had already been made, there were little children of the first and lowest section, who did not want to enter the class-rooms, and who resisted like donkeys: it was necessary to drag them in by force, and some escaped from the benches; others, when they saw their parents depart, began to cry, and the parents had to go back and comfort and reprimand them, and the teachers were in despair.“安利柯，你今年要到楼上去了。我再也看不到你从这儿走过了！”然后她伤心地看着我。校长被一群穷困的妇人围绕着，因为没地方供她们的儿子入学了。我突然发现他的胡子比去年更白了一点儿。我发现学生们长得更高更壮了。在一楼，分班已经完成了，一年级的小孩子们不愿意进到教室里去，像驴子一样抵抗着，必须把他们拽进去才行。一些孩子从长凳上逃了出去，另一些看到父母离开就开始哭，父母不得不返回来安慰和训斥他们，老师们都束手无策。

My little brother was placed in the class of Mistress Delcati: I was put with Master Perboni, up stairs on the first floor. At ten o'clock we were all in our classes: fifty-four of us; only fifteen or sixteen of my companions of the second class, among them, Derossi, the one who always gets the first prize. The school seemed to me so small and gloomy when I thought of the woods and the mountains where I had passed the summer! I thought again, too, of my master in the second class, who was so good, and who always smiled at us, and was so small that he seemed to be one of us, and I grieved that I should no longer see him there, with his tumbled red hair. Our teacher is tall; he has no beard; his hair is gray and long; and he has a perpendicular wrinkle on his forehead: he has a big voice, and he looks at us fixedly, one after the other, as though he were reading our inmost thoughts; and he never smiles. I said to myself: "This is my first day. There are nine months more. What toil, what monthly examinations, what fatigue!"I really needed to see my mother when I came out, and I ran to kiss her hand. She said to me:—

我的弟弟被编入女老师代尔卡谛所教的班里，我则被分到配巴尼老师的班里，在上面的二楼。十点我们都进了教室。我们班共五十四人，只有十五或十六人是我三年级时的同窗，包括那个总拿一等奖的代洛西。一想起我消夏的那片树林和那些山峦，我就觉得学校又小又阴暗了。我又想起我三年级的班主任来，他人可好了，常常对我们笑，个子那么小，就好像是我们中的一员一样。想到我再也不能看见顶着一头蓬乱红发的他，我伤心了。我们的老师是高个子，他没有胡子，留着长长的灰白头发，前额上有道竖直的皱纹；他嗓门很大，专注地逐个看着我们，就好像在读着我们心灵最深处的想法一样；而且他从来不笑。我对自己说：“这是我的第一天。还有九个月呢。什么用功，什么月考，什么疲劳呀！”一放学，我就迫不及待地去找母亲，冲过去吻她的手。她对我说：

"Courage, Enrico! we will study together."And I returned home content. But I no longer have my master, with his kind, merry smile, and school does not seem pleasant to me as it did before.“加油，安利柯，我们一起学习。”然后我就心满意足地回家了。但是我再也见不着我的班主任和他和蔼、舒心的笑容了，学校对我来说不像从前那么令人愉快了。

OUR MASTER.

我们的班主任

Tuesday, 18th.

星期二，18日

My new teacher pleases me also, since this morning. While we were coming in, and when he was already seated at his post, some one of his scholars of last year every now and then peeped in at the door to salute him; they would present themselves and greet him:—

从今天早晨起，我的新老师也让我喜欢起来了。我们进教室的时候，他已经坐在他的座位上了，一些他去年教过的学生不时地从门口探进头来和他打招呼，他们也会走进来向他问好：

"Good morning, Signor Teacher!""Good morning, Signor Perboni!"Some entered, touched his hand, and ran away. It was evident that they liked him, and would have liked to return to him. He responded, "Good morning," and shook the hands which were extended to him, but he looked at no one; at every greeting his smile remained serious, with that perpendicular wrinkle on his brow, with his face turned towards the window, and staring at the roof of the house opposite; and instead of being cheered by these greetings, he seemed to suffer from them. Then he surveyed us attentively, one after the other. While he was dictating, he descended and walked among the benches, and, catching sight of a boy whose face was all red with little pimples, he stopped dictating, took the lad's face between his hands and examined it; then he asked him what was the matter with him, and laid his hand on his forehead, to feel if it was hot. Meanwhile, a boy behind him got up on the bench, and began to play the marionette. The teacher turned round suddenly; the boy resumed his seat at one dash, and remained there, with head hanging, in expectation of being punished. The master placed one hand on his head and said to him:—“早安，老师！”“早安，配巴尼先生！”一些学生走了进来，握了他的手，就跑开了。这说明他们喜欢他，仍想做他的学生。他回答“早安”，并且握了握那些伸过来的手，但是他谁也不看。每次问候时，他的笑容都保持严肃，眉头间那条纵纹一皱，脸转向窗外，盯着对面楼的屋顶。他看上去并不为这些问好感到高兴，反倒像是在受苦。然后他专心地挨个审视起我们。他听写的时候，走下讲台，在座位之间走动，看到一个脸上长着小丘疹的、满脸通红的男孩，就停下了听写，两手托了男孩的头来检查，然后他问他哪里不舒服，并把手放在他前额上试试发不发热。这时，老师身后的一个学生站上长凳，开始玩起牵线木偶来。老师突然转过身，那个男孩立刻坐回座位，垂着脑袋呆在那里，等待受罚。老师把一只手放在他头上，对他说：

"Don't do so again."Nothing more.“不要再做这种事了。”就再没说什么。

Then he returned to his table and finished the dictation. When he had finished dictating, he looked at us a moment in silence; then he said, very, very slowly, with his big but kind voice:—

然后他返回讲台，完成了听写。听写完后，他静静地看了我们一会儿，然后用他那响亮却亲切的声音非常非常缓慢地说：

"Listen. We have a year to pass together; let us see that we pass it well. Study and be good. I have no family; you are my family. Last year I had still a mother: she is dead. I am left alone. I have no one but you in all the world; I have no other affection, no other thought than you: you must be my sons. I wish you well, and you must like me too. I do not wish to be obliged to punish any one. Show me that you are boys of heart: our school shall be a family, and you shall be my consolation and my pride. I do not ask you to give me a promise on your word of honor; I am sure that in your hearts you have already answered me 'yes,' and I thank you."“听好。我们将共同度过一年的时间，让我们好好地过这一年吧。好好学习，乖乖听话。我没有家人，你们就是我的家人。去年我母亲还活着，现在她去世了。我被孤零零地撇下了。除了你们，我别无亲人了；除了你们，我别无所爱，别无所思。你们就是我的儿子。我祝福你们，你们也一定要喜欢我。我不愿被迫去责罚任何人。让我看看你们都是有心的孩子，我们的学校会成为一个大家庭，你们会成为我的慰藉和骄傲。我不是要你们跟我担保承诺，我确定你们已经在心里用‘是’回答了我，我谢谢你们。”

At that moment the beadle entered to announce the close of school. We all left our seats very, very quietly. The boy who had stood up on the bench approached the master, and said to him, in a trembling voice:—

正在那时，仪仗官走进来宣布放学。我们都非常非常安静地离开了座位。那个站上长凳的男孩走到老师跟前，用颤抖的声音对他说：

"Forgive me, Signor Master."“原谅我吧，老师。”

The master kissed him on the brow, and said, "Go, my son."

老师吻了一下他的眉毛，说：“回家吧，我的孩子。”

AN ACCIDENT.

一场事故

Friday, 21st.

星期五，21日

The year has begun with an accident. On my way to school this morning I was repeating to my father these words of our teacher, when we perceived that the street was full of people, who were pressing close to the door of the schoolhouse. Suddenly my father said: "An accident! The year is beginning badly!"

这学年以一场事故开始。今天早晨去学校的路上，我正向父亲复述着老师的话，这时我们发觉街上站满了人，人群正在向校舍门口逼近。我父亲突然说：“出事了！这学年开始得不妙啊！”

We entered with great difficulty. The big hall was crowded with parents and children, whom the teachers had not succeeded in drawing off into the class-rooms, and all were turning towards the director's room, and we heard the words, "Poor boy! Poor Robetti!"

我们好不容易才进到里面。大厅挤满了家长和没能被老师成功拉回教室去的孩子们，所有的人都向校长的房间涌去。我们听到有人说着“可怜的孩子！可怜的洛佩谛！”

Over their heads, at the end of the room, we could see the helmet of a policeman, and the bald head of the director; then a gentleman with a tall hat entered, and all said, "That is the doctor."My father inquired of a master, "What has happened?"—"A wheel has passed over his foot," replied the latter. "His foot has been crushed," said another. He was a boy belonging to the second class, who, on his way to school through the Via Dora Grossa, seeing a little child of the lowest class, who had run away from its mother, fall down in the middle of the street, a few paces from an omnibus which was bearing down upon it, had hastened boldly forward, caught up the child, and placed it in safety; but, as he had not withdrawn his own foot quickly enough, the wheel of the omnibus had passed over it. He is the son of a captain of artillery. While we were being told this, a woman entered the big hall, like a lunatic, and forced her way through the crowd: she was Robetti's mother, who had been sent for. Another woman hastened towards her, and flung her arms about her neck, with sobs: it was the mother of the baby who had been saved. Both flew into the room, and a desperate cry made itself heard: "Oh my Giulio! My child!"

从他们头顶上看过去，在房间的尽头，我们可以看到一个警察的头盔和校长光秃秃的脑袋。接着，一位戴着高帽的绅士走了进来，所有人都说：“医生来了。”我父亲问一位老师：“发生什么事了？”“一个车轮轧过了他的脚。”后者回答。“他脚骨碎了。”另一个人说。他是三年级的一个学生，在上学的路上经过维亚多拉格罗萨时，看到一个一年级的小男孩从他母亲身旁跑开，倒在马路中央；几步之远的地方一辆公共马车正向他倒下的方向疾驶而来；他大胆地跑向前去抱起那个男孩，把他放到安全的地方；但是由于他抽脚不够快，被公共马车的车轮轧伤了。救人的是一位炮兵上尉的儿子。正当我们听着这些事情的时候，一个女人疯了似的闯进大厅，从人群中拱着往前挤：她是洛佩谛的母亲，是被人叫过来的。另一个女人急忙奔向她，啜泣着伸出双手抱住她的头：这是被救男孩的母亲。两个人都奔入那个房间，随后发出一声绝望的呐喊：“哦，我的孩子！我的孩子啊！”

At that moment a carriage stopped before the door, and a little later the director made his appearance, with the boy in his arms; the latter leaned his head on his shoulder, with pallid face and closed eyes. Every one stood very still; the sobs of the mother were audible. The director paused a moment, quite pale, and raised the boy up a little in his arms, in order to show him to the people. And then the masters, mistresses, parents, and boys all murmured together: "Bravo, Robetti! Bravo, poor child!" and they threw kisses to him; the mistresses and boys who were near him kissed his hands and his arms. He opened his eyes and said, "My portfolio!"The mother of the little boy whom he had saved showed it to him and said, amid her tears, "I will carry it for you, my dear little angel; I will carry it for you."And in the meantime, the mother of the wounded boy smiled, as she covered her face with her hands. They went out, placed the lad comfortably in the carriage, and the carriage drove away. Then we all entered school in silence.

这时，一辆马车停在了校门口，又过了一会儿，校长抱着那个男孩出现了；男孩把头靠着校长的肩膀上，面无血色，闭着眼睛。大家都静静地站着，只听见那位母亲的啜泣声。校长停留了一阵子，面色十分苍白；为了让大家看到，他把怀里的小男孩稍微举高了一些。随后老师、家长、学生都一齐小声地说道：“做得好啊，洛佩谛！做得好啊，可怜的孩子！”他们向他献吻；靠近一点儿的女老师和学生都去吻他的手和手臂。他睁开眼睛说道：“我的书包！”他救的那个男孩的母亲把书包给他看，流着眼泪说：“我会替你拿着的，我的小天使，我会替你拿着的。”这时受伤的男孩的母亲笑了，她用手捂住了脸。他们走了出去，把那个男孩小心地放到马车里，接着马车就开走了。之后我们都默默地走进了学校。

THE CALABRIAN BOY.

卡拉布里亚的男孩

Saturday, 22nd.

星期六，22日

Yesterday afternoon, while the master was telling us the news of poor Robetti, who will have to go on crutches, the director entered with a new pupil, a lad with a very brown face, black hair, large black eyes, and thick eyebrows which met on his forehead: he was dressed entirely in dark clothes, with a black morocco belt round his waist. The director went away, after speaking a few words in the master's ear, leaving beside the latter the boy, who glanced about with his big black eyes as though frightened. The master took him by the hand, and said to the class: "You ought to be glad. Today there enters our school a little Italian born in Reggio, in Calabria, more than five hundred miles from here. Love your brother who has come from so far away. He was born in a glorious land, which has given illustrious men to Italy, and which now furnishes her with stout laborers and brave soldiers; in one of the most beautiful lands of our country, where there are great forests, and great mountains, inhabited by people full of talent and courage. Treat him well, so that he shall not perceive that he is far away from the city in which he was born; make him see that an Italian boy, in whatever Italian school he sets his foot, will find brothers there."So saying, he rose and pointed out on the wall map of Italy the spot where lay Reggio, in Calabria. Then he called loudly:—

昨天下午，当老师正在告诉我们可怜的洛佩谛将不得不依靠拐杖走路的消息时，校长领着一个新学生走了进来。他肤色很深，头发乌黑，有一双大大的眼睛，浓浓的眉毛在前额交会在一起。他全身穿着黑衣服，腰间系着一条摩洛哥革腰带。校长对老师耳语了几句后就离开了，把那个男孩留在了老师身旁。男孩好像被吓坏了似的，用他大大的黑眼睛向四周环视着。老师拉着他的手，向全班说道：“你们应该高兴。今天，一名从五百多英里外的卡拉布里亚的雷焦来的意大利孩子加入了我们学校。大家要友好对待这位远道而来的同胞。他出生在一片荣耀的土地，那里走出过一批名人志士，也正在为国家输送着强健的劳动者和勇敢的军人；那里是我们国家最美丽的地方之一，有广袤的森林、巍峨的山峦，住着富有才能和勇气的人们。好好待他吧，这样他就不会觉得背井离乡了；要让他看到，一个意大利男孩不管在哪所意大利学校落脚，都会在那里找到自己的同胞。”这样说着，他站起来，在墙上的意大利地图上指出卡拉布里亚的雷焦的位置。接着他大声喊道：

"Ernesto Derossi!"—the boy who always has the first prize. Derossi rose.“尔耐斯托·代洛西！”——他是每次都拿一等奖的学生。代洛西站了起来。

"Come here," said the master. Derossi left his bench and stepped up to the little table, facing the Calabrian.“到这里来。”老师说。代洛西离开了座位，走上了小讲台，面对着那个卡拉布里亚男孩。

"As the head boy in the school," said the master to him, "bestow the embrace of welcome on this new companion, in the name of the whole class—the embrace of the sons of Piedmont to the son of Calabria."“你是班长，”老师对他说，“请以全班的名义，用拥抱来欢迎这个新来的伙伴——代表皮德蒙特的孩子去拥抱卡拉布里亚的孩子。”

Derossi embraced the Calabrian, saying in his clear voice, "Welcome!" and the other kissed him impetuously on the cheeks. All clapped their hands. "Silence!" cried the master; "don't clap your hands in school!"But it was evident that he was pleased. And the Calabrian was pleased also. The master assigned him a place, and accompanied him to the bench. Then he said again:—

代洛西拥抱了那个卡拉布里亚男孩，用他清晰的声音说道：“欢迎你！”卡拉布里亚男孩也热烈地吻了代洛西的脸颊。所有人都鼓起了掌。“安静！”老师大声说，“在学校里不准拍手！”但是很明显，他很高兴。卡拉布里亚男孩也很高兴。老师给他安排了一个座位，并陪他走到长凳边。随后他又说道：

"Bear well in mind what I have said to you. In order that this case might occur, that a Calabrian boy should be as though in his own house at Turin, and that a boy from Turin should be at home in Calabria, our country fought for fifty years, and thirty thousand Italians died. You must all respect and love each other; but any one of you who should give offence to this comrade, because he was not born in our province, would render himself unworthy of ever again raising his eyes from the earth when he passes the tricolored flag."“请好好记住我刚才对你们说的话。卡拉布里亚的孩子在都灵要像住在自己家里一样，都灵的孩子在卡拉布里亚也要像在家一样，为了使这种情况能够实现，我们的国家为此打了五十年的仗，三万意大利人为此战死。你们所有人一定要互敬互爱，但凡有谁因为他不是本地人而对这个新同学无礼，经过三色旗时就只好垂下头，再也没资格面对它。”

Hardly was the Calabrian seated in his place, when his neighbors presented him with pens and a print; and another boy, from the last bench, sent him a Swiss postage-stamp.

卡拉布里亚男孩几乎还没落座，邻座的孩子们就送给了他钢笔和一个印章，最后一排的一个男孩给了他一枚瑞士的邮票。

MY COMRADES.

我的同学们

Tuesday, 25th.

星期二，25日

The boy who sent the postage-stamp to the Calabrian is the one who pleases me best of all. His name is Garrone: he is the biggest boy in the class: he is about fourteen years old; his head is large, his shoulders broad; he is good, as one can see when he smiles; but it seems as though he always thought like a man. I already know many of my comrades. Another one pleases me, too, by the name of Coretti, and he wears chocolate-colored trousers and a catskin cap: he is always jolly; he is the son of a huckster of wood, who was a soldier in the war of 1866, in the squadron of Prince Umberto, and they say that he has three medals. There is little Nelli, a poor hunchback, a weak boy, with a thin face. There is one who is very well dressed, who always wears fine Florentine plush, and is named Votini. On the bench in front of me there is a boy who is called "the little mason" because his father is a mason: his face is as round as an apple, with a nose like a small ball; he possesses a special talent: he knows how to make a hare's face, and they all get him to make a hare's face, and then they laugh. He wears a little ragged cap, which he carries rolled up in his pocket like a handkerchief. Beside the little mason there sits Garoffi, a long, thin, silly fellow, with a nose and beak of a screech owl, and very small eyes, who is always trafficking in little pens and images and match-boxes, and who writes the lesson on his nails, in order that he may read it on the sly. Then there is a young gentleman, Carlo Nobis, who seems very haughty; and he is between two boys who are sympathetic to me,—the son of a blacksmith-ironmonger, clad in a jacket which reaches to his knees, who is pale, as though from illness, who always has a fightened air, and who never laughs; and one with red hair, who has a useless arm, and wears it suspended from his neck; his father has gone away to America, and his mother goes about peddling pot-herbs.

那个送邮票给卡拉布里亚男孩的是我最喜欢的一个同学。他的名字叫卡隆，是班里个头最大的学生，大约十四岁，头大肩宽；他人不错，从他笑的时候可以看出来，但是看上去他似乎总是像大人一样在思考着。我已经认识许多同学了。另一个名字叫可莱谛的，我也喜欢；他穿巧克力色的裤子，戴猫皮帽；他总是很快乐；他是一个木材商人的儿子；他父亲在一八六六年的战役中跟着温培尔脱亲王打过仗，据说他还拿到过三枚勋章呢。有个小内利，他脸蛋瘦削，是个可怜的驼背体弱的男孩。有个叫华梯尼的，打扮得非常好看，总是穿着精美的佛罗伦萨长毛绒。坐在我前面的长凳上的是一个叫做“小石匠”的男孩，因为他的父亲是一名石匠。他的脸圆得像苹果，鼻子像一个小球；他有一项特殊的才能，就是懂得如何扮野兔的鬼脸；他们全都叫他扮野兔的鬼脸，然后大笑。他戴一顶有点儿破烂的帽子，不戴的时候，就把帽子像手帕一样卷起来装在口袋里。小石匠的旁边坐着卡洛斐，是个又瘦又高、傻傻的家伙；他长着鸣角鸮的钩型嘴、小小的眼睛；他常常拿钢笔、小画片和火柴盒来做买卖；他把课文写在手指甲上当小抄。还有一个叫卡洛·诺琵斯的年轻绅士，他看起来十分目中无人；他坐在两个对我友好的男孩中间——一个是铁匠家的儿子，穿着长及膝盖的夹克，脸色苍白，好像是由于生病的关系，他总是怯生生的样子，从来不笑；另一个是红头发的男孩，他一只手臂残疾，总是挂在脖子上，他的父亲去了美国，母亲沿街叫卖野菜。

And there is another curious type,—my neighbor on the left,—Stardi—small and thickset, with no neck,—a gruff fellow, who speaks to no one, and seems not to understand much, but stands attending to the master without winking, his brow corrugated with wrinkles, and his teeth clenched;and if he is questioned when the master is speaking, he makes no reply the first and second times, and the third time he gives a kick; and beside him there is a bold, cunning face, belonging to a boy named Franti, who has already been expelled from another district. There are, in addition, two brothers who are dressed exactly alike, who resemble each other to a hair, and both of whom wear caps of Calabrian cut, with a peasant's plume. But handsomer than all the rest, the one who has the most talent, who will surely be the head this year also, is Derossi; and the master, who has already perceived this, always questions him. But I like Precossi, the son of the blacksmith-ironmonger, the one with the long jacket, who seems sickly. They say that his father beats him; he is very timid, and every time that he addresses or touches any one, he says, "Excuse me," and gazes at them with his kind, sad eyes. But Garrone is the biggest and the nicest.

还有另一种奇怪的同学——我左边的邻座斯带地——身材矮胖，没有脖子；他是个冷淡的家伙，不和任何人说话，看上去懂的也不多，但是却紧锁眉头，咬紧牙关，眼睛都不眨一下，全神贯注地听老师的话。如果老师说话的当下，有人问他问题，他头两次都不会回答，若是第三次来问，他就会踢那人一脚了；他旁边是一个长着一张精明的宽脸的男孩，名叫弗兰蒂，曾被别的区的学校开除过。还有一对穿得一模一样的兄弟，两人相像到连发型都一致，都戴着卡拉布里亚风格的帽子，上面饰有农夫的羽毛。但是所有同伴之中，最英俊的、最有才能的、今年也必拿头奖的是代洛西，老师也已然领会到这一点，总是提问他。但是我喜欢铁匠的儿子泼来可西，那个穿着长长的夹克、看起来病恹恹的男孩。他们说他父亲常打他；他非常胆小，每当他跟别人讲话或是碰到别人时，他都会说：“请原谅我。”然后用他友善、伤感的眼神望着他们。但是卡隆是最年长的，也是人最好的。

A GENEROUS DEED.

见义勇为

Wednesday, 26th.

星期三，26日

It was this very morning that Garrone let us know what he is like. When I entered the school a little late, because the mistress of the upper first had stopped me to inquire at what hour she could find me at home, the master had not yet arrived, and three or four boys were tormenting poor Crossi, the one with the red hair, who has a dead arm, and whose mother sells vegetables. They were poking him with rulers, hitting him in the face with chestnut shells, and were making him out to be a cripple and a monster, by mimicking him, with his arm hanging from his neck. And he, alone on the end of the bench, and quite pale, began to be affected by it, gazing now at one and now at another with beseeching eyes, that they might leave him in peace. But the others mocked him worse than ever, and he began to tremble and to turn crimson with rage. All at once, Franti, the boy with the repulsive face, sprang upon a bench, and pretending that he was carrying a basket on each arm, he aped the mother of Crossi, when she used to come to wait for her son at the door; for she is ill now. Many began to laugh loudly. Then Crossi lost his head, and seizing an inkstand, he hurled it at the other's head with all his strength; but Franti dodged, and the inkstand struck the master, who entered at the moment, full in the breast.

正是今天早晨，卡隆让我们了解了他的为人。由于二年级的女老师叫住我问我何时在家，我到校稍晚了些，这时班主任还未到，三四个男孩正在戏弄可怜的克洛西，那个红发的、有只残疾手臂的、母亲卖蔬菜的男孩。他们用直尺戳他，用栗子壳砸他的脸，模仿他手臂挂在脖子上的样子，说他是瘸子和怪物。他一个人坐在长凳的一端，脸色相当苍白，开始发慌，用恳求的眼神一下看看这个，一下又看看那个，希望他们可以别去打扰他。但是其他人变本加厉地嘲笑起他来，他身子开始发抖，脸色因发怒而涨得深红。突然，那个长相让人讨厌的弗兰蒂跳上椅子，装做两手各拎着一个篮子的样子，在模仿克洛西的母亲过去常常来校门口等他的儿子的模样；而现在她生病了。很多人都开始放声大笑。克洛西失去了理智，抓起一只墨水瓶，全力向弗兰蒂的头猛砸过去；但是弗兰蒂闪躲开了，墨水瓶砸中了正进门的老师，墨汁溅满了他的胸部。

All flew to their places, and became silent with terror.

所有人都跑回了座位，害怕得不敢发出声音。

The master, quite pale, went to his table, and said in a constrained voice:—

老师脸色惨白，走到讲台上，用压抑的声音说：

"Who did it?"“是谁干的？”

No one replied.

没人回答。

The master cried out once more, raising his voice still louder, "Who is it?"

老师又加大音量大喊了一声：“是谁干的？”

Then Garrone, moved to pity for poor Crossi, rose abruptly and said, resolutely, "It was I."

卡隆同情可怜的克洛西，突然站起来，毅然地说：“是我。”

The master looked at him, looked at the stupefied scholars; then said in a tranquil voice, "It was not you."

老师看了看他，看了看错愕的学生们，然后用平静的声音说：“不是你。”

And, after a moment: "The culprit shall not be punished. Let him rise!"

过了一会儿，他又说，“犯错者不会受到惩罚。站起来吧！”

Crossi rose and said, weeping, "They were striking me and insulting me, and I lost my head, and threw it."

克洛西站起来，哭着说：“他们打我，欺侮我，我失去了理智，把墨水瓶砸了出去。”

"Sit down," said the master. "Let those who provoked him rise."“坐下吧，”老师说，“挑衅他的人站起来。”

Four rose, and hung their heads.

四个人站了起来，都低垂着头。

"You," said the master, "have insulted a companion who had given you no provocation; you have scoffed at an unfortunate lad, you have struck a weak person who could not defend himself. You have committed one of the basest, the most shameful acts with which a human creature can stain himself. Cowards!"“你们，”老师说，“欺侮了一个不曾招惹你们的同学，你们嘲弄了一个不幸的孩子，你们攻击了一个无还手之力的弱者。你们犯下的是一项人类最能给自己抹黑的、最可耻、最丢脸的行为。胆小鬼们！”

Having said this, he came down among the benches, put his hand under Garrone's chin, as the latter stood with drooping head, and having made him raise it, he looked him straight in the eye, and said to him, "You are a noble soul."

说完这些，他走下讲台，到座位中间去。他用手托着垂着头站着的卡隆的下巴，让他把头抬起来，直视他的眼睛，对他说：“你有高尚的品德。”

Garrone profited by the occasion to murmur some words, I know not what, in the ear of the master; and he, turning towards the four culprits, said, abruptly, "I forgive you."

卡隆借机向老师耳语了几句，我没听清楚；接着老师转向四个犯错的人，出乎意料地说：“我原谅你们。”

MY SCHOOLMISTRESS OF THE UPPER FIRST.

我二年级的女老师

Thursday, 27th.

星期四，27日

My schoolmistress has kept her promise which she made, and came Today just as I was on the point of going out with my mother to carry some linen to a poor woman recommended by the Gazette. It was a year since I had seen her in our house. We all made a great deal of her. She is just the same as ever, a little thing, with a green veil wound about her bonnet, carelessly dressed, and with untidy hair, because she has not time to keep herself nice; but with a little less color than last year, with some white hairs, and a constant cough. My mother said to her:—

我的女老师信守诺言，今天上门来拜访，正巧碰上我和母亲正要外出，我们要带一些亚麻布给《公报》上报道过的一位贫困的妇女。从老师上次来我家，已经有一年了。我们都盛情招待她。她模样一如往昔，身材瘦小，帽子上缠绕着一条绿色的面纱，衣着随意，头发凌乱，因为她没功夫精心打扮自己。但是她脸色比去年稍显黯淡，多了些白发，时不时地咳嗽一下。我母亲对她说：

"And your health, my dear mistress? You do not take sufficient care of yourself!"“那么，你的健康怎样，我亲爱的老师？你对自己照顾得不够！”

"It does not matter," the other replied, with her smile, at once cheerful and melancholy.“没关系的，”老师笑着答道，欢乐中带着一丝忧伤。

"You speak too loud," my mother added; "you exert yourself too much with your boys."“你讲话太大声了，”母亲补充道，“你对学生们太费心力了。”

That is true; her voice is always to be heard; I remember how it was when I went to school to her; she talked and talked all the time, so that the boys might not divert their attention, and she did not remain seated a moment. I felt quite sure that she would come, because she never forgets her pupils; she remembers their names for years; on the days of the monthly examination, she runs to ask the director what marks they have won;she waits for them at the entrance, and makes them show their compositions, in order that she may see what progress they have made; and many still come from the gymnasium to see her, who already wear long trousers and a watch. Today she had come back in a great state of excitement, from the picture-gallery, whither she had taken her boys, just as she had conducted them all to a museum every Thursday in years gone by, and explained everything to them. The poor mistress has grown still thinner than of old. But she is always brisk, and always becomes animated when she speaks of her school. She wanted to have a peep at the bed on which she had seen me lying very ill two years ago, and which is now occupied by my brother; she gazed at it for a while, and could not speak. She was obliged to go away soon to visit a boy belonging to her class, the son of a saddler, who is ill with the measles; and she had besides a package of sheets to correct, a whole evening's work, and she has still a private lesson in arithmetic to give to the mistress of a shop before nightfall.

那是真的，大家总能听见她的声音。我还记得做她的学生时的情形，她一直地讲啊讲啊，使得学生们没法分散注意力，她一刻也不曾坐下来。我相当肯定她会来拜访，因为她从不会忘记自己的学生，过了好多年都还能记得学生的名字。在月考的那天，她会跑去向校长问学生的成绩。她在校门口等学生，叫他们给她看他们写的作文，这样她就能知道他们进步了多少。很多已经穿上长裤、戴上手表的学生仍然从中学跑回来看她。多年来，每个星期四她都会带学生们去参观一个博物馆，并把一切解释给他们听。今天她刚领着学生们去参观了画廊，兴高采烈地回来了。可怜的老师上了年纪，愈加消瘦了。但她总是那样活泼，谈起学校的时候她总是兴致勃勃的。两年前我重病，她来看过我，她想看一眼我当时躺的床。那床现在已经归我弟弟睡了，她凝视了它好一会儿，没能说出话来。她必须离开了，因为还要去拜访一个自己班上的学生，他是马贩的儿子，患了麻疹；另外她还有一叠作业要批改，要干上一整晚了；在天黑前，她还要给一家店铺的老板娘做家教，补习算术。

"Well, Enrico," she said to me as she was going, "are you still fond of your schoolmistress, now that you solve difficult problems and write long compositions?"She kissed me, and called up once more from the foot of the stairs: "You are not to forget me, you know, Enrico!"Oh, my kind teacher, never, never will I forget thee! Even when I grow up I will remember thee and will go to seek thee among thy boys; and every time that I pass near a school and hear the voice of a schoolmistress, I shall think that I hear thy voice, and I shall recall the two years that I passed in thy school,where I learned so many things, where I so often saw thee ill and weary, but always earnest, always indulgent, in despair when any one acquired a bad trick in the writing-fingers, trembling when the examiners interrogated us, happy when we made a good appearance, always kind and loving as a mother. Never, never shall I forget thee, my teacher!“好吧，安利柯，”她临走时对我说，“既然你都能解决难的问题，也能写长篇的作文了，你还会喜爱你以前的老师吗？”她亲吻了我，在楼梯底下又向上叫我：“你可不要忘了我，你知道的，安利柯！”哦，我亲切的老师，我永远、永远不会忘记你的！即使我长大了，我还是会记得你，会在你的学生里找寻你；每当我路过一所学校，或是听到一位女老师的声音，我会把它当成听到了你的声音，我会回忆起在你那里学习的两年时光。那段时间我学到了很多的东西，我常常见你气色不好、满脸倦容，但对我们总是热心而宽容；一有学生养成不好的写字习惯时，你会忧心忡忡；当考试员考问我们的时候，你会担心得发抖；当我们表现出色时，你会满心欢喜；你总是像母亲一样和蔼、充满爱心。我永远、永远不会忘记你的，我的老师！

IN AN ATTIC.

在阁楼里

Friday, 28th.

星期五，28日

Yesterday afternoon I went with my mother and my sister Sylvia, to carry the linen to the poor woman recommended by the newspaper: I carried the bundle; Sylvia had the paper with the initials of the name and the address. We climbed to the very roof of a tall house, to a long corridor with many doors. My mother knocked at the last; it was opened by a woman who was still young, blond and thin, and it instantly struck me that I had seen her many times before, with that very same blue kerchief that she wore on her head.

昨天下午，我同母亲、姐姐西尔维娅一起去送亚麻布品给报纸报道的那个贫困的妇女。我提着包裹，西尔维娅拿着写着这位妇女名字首字母和住址的纸条。我们爬上了一座高楼的顶部，有条走廊通向许多房间。母亲敲了最后一间的门。一个年轻的、瘦瘦的金发妇女打开了门，我立刻想起我以前见过她很多次，她头上总戴着这一条蓝色大方巾。

"Are you the person of whom the newspaper says so and so?" asked my mother.“你是报纸上所说的那位吗？”我母亲问道。

"Yes, signora, I am."“是的，夫人，我是。”

"Well, we have brought you a little linen."Then the woman began to thank us and bless us, and could not make enough of it. Meanwhile I espied in one corner of the bare, dark room, a boy kneeling in front of a chair, with his back turned towards us, who appeared to be writing; and he really was writing, with his paper on the chair and his inkstand on the floor. How did he manage to write thus in the dark? While I was saying this to myself, I suddenly recognized the red hair and the coarse jacket of Crossi, the son of the vegetable-pedler, the boy with the useless arm. I told my mother softly, while the woman was putting away the things.“我们给你带了一些亚麻布品。”那位妇女开始感谢我们，并祝福我们，好像怎么感谢怎么祝福都不够似的。这时，我发现在这又空又暗的房间一角，一个男孩跪在一张椅子前面，背对着我们，好像在写字。他的确是在写字，把纸铺在椅子上，墨水瓶放在地板上。他是怎么做到在黑暗中写字的呢？正当我暗自思忖的时候，我突然认出了克洛西的红发和他粗劣的夹克，就是那个蔬菜小贩的儿子，一只手臂残疾的男孩。趁那个妇女把东西收好的时候，我轻声把这些告诉了母亲。

"Hush!" replied my mother; "perhaps he will feel ashamed to see you giving alms to his mother: don't speak to him."“嘘！”母亲答道，“看到你送救济品给她母亲，他可能会感到难为情的，你别去和他讲话。”

But at that moment Crossi turned round; I was embarrassed; he smiled, and then my mother gave me a push, so that I should run to him and embrace him. I did embrace him: he rose and took me by the hand.

但恰在那时克洛西转过身来了。我很尴尬，他微笑着。这时母亲推了我一把，让我能跑过去拥抱他。我拥抱了他，他站起来握住了我的手。

"Here I am," his mother was saying in the meantime to my mother, "alone with this boy, my husband in America these seven years, and I sick in addition, so that I can no longer make my rounds with my vegetables, and earn a few cents. We have not even a table left for my poor Luigino to do his work on. When there was a bench down at the door, he could, at least, write on the bench; but that has been taken away. He has not even a little light so that he can study without ruining his eyes. And it is a mercy that I can send him to school, since the city provides him with books and copy-books. Poor Luigino, who would be so glad to study! Unhappy woman, that I am!"“我在这里，”他母亲正对我母亲说，“和这孩子相依为命，我丈夫去美国已经七年了，我又病了，再也不能挑着菜四处叫卖来糊口了。我们连桌子没剩下一张，没法让我可怜的路易吉诺在桌子上写功课。以前门下还有条长凳，他至少能在那上面写字，但是现在那个也被拿走了。他连一盏小灯都没有，这么个学习法，眼睛都要坏了。幸亏市政府给他提供书本和字帖，我才能送他去上学。可怜的路易吉诺，他多么喜欢读书啊！我真是个不幸的女人！”

My mother gave her all that she had in her purse, kissed the boy, and almost wept as we went out. And she had good cause to say to me: "Look at that poor boy; see how he is forced to work, when you have every comfort, and yet study seems hard to you! Ah! Enrico, there is more merit in the work which he does in one day, than in your work for a year. It is to such that the first prizes should be given!"

母亲把钱包里所有的钱都给了她，亲吻了那个男孩。我们走出去的时候，母亲几乎快哭出来了。她语重心长地对我说：“瞧瞧那个可怜的男孩，瞧瞧他是怎么被迫去学习的，而你养尊处优，还抱怨学习对你来说太难！啊！安利柯，他学习一天的功劳比你学习一年的还要多。像这种孩子才应该被授予头奖啊！”

THE SCHOOL.

学校

Friday, 28th.

星期五，28日

Yes, study comes hard to you, my dear Enrico, as your mother says: I do not yet see you set out for school with that resolute mind and that smiling face which I should like. You are still intractable. But listen; reflect a little! What a miserable, despicable thing your day would be if you did not go to school! At the end of a week you would beg with clasped hands that you might return there, for you would be eaten up with weariness and shame; disgusted with your sports and with your existence. Everybody, everybody studies now, my child. Think of the workmen who go to school in the evening after having toiled all the day; think of the women, of the girls of the people, who go to school on Sunday, after having worked all the week; of the soldiers who turn to their books and copy-books when they return exhausted from their drill! Think of the dumb and of the boys who are blind, but who study, nevertheless; and last of all, think of the prisoners, who also learn to read and write. Reflect in the morning, when you set out, that at that very moment, in your own city, thirty thousand other boys are going like yourself, to shut themselves up in a room for three hours and study. Think of the innumerable boys who, at nearly this precise hour, are going to school in all countries. Behold them with your imagination, going, going, through the lanes of quiet villages; through the streets of the noisy towns, along the shores of rivers and lakes; here beneath a burning sun; there amid fogs, in boats, in countries which are intersected with canals; on horseback on the far-reaching plains;in sledges over the snow; through valleys and over hills; across forests and torrents, over the solitary paths of moutains; alone, in couples, in groups, in long files, all with their books under their arms, clad in a thousand ways, speaking a thousand tongues, Russia. from the most remote schools in Russia almost lost in the ice to the furthermost schools of Arabia, shaded by palm-trees, millions and millions, all going to learn the same things, in a hundred varied forms. Imagine this vast, vast throng of boys of a hundred races, this immense movement of which you form a part, and think, if this movement were to cease, humanity would fall back into barbarism; this movement is the progress, the hope, the glory of the world. Courage, then, little soldier of the immense army. Your books are your arms, your class is your squadron, the field of battle is the whole earth, and the victory is human civilization. Be not a cowardly soldier, my Enrico.

我亲爱的安利柯，就像你母亲说的那样，学习对你来说变得难了，我从没见过你坚强地、开开心心地出发去学校，那才是我喜欢看到的。你还是在闹别扭啊。但是听着，稍微想一想！如果你不去上学，你的日子将会变得多么悲惨和可鄙啊！一周之后，你将会双手合十，求着要回到学校的，因为你将会充满疲倦感和羞愧感，对游戏和自己的生活方式感到恶心。每个人都在学习，我的孩子。想想辛苦工作了一整天，晚上还去上课的工人们；想想工作了整个星期，周日还去上学的妇女、姑娘们；想想从训练归来已经疲惫不堪，却还要看书和练字的士兵们！想想哑巴和眼睛失明的男孩们，他们还坚持学习；最后再想想囚犯们，他们也学习读书写字。每天早晨去上学时，你要想想，就在那个时刻，城里有三万别的孩子也像你一样，正在上学的路上，将要把自己锁在教室里学习三个小时。想想所有的国家里不计其数的孩子，几乎都在这同一个时刻去上学。发挥你的想象吧，去到宁静的乡间小径；穿过嘈杂的城镇街道，走过河堤和湖岸；这边骄阳似火，那边雾气笼罩；在运河星罗棋布的国家，在船上；在遥远的平原上，在马背上；在雪地上的雪橇里；穿山越岭；越过森林和急流，踏上山间幽静的小径；独自一人的，两两结伴的，成群结队的，手臂下都夹着书本，身着千差万别的服装，说着成千上万种语言；从几乎被冰雪覆盖的俄罗斯最偏远的学校，到阿拉伯半岛的棕榈树遮蔽下的最远的学校，上千万的孩子们都即将去学习以成百种不同形式呈现的同样的知识。想象一下这上百种民族的数不清的男孩们，还有这个你有份参与的广大的运动。如果这个运动要停止了，人类就会倒退回野蛮状态。这个运动是世界的进步、希望和荣耀。勇敢点儿吧，这广大行军中的小士兵。你的书本是你的武器，班级是你的中队，战场是全世界，胜利是人类文明。我的安利柯啊，别做怯懦的士兵。

Thy Father.

你的父亲

THE LITTLE PATRIOT OF PADUA. (The Monthly Story.)

帕多瓦的小爱国者（每月故事）

Saturday, 29th.

星期六，29日

I will not be a cowardly soldier, no; but I should be much more willing to go to school if the master would tell us a story every day, like the one he told us this morning. "Every month," said he, "I shall tell you one; I shall give it to you in writing, and it will always be the tale of a fine and noble deed performed by a boy. This one is called The Little Patriot of Padua. Here it is. A French steamer set out from Barcelona, a city in Spain, for Genoa; there were on board Frenchmen, Italians, Spaniards, and Swiss. Among the rest was a lad of eleven, poorly clad, and alone, who always held himself aloof, like a wild animal, and stared at all with gloomy eyes. He had good reasons for looking at every one with forbidding eyes. Two years previous to this time his parents, peasants in the neighborhood of Padua, had sold him to a company of mountebanks, who, after they had taught him how to perform tricks, by dint of blows and kicks and starving, had carried him all over France and Spain, beating him continually and never giving him enough to eat. On his arrival in Barcelona, being no longer able to endure ill treatment and hunger, and being reduced to a pitiable condition, he had fled from his slave-master and had betaken himself for protection to the Italian consul, who, moved with compassion, had placed him on board of this steamer, and had given him a letter to the treasurer of Genoa, who was send the boy back to his parents—to the parents who had sold him like a beast.

我决不会做个怯懦的士兵，但是要是老师每天都给我们讲一个像今早讲的这样的故事的话，我会更愿意去上学的。“每个月，”他说，“我会讲一个故事，我会给你们书面的版本，每个故事都是关于一个男孩所做的高尚的好事。今天的故事叫‘帕多瓦的小爱国者’。故事是这样的。一艘法国蒸汽轮船从西班牙城市巴塞罗那启航，驶向热那亚，船上有法国人、意大利人、西班牙人和瑞士人。乘客中有个十一岁的小男孩，衣衫褴褛，形单影只，他总是远离人群，像一只野兽，用阴郁的眼神看着所有的人。他有理由用令人生畏的眼神看每一个人。两年前，他在帕多瓦一带务农的父母把他卖给了一伙江湖骗子，这伙人对他拳打脚踢，让他挨饿，教会了他如何变戏法，之后带着他走遍法国和西班牙去表演，一直打他，不给他吃饱。他到了巴塞罗那，再也忍受不了虐待和饥饿，已经沦落到一个可悲的境地。他从主人那里逃了出来，到意大利领事那里去寻求保护，领事怜悯他，安排他乘上这艘轮船，并叫他带一封信给热那亚的财务长官，这人会把男孩送回把他像牲畜一般卖掉的亲生父母身边。

The poor lad was lacerated and weak. He had been assigned to the second-class cabin. Every one stared at him; some questioned him, but he made no reply, and seemed to hate and despise every one, to such an extent had privation and affliction saddened and irritated him. Nevertheless, three travellers, by dint of persisting in their questions, succeeded in making him unloose his tongue; and in a few rough words, a mixture of Venetian, French, and Spanish, he related his story. These three travellers were not Italians, but they understood him; and partly out of compassion, partly because they were excited with wine, they gave him soldi, jesting with him and urging him on to tell them other things; and as several ladies entered the saloon at the moment, they gave him some more money for the purpose of making a show, and cried: 'Take this! Take this, too!' as they made the money rattle on the table.

可怜的男孩遍体鳞伤，十分虚弱。他被安排在二等船舱。所有人都盯着他看。有些人问他事情，他也不回答，他似乎憎恶和鄙视每一个人。贫困和不幸已使他悲伤和恼怒到这般田地了。然而，三个旅客坚持不懈地向他提问，还是成功地让他开了口。他用粗暴的只言片语，夹杂着威尼斯语、法语和西班牙语，讲述了他的故事。这三个旅客并非意大利人，但他们听懂了他的话。一半是出于同情，一半是出于喝了酒兴奋，他们给了他一些铜币，一边打趣他，一边叫催促他讲些别的事情，正在这时几位女士走进厅里，他们为了显摆又给了他更多的钱，喊着：“拿去！这也拿去！”他们把钱叮叮咚咚地撒在桌子上。

The boy pocketed it all, thanking them in a low voice, with his surly mien, but with a look that was for the first time smiling and affectionate. Then he climbed into his berth, drew the curtain, and lay quiet, thinking over his affairs. With this money he would be able to purchase some good food on board, after having suffered for lack of bread for two years; he could buy a jacket as soon as he landed in Genoa, after having gone about clad in rags for two years; and he could also, by carrying it home, insure for himself from his father and mother a more humane reception than would have fallen to his lot if he had arrived with empty pockets. This money was a little fortune for him; and he was taking comfort out of this thought behind the curtain of his berth, while the three travellers chatted away, as they sat round the dining-table in the second-class saloon. They were drinking and discussing their travels and the countries which they had seen; and from one topic to another they began to discuss Italy. One of them began to complain of the inns, another of the railways, and then, growing warmer, they all began to speak evil of everything. One would have preferred a trip in Lapland; another declared that he had found nothing but swindlers and brigands in Italy; the third said that Italian officials do not know how to read.

男孩把钱全都装进口袋里，阴沉着脸低声谢过他们，但是第一次脸上有了笑意和温情。随后他爬上自己的铺位，放下帘布，静静地躺着，想着自己的事情。在过了两年缺吃少喝的苦日子之后，有了这些钱，他上岸后就能买些好吃的了；在过了两年衣衫褴褛的日子之后，他一到热那亚就能买件夹克穿了；拿了钱回去，也能保证父母比他空口袋回家接待他时多点儿人性。这笔钱是他的小小财富。他在铺位的帘布后面这样想着，略觉安慰，此时那三个旅客正坐在二等舱大厅的餐桌前不停地闲扯。他们喝着酒，谈起自己的旅行和看过的国家，从一个话题聊到另一个话题，开始谈起了意大利。他们中的一个开始抱怨起旅馆，另一个抱怨起铁路，情绪高涨起来，他们开始大嚼舌根。一个说他宁愿去拉普兰旅行，另一个宣称他在意大利净遇到骗子和土匪了，第三个说意大利官员不识字。

"'It's an ignorant nation,' repeated the first. 'A filthy nation,' added the second. 'Ro—' exclaimed the third, meaning to say 'robbers'; but he was not allowed to finish the word: a tempest of soldi and half-lire descended upon their heads and shoulders, and leaped upon the table and the floor with a demoniacal noise. All three sprang up in a rage, looked up, and received another handful of coppers in their faces.“‘那是个无知的国家。’第一个说。‘一个肮脏的国家。’第二个补充道。‘强——’第三个嚷道，想说‘强盗’，但是他没能说完那个词：铜币和银币像暴风雨一样砸在他们的头上和肩上，在桌上和地板上滚着，响声大作。三个人都暴怒地跳起来，向上看去，又吃了一脸的铜币。

"'Take back your soldi!' said the lad, disdainfully, thrusting his head between the curtains of his berth; 'I do not accept alms from those who insult my country.'"“‘把你的铜币拿回去！’男孩猛地从铺位的帘布间伸出头来，轻蔑地说，‘我不要侮辱我祖国的人的施舍。’”

THE CHIMNEY-SWEEP.

扫烟囱的人

November 1st.

11月1日

Yesterday afternoon I went to the girls' school building, near ours, to give the story of the boy from Padua to Silvia's teacher, who wished to read it. There are seven hundred girls there. Just as I arrived, they began to come out, all greatly rejoiced at the holiday of All Saints and All Souls; and here is a beautiful thing that I saw: Opposite the door of the school, on the other side of the street, stood a very small chimney-sweep, his face entirely black, with his sack and scraper, with one arm resting against the wall, and his head supported on his arm, weeping copiously and sobbing. Two or three of the girls of the second grade approached him and said, "What is the matter, that you weep like this?"But he made no reply, and went on crying.

昨天下午，我去了我们学校附近的女子学校，把帕多瓦男孩的故事带给西尔维娅的老师，她想读读这个故事。那里有七百个女孩。当我到达的时候，她们正开始往外走，大家都因为万圣节和万灵节要放假而欢欣雀跃。我在那里看到一件很美的事情：校门对面，街的另一边，站着一个扫烟囱的小家伙，他满脸黑乎乎的，拿着麻袋和刮刀，一只手臂抵着墙壁，头枕在手臂上，大滴大滴地掉着眼泪，啜泣着。两三个三年级的女孩走到他跟前问：“出什么事啦？怎么哭成这样呢？”但是他没有回答，继续哭着。

"Come, tell us what is the matter with you and why you are crying," the girls repeated. And then he raised his face from his arm,—a baby face,—and said through his tears that he had been to several houses to sweep the chimneys, and had earned thirty soldi, and that he had lost them, that they had slipped through a hole in his pocket,—and he showed the hole,—and he did not dare to return home without the money.“告诉我们，你怎么了，为什么哭啊？”女孩们再问他。他把头从手臂上抬起来——他长着一张婴儿似的脸——哭着告诉她们他去了好几处房屋扫烟囱，赚到了三十枚铜币，但是全掉了，铜币从口袋的破洞里漏出去了——他把那破洞翻给她们看——他没有了钱不敢回家。

"The master will beat me," he said, sobbing; and again dropped his head upon his arm, like one in despair. The children stood and stared at him very seriously. In the meantime, other girls, large and small, poor girls and girls of the upper classes, with their portfolios under their arms, had come up; and one large girl, who had a blue feather in her hat, pulled two soldi from her pocket, and said:—“师父会打我的。”他啜泣着说，又一次把头枕在手臂上，像绝望中的人一样。女孩们站在那里很严肃地看着他。就在这时，其他的女孩也都走过来了，她们手臂下夹着书包，高的、矮的、贫困的和上层阶级的都有。一个帽子上插着蓝色羽毛的大个子女孩从口袋中掏出两枚铜币说道：

"I have only two soldi; let us make a collection."“我只有两枚铜币。我们大家来把钱凑在一起吧。”

"I have two soldi, also," said another girl, dressed in red; "we shall certainly find thirty soldi among the whole of us"; and then they began to call out:—“我也有两枚铜币，”另一个穿红衣的女孩说，“我们大家肯定能凑到三十枚铜币。”随后她们开始叫道：

"Amalia! Luigia! Annina!—A soldo. Who has any soldi? Bring your soldi here!"“阿马利娅！露易琪雅！亚尼娜！——一枚铜币。谁那里有铜币？拿到这里来呀！”

Several had soldi to buy flowers or copy-books, and they brought them; some of the smaller girls gave centesimi; the one with the blue feather collected all, and counted them in a loud voice:—

好几个带了铜币要去买花或字帖的，也把钱拿出来了；一些年纪小些的女孩拿出了辅币；那个戴蓝羽毛的女孩把钱都汇总起来，大声地数着：

"Eight, ten, fifteen!"But more was needed. Then one larger than any of them, who seemed to be an assistant mistress, made her appearance, and gave half a lira; and all made much of her. Five soldi were still lacking.“八，十，十五！”但是还需要更多的钱。这时，一个个头比她们任何一个都要高、看上去像是助教的女孩出现了，她拿出了半个里拉，大家都称赞她。还差五枚铜币。

"The girls of the fourth class are coming; they will have it," said one girl. The members of the fourth class came, and the soldi showered down. All hurried forward eagerly; and it was beautiful to see that poor chimney-sweep in the midst of all those many-colored dresses, of all that whirl of feathers, ribbons, and curls. The thirty soldi were already obtained, and more kept pouring in; and the very smallest who had no money made their way among the big girls, and offered their bunches of flowers, for the sake of giving something. All at once the portress made her appearance, screaming:—“五年级的女孩们来了，她们一定有的。”一个女孩说。五年级的女孩们来了，铜币纷纷洒落。大家都急急地往前跑去。我看到那个可怜的扫烟囱的小家伙在那些五颜六色的裙子中，在飞旋的羽毛、丝带和卷发中，那画面真美啊。三十枚铜币已经凑齐了，还有更多铜币涌进来。最小的女孩们身上没有钱，为了捐点儿东西，她们在大女孩中间往前挤，把一束束鲜花献了出来。突然女看门人出来喊到：

"The Signora Directress!"The girls made their escape in all directions, like a flock of sparrows; and then the little chimney-sweep was visible, alone, in the middle of the street, wiping his eyes in perfect content, with his hands full of money, and the button-holes of his jacket, his pockets, his hat, were full of flowers; and there were even flowers on the ground at his feet.“校长来了！”女孩们像一群麻雀一样向四面八方逃散开了，剩下扫烟囱的小家伙独自站在街中央，十分满足地拭去眼泪，双手捧着满满的钱币。他夹克的扣眼里、口袋里、帽子里都插满了鲜花，甚至还有许多鲜花落在他脚边的地面上。

THE DAY OF THE DEAD. (All-Souls-Day.)

死者之日（万灵节）

November 2d.

11月2日

This day is consecrated to the commemoration of the dead. Do you know, Enrico, that all you boys should, on this day, devote a thought to those who are dead? To those who have died for you,—for boys and little children. How many have died, and how many are dying continually! Have you ever reflected how many fathers have worn out their lives in toil? how many mothers have descended to the grave before their time, exhausted by the privations to which they have condemned themselves for the sake of sustaining their children? Do you know how many men have planted a knife in their hearts in despair at beholding their children in misery? how many women have drowned themselves or have died of sorrow, or have gone mad, through having lost a child? Think of all these dead on this day, Enrico. Think of how many schoolmistresses have died young, have pined away through the fatigues of the school, through love of the children, from whom they had not the heart to tear themselves away; think of the doctors who have perished of contagious diseases, having courageously sacrificed themselves to cure the children;think of all those who in shipwrecks, in conflagrations, in famines, in moments of supreme danger, have yielded to infancy the last morsel of bread, the last place of safety, the last rope of escape from the flames, to expire content with their sacrifice, since they preserved the life of a little innocent. Such dead as these are innumerable, Enrico; every graveyard contains hundreds of these sainted beings, who, if they could rise for a moment from their graves, would cry the name of a child to whom they sacrificed the pleasures of youth, the peace of old age, their affections, their intelligence, their life:wives of twenty, men in the flower of their strength, octogenarians, youths,—heroic and obscure martyrs of infancy,—so grand and so noble, that the earth does not produce as many flowers as should strew their graves. To such a degree are ye loved, O children! Think Today on those dead with gratitude, and you will be kinder and more affectionate to all those who love you, and who toil for you, my dear, fortunate son, who, on the day of the dead, have, as yet, no one to grieve for.

这一天是悼念死者的日子。你知道吗，安利柯，你们所有的孩子都应该在今天缅怀那些死去的人。缅怀那些为了你们——为了孩子们而牺牲的人们。多少人已经死去，又有多少人正将死去啊！你可曾想过有多少父亲在辛苦的工作中耗尽了生命呢？多少母亲为了养育孩子，困苦疲乏，提早入土呢？你知道有多少因见自己的孩子陷于不幸，而绝望地拿刀刺穿自己心脏的男人吗？有多少因为失去孩子而投河自尽、悲伤而死，又或者疯癫失常的女人吗？今天想想所有这些死去的人吧，安利柯。想想有多少女老师因操劳学校的事务，并一心一意热爱学生而消瘦憔悴、英年早逝；想想为了拯救孩子勇于献身，感染传染病而死去的医生们；想想那些在海难、火灾、饥荒中的人们，在生死关头，将最后一小块面包、最后的安全场所、最后一条从火焰中逃生的绳索让给了幼儿们，因为保全了幼小而无辜的生命，他们满足于自己的牺牲而从容瞑目了。像这样死去的人真是数也数不清啊，安利柯。每座墓地都长眠着成百上千这样神圣的灵魂，要是他们能够暂时从墓中复活，他们将要呼唤那个他们牺牲自己的青春年华、老年的安宁、爱情、才能和生命换来的那个孩子的名字:二十岁的少妇、正当壮年的男子、八旬老者、青年人——那些为幼儿献身的英勇的无名烈士们——如此伟大，如此高尚，地球上生长的鲜花都不足以点缀他们的墓地。人们是如此地爱你们啊，孩子们！怀着感激之心，在今天想想那些死去的人吧，这样一来，对于爱你的人和为你劳苦的人，你会更亲切和友好的。我亲爱的、幸运的儿子啊，在万灵节的这天，你还没有要为之哀悼的人呢。

Thy Mother.

你的母亲NOVEMBER. 十一月

MY FRIEND GARRONE.

我的朋友卡隆

Friday, 4th.

星期五，4日

There had been but two days of vacation, yet it seemed to me as though I had been a long time without seeing Garrone. The more I know him, the better I like him; and so it is with all the rest, except with the overbearing, who have nothing to say to him, because he does not permit them to exhibit their oppression. Every time that a big boy raises his hand against a little one, the little one shouts, "Garrone!" and the big one stops striking him. His father is an engine-driver on the railway; he has begun school late, because he was ill for two years. He is the tallest and the strongest of the class; he lifts a bench with one hand; he is always eating; and he is good. Whatever he is asked for,—a pencil, rubber, paper, or penknife,—he lends or gives it; and he neither talks nor laughs in school: he always sits perfectly motionless on a bench that is too narrow for him, with his spine curved forward, and his big head between his shoulders; and when I look at him, he smiles at me with his eyes half closed, as much as to say, "Well, Enrico, are we friends?"He makes me laugh, because, tall and broad as he is, he has a jacket, trousers, and sleeves which are too small for him, and too short; a cap which will not stay on his head; a threadbare cloak; coarse shoes; and a necktie which is always twisted into a cord. Dear Garrone! it needs but one glance in thy face to inspire love for thee. All the little boys would like to be near his bench. He knows arithmetic well. He carries his books bound together with a strap of red leather. He has a knife, with a mother-of-pearl handle, which he found in the field for military manoeuvres, last year, and one day he cut his finger to the bone; but no one in school envies him it, and no one breathes a word about it at home, for fear of alarming his parents. He lets us say anything to him in jest, and he never takes it ill; but woe to any one who says to him, "That is not true," when he affirms a thing: then fire flashes from his eyes, and he hammers down blows enough to split the bench. Saturday morning he gave a soldo to one of the upper first class, who was crying in the middle of the street, because his own had been taken from him, and he could not buy his copy-book. For the last three days he has been working over a letter of eight pages, with pen ornaments on the margins, for the saint's day of his mother, who often comes to get him, and who, like himself, is tall and large and sympathetic. The master is always glancing at him, and every time that he passes near him he taps him on the neck with his hand, as though he were a good, peaceable young bull. I am very fond of him. I am happy when I press his big hand, which seems to be the hand of a man, in mine. I am almost certain that he would risk his life to save that of a comrade; that he would allow himself to be killed in his defence, so clearly can I read his eyes; and although he always seems to be grumbling with that big voice of his, one feels that it is a voice that comes from a gentle heart.

虽然只有两天的休假，可是我觉得好像很久没看到卡隆了。我越是了解他，就越是喜欢他，其他人也和我一样，除了那几个傲慢的家伙。他们不和他讲话，因为他不准他们横行霸道。每当一个大男孩挥手要打一个小男孩时，小男孩叫一声“卡隆！”，大男孩就会停手。他父亲是铁路上的一位火车司机。他上学晚，因为他病过两年。他是班上最高最壮的学生，能单手举起长凳。他总是在吃东西，人很不错。不论别人找他要什么——铅笔、橡皮、纸、小刀——他都愿意借或给。他在学校里不苟言笑，总是一动不动地坐在对他来说太窄的长凳上，脊背向前屈着，大大的头架在两肩上。当我看他时，他总半眯着眼睛朝我笑，就像是在说：“喂，安利柯，我们是朋友吧？”他引得我发笑，因为他那样高那样壮，他的夹克、裤子和衣袖对他来说都太小太短了，帽子小得都戴不住。他穿着破旧的外套、粗劣的鞋子，领带常常搓扭成一条绳子。亲爱的卡隆！只需一眼就会喜欢上你。所有的小男孩们都乐意挨着他坐。他算术很好。他用红皮带把书捆起来提着。他有一把珍珠母手柄的刀，是去年他在军事训练场捡到的。有一天他拿这刀割伤了手指，几乎伤到指骨，但是学校没有人因为刀而嫉妒他，而且为了怕他的父母担忧，也没有人回家说过一字半句关于刀的事情。他允许我们用开玩笑的语气跟他说话，他从不会见怪；但是当他认定一件事的时候，要是有人对他说“这不是真的”，他会对那个人大发雷霆，会两眼冒火，一拳下去足以击破长凳。星期六早晨他给了一个二年级的学生一枚铜币，那个学生当时在街中央哭着，因为他的钱被别人拿走了，他不能买字帖了。过去的三天里，为了他母亲的生日，他一直在写一封长达八页的信，页边的空白处还用钢笔画了装饰的花样。他母亲常来接他，和他一样又高又大、富有同情心。班主任常常会瞥他一眼，每次走过他身旁时都会用手轻轻地拍他的后颈，就好像他是一只善良、温顺的小公牛。我非常喜欢他。我紧握他的大手时总是很开心，他的手和我的相比就像是一个大人的手。我几乎可以确信，他是那种愿意冒生命危险救同学性命的人。从他的眼睛可以清楚地看出，他愿意为保护别人而献出生命。尽管看上去他总是扯着大嗓门在发牢骚，但人们可以感受到这声音的主人有一颗温柔的心。

THE CHARCOAL-MAN AND THE GENTLEMAN.

卖炭人与绅士

Monday, 7th.

星期一，7日

Garrone would certainly never have uttered the words which Carlo Nobis spoke yesterday morning to Betti. Carlo Nobis is proud, because his father is a great gentleman; a tall gentleman, with a black beard, and very serious, who accompanies his son to school nearly every day. Yesterday morning Nobis quarrelled with Betti, one of the smallest boys, and the son of a charcoal-man, and not knowing what retort to make, because he was in the wrong, said to him vehemently, "Your father is a tattered beggar!"Betti reddened up to his very hair, and said nothing, but the tears came to his eyes; and when he returned home, he repeated the words to his father; so the charcoal-dealer, a little man, who was black all over, made his appearance at the afternoon session, leading his boy by the hand, in order to complain to the master. While he was making his complaint, and every one was silent, the father of Nobis, who was taking off his son's coat at the entrance, as usual, entered on hearing his name pronounced, and demanded an explanation.

卡隆绝不会说出昨天早晨卡洛·诺琵斯对贝蒂说的话。卡洛·诺琵斯骄傲自大，因为他父亲是一位了不起的绅士：一位高大的绅士，留着黑色的胡子，非常严肃，几乎每天早上都要陪他儿子来学校。昨天早晨诺琵斯与贝蒂吵了一架。贝蒂是年纪最小的男孩之一，是一个卖炭人的儿子。诺琵斯因为理亏，不知道该如何反驳，狠狠地对他说：“你父亲是个衣衫褴褛的乞丐！”贝蒂的脸红到了发梢，一言不发，眼泪夺眶而出。他回到家里，对父亲复述了这番话，于是这个卖炭人——一个浑身上下黑乎乎的小个子男人，在下午上课的时候，牵着他儿子的手到学校里来，要找班主任讨个说法。他向班主任抱怨的时候，大家一片安静，诺琵斯的父亲像往常一样正在门口给儿子脱外套，听到别人提到自己的名字，就走进来问问怎么回事。

"This workman has come," said the master, "to complain that your son Carlo said to his boy, 'Your father is a tattered beggar.'"“这位工人是来，”班主任说，“投诉你儿子卡洛对他儿子说‘你父亲是个衣衫褴褛的乞丐’的事情的。”

Nobis's father frowned and reddened slightly. Then he asked his son, "Did you say that?"

诺琵斯的父亲皱了眉头，脸微微泛红了。接着他问自己的儿子：“你说过这话吗？”

His son, who was standing in the middle of the school, with his head hanging, in front of little Betti, made no reply.

他儿子站在教室中央，在小贝蒂面前耷拉着脑袋，没答话。

Then his father grasped him by one arm and pushed him forward, facing Betti, so that they nearly touched, and said to him, "Beg his pardon."

随后他父亲抓住了他一只手臂，把他推到贝蒂面前，差点儿让他俩撞到一起，并对他说：“去乞求他的原谅。”

The charcoal-man tried to interpose, saying, "No, no!" but the gentleman paid no heed to him, and repeated to his son, "Beg his pardon. Repeat my words. 'I beg your pardon for the insulting, foolish, and ignoble words which I uttered against your father, whose hand my father would feel himself honored to press.'"

卖炭人试图阻止，说道：“不，不必！”但是那位绅士没理会他，对他儿子重复道：“去乞求他的原谅。按照我的话说。‘对你父亲我说了无礼的、愚蠢的、不光彩的话，我乞求你的原谅，若能让我父亲紧握你父亲的手，他会感到荣幸的。’”

The charcoal-man made a resolute gesture, as though to say, "I will not allow it."The gentleman did not second him, and his son said slowly, in a very thread of a voice, without raising his eyes from the ground, "I beg your pardon—for the insulting—foolish—ignoble—words which I uttered against your father, whose hand my father—would feel himself honored—to press."

卖炭人做了一个很坚决的手势，好像在说：“那可不敢当。”绅士不同意，于是他的儿子眼睛盯着地面，用缓慢的、微弱的声音说：“对你父亲我说了无礼的——愚蠢的——不光彩的话——我乞求你的原谅，若能让我父亲——紧握你父亲的手——他会感到荣幸的。”

Then the gentleman offered his hand to the charcoal-man, who shook it vigorously, and then, with a sudden push, he thrust his son into the arms of Carlo Nobis.

随后绅士向卖炭人伸出了手，卖炭人用力地握了握这手，接着他突然把自己的儿子推进了卡洛·诺琵斯的怀里。

"Do me the favor to place them next each other," said the gentleman to the master. The master put Betti on Nobis's bench. When they were seated, the father of Nobis bowed and went away.“请帮我一个忙，把他们两人安排坐在一起。”绅士对班主任说。班主任就让贝蒂坐到诺琵斯的长凳上去了。他们坐好时，诺琵斯的父亲就鞠躬离开了。

The charcoal-man remained standing there in thought for several moments, gazing at the two boys side by side; then he approached the bench, and fixed upon Nobis a look expressive of affection and regret, as though he were desirous of saying something to him, but he did not say anything; he stretched out his hand to bestow a caress upon him, but he did not dare, and merely stroked his brow with his large fingers. Then he made his way to the door, and turning round for one last look, he disappeared.

卖炭人仍站在那里，看着并肩坐着的两个男孩，沉思了一会儿；然后他走近了他们的座位，用带着爱意和抱歉的表情怔怔地看着诺琵斯，好像想要说些什么，却什么也没有说；他伸出手想要抚摸他，却又不敢，只是用他大大的手指轻抚了一下诺琵斯的额头。接着他走向门口，转回头又看了最后一眼，才离去了。

"Fix what you have just seen firmly in your minds, boys," said the master; "this is the finest lesson of the year."“牢牢记住你们刚刚看到的，孩子们，”班主任说，“这是今年最好的一课。”

MY BROTHER'S SCHOOLMISTRESS.

我弟弟的女老师

Thursday, 10th.

星期四，10日

The son of the charcoal-man had been a pupil of that schoolmistress Delcati who had come to see my brother when he was ill, and who had made us laugh by telling us how, two years ago, the mother of this boy had brought to her house a big apronful of charcoal, out of gratitude for her having given the medal to her son; the poor woman had persisted, and had not been willing to carry the coal home again, and had wept when she was obliged to go away with her apron quite full.

卖炭人的儿子原来曾是女老师代尔卡谛的学生，来探我弟弟病的时候，老师讲出两年前的事，逗得我们哈哈大笑。为了感谢老师给自己儿子颁了奖牌，小孩的母亲曾带着满满一大围裙的炭到她家去。这个可怜的女人坚持要给，不想再把炭搬回家，但最后还是不得不带着满满一围裙的炭回去，走的时候都哭了。

And she told us, also, of another good woman, who had brought her a very heavy bunch of flowers, inside of which there was a little hoard of soldi. We had been greatly diverted in listening to her, and so my brother had swallowed his medicine, which he had not been willing to do before. How much patience is necessary with those boys of the lower first, all toothless, like old men, who cannot pronounce their r's and s's; and one coughs, and another has the nosebleed, and another loses his shoes under the bench, and another bellows because he has pricked himself with his pen, and another one cries because he has bought copy-book No. 2 instead of No. 1. Fifty in a class, who know nothing, with those flabby little hands, and all of them must be taught to write; they carry in their pockets bits of licorice, buttons, phial corks, pounded brick,—all sorts of little things, and the teacher has to search them; but they conceal these objects even in their shoes. And they are not attentive: a fly enters through the window, and throws them all into confusion; and in summer they bring grass into school, and horn-bugs, which fly round in circles or fall into the inkstand, and then streak the copy-books all over with ink. The schoolmistress has to play mother to all of them, to help them dress themselves, bandage up their pricked fingers, pick up their caps when they drop them, watch to see that they do not exchange coats, and that they do not indulge in cat-calls and shrieks. Poor schoolmistresses! And then the mothers come to complain: "How comes it, signorina, that my boy has lost his pen? How does it happen that mine learns nothing? Why is not my boy mentioned honorably, when he knows so much? Why don't you have that nail which tore my Piero's trousers, taken out of the bench?"

她还告诉我们，还有另一位善良的女人，抱着很重的一束花到她家去，里面还夹着几枚铜币呢。我们都很享受听她说话，弟弟先前不肯吃药，现在也吞下了。教导一年级的学生需要多少耐心啊，都像老人一样牙齿不全，发不出"r"和"s"的音；这个咳嗽，那个流鼻血；这个找不到凳子底下的鞋了，那个因为拿笔戳到了自己而大叫起来，另一个又因为把第二册字帖当第一册买来就哭起来了。一个班五十人，什么都不懂，小手软软的，而他们全部都必须学会写字；他们的口袋里装着各式各样的小玩意——小块的甘草、纽扣、小玻璃瓶塞、捣碎的砖块，老师必须把它们搜出来，可他们甚至把这些东西藏在鞋子里。他们是不会认真听讲的：一只苍蝇从窗户飞进来，他们就都闹起来了；夏天他们会带草和甲虫到学校里来，甲虫会转着圈飞或是掉进墨水瓶里，溅得字帖上全是一条条的墨迹。老师必须扮演所有人的母亲的角色，帮他们穿衣，为他们被刺伤的手指缠上绷带，拾起他们掉落的帽子，留心看他们是否拿错了外套，不准他们一个劲地学猫叫或尖叫。可怜的女老师们！学生的母亲们还要来抱怨：“小姐，我的儿子怎么会遗失了他的钢笔的？我儿子怎么什么都有没学到呢？我儿子懂的那么多，为什么不被表扬呢？我家皮耶罗的裤子被椅子上的钉子磨破了，你为什么不把那根钉子拔掉呢？”

Sometimes my brother's teacher gets into a rage with the boys; and when she can resist no longer, she bites her finger, to keep herself from dealing a blow; she loses patience, and then she repents, and caresses the child whom she has scolded; she sends a little rogue out of school, and then swallows her tears, and flies into a rage with parents who make the little ones fast by way of punishment. Schoolmistress Delcati is young and tall, well-dressed, brown of complexion, and restless; she does everything vivaciously, as though on springs, is affected by a mere trifle, and at such times speaks with great tenderness.

有些时候我弟弟的老师会对学生大发雷霆；当她再也无法忍耐时，就会咬自己的手指头，用这个方法来阻止自己挥手打人；她失去了耐性，事后又后悔了，就去抚摸刚才斥责过的孩子；她把一个小淘气赶回了家，然后独自把眼泪往肚里咽；对于那些用惩罚的方式催着小孩子们动作快点儿的父母，她总是很生气。代尔卡谛老师年纪轻轻、身材修长、衣着讲究，有着褐色的皮肤，活力十足；她做起每件事来都很快活，就像上足了发条一样；仅仅一件小事就能触动她，那时她说话的语气总是特别温柔。

"But the children become attached to you, surely," my mother said to her.“孩子们肯定都会渐渐喜爱你的。”我母亲对她说。

"Many do," she replied; "but at the end of the year the majority of them pay no further heed to us. When they are with the masters, they are almost ashamed of having been with us—with a woman teacher. After two years of cares, after having loved a child so much, it makes us feel sad to part from him; but we say to ourselves, 'Oh, I am sure of that one; he is fond of me.' But the vacation over, he comes back to school. I run to meet him; 'Oh, my child, my child!' And he turns his head away."Here the teacher interrupted herself. "But you will not do so, little one?" she said, raising her humid eyes, and kissing my brother. "You will not turn aside your head, will you? You will not deny your poor friend?"“很多孩子是这样，”她答道，“但是学年快结束的时候，大多数孩子就不会注意我们了。当他们跟了男老师，他们几乎都会因为跟过我们这些女老师而感到羞愧。要和一个教育了两年的、特别疼爱过的孩子分开，我们感到难过。但是我们对自己说：‘哦，我对那个孩子有信心，他是喜爱我的。’但是假期结束，他返回学校。我跑去找他说：‘哦，我的孩子，我的孩子！’他却把头偏向别处去了。”老师说到这里，停了下来。“你不会那样做吧，小家伙？”她说，抬起她湿润的眼睛，吻了吻我的弟弟，“你不会把你的头偏向别处去吧，不会的吧？你不会不认你可怜的朋友吧？”

MY MOTHER.

我的母亲

Thursday, November 10th.

星期四，11月10日

In the presence of your brother's teacher you failed in respect to your mother! Let this never happen again, my Enrico, never again! Your irreverent word pierced my heart like a point of steel. I thought of your mother when, years ago, she bent the whole of one night over your little bed, measuring your breathing, weeping blood in her anguish, and with her teeth chattering with terror, because she thought that she had lost you, and I feared that she would lose her reason; and at this thought I felt a sentiment of horror at you. You, to offend your mother! your mother, who would give a year of happiness to spare you one hour of pain, who would beg for you, who would allow herself to be killed to save your life! Listen, Enrico. Fix this thought well in your mind. Reflect that you are destined to experience many terrible days in the course of your life: the most terrible will be that on which you lose your mother. A thousand times, Enrico, after you are a man, strong, and inured to all fates, you will invoke her, oppressed with an intense desire to hear her voice, if but for a moment, and to see once more her open arms, into which you can throw yourself sobbing, like a poor child bereft of comfort and protection. How you will then recall every bitterness that you have caused her, and with what remorse you will pay for all, unhappy wretch! Hope for no peace in your life, if you have caused your mother grief. You will repent, you will beg her forgiveness, you will venerate her memory—in vain; conscience will give you no rest; that sweet and gentle image will always wear for you an expression of sadness and of reproach which will put your soul to torture. Oh, Enrico, beware; this is the most sacred of human affections; unhappy he who tramples it under foot. The assassin who respects his mother has still something honest and noble in his heart; the most glorious of men who grieves and offends her is but a vile creature. Never again let a harsh word issue from your lips, for the being who gave you life. And if one should ever escape you, let it not be the fear of your father, but let it be the impulse of your soul, which casts you at her feet, to beseech her that she will cancel from your brow, with the kiss of forgiveness, the stain of ingratitude. I love you, my son; you are the dearest hope of my life; but I would rather see you dead than ungrateful to your mother. Go away, for a little space; offer me no more of your caresses; I should not be able to return them from my heart.

你弟弟的老师到家里来的时候，你对你母亲可真失礼啊！不要再让那样的事情发生了，我的安利柯啊，永远不要！你无礼的话像针尖一样刺痛了我的心。我想起数年前，你母亲整夜俯身在你的小床前测量你的呼吸，她以为她要失去你了，所以在痛苦中泣血，吓得牙齿打战，我真害怕她会失去理智。一想到此，我都有点儿害怕你了。你呀，伤了你母亲的感情啊！为了免除你一个小时的痛苦，你母亲不惜拿一年的幸福时光去交换；她会为了你而苦苦哀求；她为救你的命献出自己的生命也在所不惜。听着，安利柯。把这个想法牢牢记在心中。想着你这一生中注定要经历许许多多可怕的日子，而最可怕的一天会是你失去母亲的那天。在你长大成人，变得坚强，尝遍了人世的辛酸，你会千千万万次回忆起你母亲来的，强烈地渴望听到她的声音，就算一小会儿也好，渴望看到她张开的臂膀，让你能像一个失去了慰藉和保护的可怜的孩子，哭着投入她的怀抱。那时，当你想起你带给她的每份痛楚，你会作何感想啊！你将用何等的悔恨去偿还那所有的不幸啊！你如果现在使你母亲痛心，你将终生不得安宁！你将会忏悔，将会乞求她的原谅，你将想追忆她也是徒劳；你会良心不得安宁；那甜美温柔的倩影，将在你眼里变成悲伤和责备的表情，让你的灵魂饱受折磨。哦，安利柯，当心啊，这是人世间最神圣的情感，将此情感践踏于脚下的人是不幸的。即使是一个杀手，要是他尊敬自己的母亲，他的心中还是存留着一些正直和高尚的品格的；即使是最光荣的人，要是他让母亲伤心不悦，他也只是一个卑鄙的畜生。对于给予你生命的人，再也不要从你的嘴里说出一句刺耳的话。假如不小心说漏了嘴，不要让它成为你对父亲的恐惧，让它成为你灵魂的冲动，投身于母亲的脚边，恳求她用原谅的吻除去你眉边不孝的污痕。我爱你，我的儿子，你是我一生最珍贵的希望。但是你要是对你母亲不孝，我宁愿当你不在了。走开吧，保持一点儿距离，不要再讨好我，我没法从心里去回报你的爱。

Thy Father.

你的父亲

MY COMPANION CORETTI.

我的同学可莱谛

Sunday, 13th.

星期日，13日

My father forgave me; but I remained rather sad and then my mother sent me, with the porter's big son, to take a walk on the Corso. Half-way down the Corso, as we were passing a cart which was standing in front of a shop, I heard some one call me by name: I turned round; it was Coretti, my schoolmate, with chocolate-colored clothes and his catskin cap, all in a perspiration, but merry, with a big load of wood on his shoulders. A man who was standing in the cart was handing him an armful of wood at a time, which he took and carried into his father's shop, where he piled it up in the greatest haste. "What are you doing, Coretti?"I asked him.

父亲原谅了我，可我还是很难过，母亲于是叫我和门房的大儿子一起去科索大街上散散步。在科索大街上走到一半，当我们经过停在一家商店前的运货马车的时候，我听到有人叫我的名字，就转过身去，原来是我的校友可莱谛，穿着巧克力色的衣服，戴着猫皮帽，全身冒着汗，但是快活地扛着一大捆木柴在肩上。站在马车里的人正在递木柴给他，一次一抱的量，他接过来搬进父亲的店里，飞快地把它们堆在一起。“你在做什么呢，可莱谛？”我问他。

"Don't you see?" he answered, reaching out his arms to receive the load; "I am reviewing my lesson."“你没看见吗？”他回答道，同时把两手伸去接木柴，“我在复习功课呢。”

I laughed; but he seemed to be serious, and, having grasped the armful of wood, he began to repeat as he ran, "The conjugation of the verb—consists in its variations according to number—according to number and person—"

我笑了，但是他看上去很认真，抓紧一抱木柴后，他开始边跑边背诵：“动词的变位——依照数而变化——依照数与人称——”

And then, throwing down the wood and piling it, "according to the time—according to the time to which the action refers."

接着，他扔下木柴，把它们堆好，“依照时态——依照动作发生的时态，”

And turning to the cart for another armful, "according to the mode in which the action is enunciated."

他走到车旁取另一捆柴，“依照动作发生的语气而变化。”

It was our grammar lesson for the following day. "What would you have me do?" he said. "I am putting my time to use. My father has gone off with the man on business; my mother is ill. It falls to me to do the unloading. In the meantime, I am going over my grammar lesson. It is a difficult lesson Today; I cannot succeed in getting it into my head.—My father said that he would be here at seven o'clock to give you your money," he said to the man with the cart.

这是我们明天要上的语法课的内容。“你要我怎么办呢？”他说，“我在好好利用时间。我父亲与生意伙伴出门去了，母亲病了。卸货这事情就落在我头上了。同时，我也在复习语法课文。今天的课文很难，我没法往脑子里记——我父亲说他七点钟会来这里给你钱。”他对车夫说。

The cart drove off. "Come into the shop a minute," Coretti said to me. I went in. It was a large apartment, full of piles of wood and fagots, with a steelyard on one side.

马车驶远了。“进来玩一小会儿吧。”可莱谛对我说。我进去了。房间很大，堆满了木柴和柴把，一旁挂着一架杆秤。

"This is a busy day, I can assure you," resumed Coretti; "I have to do my work by fits and starts. I was writing my phrases, when some customers came in. I went to writing again, and behold, that cart arrived. I have already made two trips to the wood market in the Piazza Venezia this morning. My legs are so tired that I cannot stand, and my hands are all swollen. I should be in a pretty pickle if I had to draw!"And as he spoke he set about sweeping up the dry leaves and the straw which covered the brick-paved floor.“今天可真忙啊，我可以向你保证，”可莱谛又开始说道，“我不得不时断时续地做我的功课。当我写着短语的时候，客人进来了。我继续去写的时候，又看见马车到了。我今早已经往威尼斯广场的木材市场跑了两趟了。我两条腿太累了，都站不起来了，我的双手都肿起来了。如果我现在要画画，我肯定是一点儿办法都没有！”他边说着边开始打扫覆盖在砖铺地面上的枯叶和稻草。

"But where do you do your work, Coretti?"I inquired.“你在哪里做功课呢，可莱谛？”我问道。

"Not here, certainly," he replied. "Come and see"; and he led me into a little room behind the shop, which serves as a kitchen and dining-room, with a table in one corner, on which there were books and copy-books, and work which had been begun. "Here it is," he said; "I left the second answer unfinished: with which shoes are made, and belts. Now I will add, and valises."And, taking his pen, he began to write in his fine hand.“当然不是这里啦，”他答道，“过来瞧瞧。”他带我走进店铺后的一间作为厨房和餐厅用的小屋子，屋内一角摆着一张桌子，上面有书本和字帖，还有已经开始写的作业。“这就是了，”他说，“我第二个答案还没写全呢：用于做皮鞋的材料，还可以做皮带。现在我要加上，还有小提箱。”拿起笔，他开始写下一手漂亮的字迹。

"Is there any one here?" sounded a call from the shop at that moment. It was a woman who had come to buy some little fagots.“有人在吗？”就在那时，从商店里传来喊声。那是一位妇女，来买些小柴把。

"Here I am!" replied Coretti; and he sprang out, weighed the fagots, took the money, ran to a corner to enter the sale in a shabby old account-book, and returned to his work, saying, "Let's see if I can finish that sentence."And he wrote, travelling-bags, and knapsacks for soldiers. "Oh, my poor coffee is boiling over!" he exclaimed, and ran to the stove to take the coffee-pot from the fire. "It is coffee for mamma," he said; "I had to learn how to make it. Wait a while, and we will carry it to her; you'll see what pleasure it will give her. She has been in bed a whole week.—Conjugation of the verb! I always scald my fingers with this coffee-pot. What is there that I can add after the soldiers' knapsacks? Something more is needed, and I can think of nothing. Come to mamma."“这就来！”可莱谛答道。他蹦跳着出去，称了柴把，收了钱，跑去一个角落里在破旧的账簿上把账记了，又回来做功课，说道：“让我们看看我能不能完成这句话。”他写了“旅行包”和“士兵用的皮质背包”。“哦，我可怜的咖啡煮沸了！”他嚷道，跑到火炉边把咖啡壶从火上移开，“这是给妈妈煮的咖啡，”他说，“我已经学会怎样煮了。等过一会儿，我们拿去给她，你会看到她将有多么高兴。她已经卧床整整一周了。——动词变位！我常常被这个咖啡壶烫伤手指。写上士兵用的皮质背包后，还能加上什么呢？还必须多写几个，但我什么也想不起来了。走，去妈妈那里吧。”

He opened a door, and we entered another small room: there Coretti's mother lay in a big bed, with a white kerchief wound round her head.

他打开一扇门，我们走进另外一间更小的屋子：可莱谛的母亲躺在一张大床上，头上包着白色的方头巾。

"Ah, brave little master!" said the woman to me; "you have come to visit the sick, have you not?"“啊，勇敢的小主人！”那个女人对我说，“你是来探我的病的，是不是？”

Meanwhile, Coretti was arranging the pillows behind his mother's back, readjusting the bedclothes, brightening up the fire, and driving the cat off the chest of drawers.

这时，可莱谛调整了母亲背后的枕头，整理了被褥，拨亮了炉火，赶走了卧在衣柜上的猫。

"Do you want anything else, mamma?" he asked, as he took the cup from her. "Have you taken the two spoonfuls of syrup? When it is all gone, I will make a trip to the apothecary's. The wood is unloaded. At four o'clock I will put the meat on the stove, as you told me; and when the butter-woman passes, I will give her those eight soldi. Everything will go on well; so don't give it a thought."“你还需要什么吗，妈妈？”他一边接过她手里的杯子，一边问道，“你服下两汤匙糖浆了吗？如果药喝完了，我就往药店跑一趟。木柴卸好了。四点钟的时候，我就按照你说的，把肉放在炉子上热去；卖黄油的女人经过的时候，我就会把那八个铜币给她。一切都会很顺利的，所以别操心了。”

"Thanks, my son!" replied the woman. "Go, my poor boy!—he thinks of everything."“谢谢，我的儿子！”女人答道，“去吧，我可怜的孩子！——他事事都想到了。”

She insisted that I should take a lump of sugar; and then Coretti showed me a little picture,—the photograph portrait of his father dressed as a soldier, with the medal for bravery which he had won in 1866, in the troop of Prince Umberto: he had the same face as his son, with the same vivacious eyes and his merry smile.

她坚持要我吃一块方糖；随后可莱谛给我看了一张小照片——是他父亲穿着军装的相片，胸前挂着一八六六年在温培尔脱亲王麾下获得的英勇勋章：他长得和他儿子一模一样，有着同样快活的眼睛和愉快的笑容。

We went back to the kitchen. "I have found the thing," said Coretti; and he added on his copy-book, horse-trappings are also made of it. "The rest I will do this evening; I shall sit up later. How happy you are, to have time to study and to go to walk, too!"And still gay and active, he re-entered the shop, and began to place pieces of wood on the horse and to saw them, saying: "This is gymnastics; it is quite different from the throw your arms forwards. I want my father to find all this wood sawed when he gets home; how glad he will be! The worst part of it is that after sawing I make T's and L's which look like snakes, so the teacher says. What am I to do? I will tell him that I have to move my arms about. The important thing is to have mamma get well quickly. She is better Today, thank Heaven! I will study my grammar Tomorrow morning at cock-crow. Oh, here's the cart with logs! To work!"

我们回到了厨房。“我想到了，”可莱谛说，他在字帖上加上了“马鞍”，那也是皮做的，“剩下的晚上再做。我肯定得晚睡了。你真幸福啊，有时间学习，还有时间散步！”他再次进到店里，仍旧是那样快乐和活泼，开始把一块块木柴放到架子上锯起来，说着：“这是体操，只是和向前伸展手臂的体操大不一样。我打算让父亲在回家的时候看到所有的木柴都锯好了，他会有多开心啊！最糟糕的是锯了木柴之后，我写的‘Ｔ’和‘Ｌ’就像小蛇一样，老师是这样说的。我该怎么办呢？我会告诉他我的双臂必须动来动去地干活。让妈妈早点好起来是最重要的。她今天已经好些了，谢天谢地。明早鸡一叫，我就起来学习语法。哦，装木柴的马车来了！工作去了！”

A small cart laden with logs halted in front of the shop. Coretti ran out to speak to the man, then returned: "I cannot keep your company any longer now," he said; "farewell until Tomorrow. You did right to come and hunt me up. A pleasant walk to you! happy fellow!"

一辆装着木柴的小马车停在了商店前面。可莱谛跑出去和那人说话，又回来了：“我现在不能再陪你了，”他说，“明天见吧。你来找我玩真好。祝你散步愉快！幸福的家伙！”

And pressing my hand, he ran to take the first log, and began once more to trot back and forth between the cart and the shop, with a face as fresh as a rose beneath his catskin cap, and so alert that it was a pleasure to see him.

他紧握了一下我的手，就跑去搬第一捆木柴了，又一次在马车和商店之间往返跑动起来。他猫皮帽下的脸就像玫瑰一样清新，那敏捷的动作让人看了很是愉快。

"Happy fellow!" he had said to me. Ah, no, Coretti, no; you are the happier, because you study and work too; because you are of use to your father and your mother; because you are better—a hundred times better—and more courageous than I, my dear schoolmate.“幸福的家伙！”他对我这样说了。啊，不，可莱谛，不，你比我更幸福，因为你既学习又劳动；因为你能替父母尽力；因为你比我要好——好一百倍呢——还比我要勇敢，我亲爱的校友。

THE HEAD-MASTER.

校长先生

Friday, 18th.

星期五，18日

Coretti was pleased this morning, because his master of the second class, Coatti, a big man, with a huge head of curly hair, a great black beard, big dark eyes, and a voice like a cannon, had come to assist in the work of the monthly examination. He is always threatening the boys that he will break them in pieces and carry them by the nape of the neck to the quæstor, and he makes all sorts of frightful faces; but he never punishes any one, but always smiles the while behind his beard, so that no one can see it. There are eight masters in all, including Coatti, and a little, beardless assistant, who looks like a boy. There is one master of the fourth class, who is lame and always wrapped up in a big woollen scarf, and who is always suffering from pains which he contracted when he was a teacher in the country, in a damp school, where the walls were dripping with moisture. Another of the teachers of the fourth is old and perfectly white-haired, and has been a teacher of the blind. There is one well-dressed master, with eye-glasses, and a blond mustache, who is called the little lawyer, because, while he was teaching, he studied law and took his diploma; and he is also making a book to teach how to write letters. On the other hand, the one who teaches gymnastics is of a soldierly type, and was with Garibaldi, and has on his neck a scar from a sabre wound received at the battle of Milazzo. Then there is the head-master, who is tall and bald, and wears gold spectacles, with a gray beard that flows down upon his breast; he dresses entirely in black, and is always buttoned up to the chin. He is so kind to the boys, that when they enter the director's room, all in a tremble, because they have been summoned to receive a reproof, he does not scold them, but takes them by the hand, and tells them so many reasons why they ought not to behave so, and why they should be sorry, and promise to be good, and he speaks in such a kind manner, and in so gentle a voice, that they all come out with red eyes, more confused than if they had been punished.

可莱谛今天早晨很高兴，因为他三年级时的老师科伊蒂协助月考工作来了。他是一个大块头的男人，硕大的头上留着卷发，蓄着一大把黑色胡须，长着大大的黑眼睛，说起话来声音响如大炮。他常常恐吓男孩们，说要把他们撕成碎片，然后提着他们的颈背去交给警察。他还会做出各种各样可怕的鬼脸。但是他从不惩罚任何人，却总在胡须后偷笑，这样就没人能看到了。总共来了八位老师，包括科伊蒂和一位小个子的年轻助手，他看上去像个小男孩。有一位是五年级的老师，他脚有些跛，总是围着一条大羊毛围巾，一直饱受着从事乡间教师工作时染上的病痛的折磨。那是一所潮湿的学校，墙壁都潮湿得滴水。另外一位五年级的老师是一位白发苍苍的老先生，以前曾当过盲人的老师。有一位穿着考究的老师，戴着眼镜，留着淡黄色的胡子，被大家称为“小律师”，因为他一边教书，一边学习法律，还拿了文凭。他还在撰写一本关于怎样写信的书。在另一方面，教体育的老师以前是军人，曾在加里波第将军的麾下效力，他脖子上有条伤疤，是米拉佐战役中受的刀伤。还有一位就是校长先生，高个子、秃头，戴着金框眼镜，灰白的胡须一直垂到胸前。他穿全黑的衣服，纽扣一直扣到颏下。他对男孩们相当宽容，他们走进校长室的时候全都是战战兢兢的，因为他们以为是被叫去训话的，他却不训斥他们，只是握住他们的手，给他们讲很多很多的道理，告诉他们为什么不应该那样做，为什么他们应该觉得抱歉，还叫他们以后要做好孩子，他说话时态度那样和蔼，声音那样温柔，以至于孩子们出来时都红着眼睛，比受了惩罚还要慌乱。

Poor head-master! he is always the first at his post in the morning, waiting for the scholars and lending an ear to the parents;and when the other masters are already on their way home, he is still hovering about the school, and looking out that the boys do not get under the carriage-wheels, or hang about the streets to stand on their heads, or fill their bags with sand or stones; and the moment he makes his apperance at a corner, so tall and black, flocks of boys scamper off in all directions, abandoning their games of coppers and marbles, and he threatens them from afar with his forefingers, with his sad and loving air. No one has ever seen him smile, my mother says, since the death of his son, who was a volunteer in the army: he always keeps the latter's portrait before his eyes, on a little table in the head-master's room. He wanted to go away after this misfortune; he prepared his application for retirement to the Municipal Council, and kept it always on his table, putting off sending it from day to day, because it grieved him to leave the boys. But the other day he seemed undecided; and my father, who was in the director's room with him, was just saying to him, "What a shame it is that you are going away, Signor Director!" when a man entered for the purpose of inscribing the name of a boy who was to be transferred from another schoolhouse to ours, because he had changed his residence. At the sight of this boy, the head-master made a gesture of astonishment, gazed at him for a while, gazed at the portrait that he keeps on his little table, and then stared at the boy again, as he drew him between his knees, and made him hold up his head. This boy resembled his dead son. The head-master said, "It is all right," wrote down his name, dismissed the father and son, and remained absorbed in thought. "What a pity that you are going away!" repeated my father. And then the head-master took up his application for retirement, tore it in two, and said, "I shall remain."

可怜的校长先生啊！他总是清晨第一个到岗的人，等着学生来上课，候着家长们来谈话。当其他老师都已经下班回家的时候，他仍在学校附近巡视着，以防学生被马车车轮轧到，或是在街头闲逛、倒立，或是往书包里装满沙子和小石头。他在街角出现的那个瞬间，身影又高又黑，男孩们就会丢弃铜板和弹珠的游戏，向四处奔逃，他会远远地伸出食指吓唬他们，表情却是难过而充满慈爱的。我母亲说，从他志愿当兵的儿子死去的那天起，就没人见过他笑了：他总是把爱儿的肖像摆在眼前，就在校长室的小办公桌上。遭遇这不幸之后他想辞职。他已把提交给市政委员会的退休申请写好，一直放在办公桌上，却一日一日地延迟寄信的时间，因为他不忍心与孩子们分离。不久前的一天，他看上去很犹豫不决。我父亲在校长室与他谈话，正对他说：“您要辞职了，真是太令人惋惜了，校长先生！”正在这时，一个男人走进来，要给因为搬家而刚从其他学校转来的儿子登记姓名。一看见这男孩，校长露出惊讶的表情，盯着他看了一会儿，然后看了看他小办公桌上的肖像，又凝视那个男孩，把他拉过来靠近自己的两膝之间，让他抬起头来。这个男孩很像他死去的儿子。校长说：“可以了。”然后写下了他的名字，让父子俩回去了，继续陷入沉思。“您要辞职，真是可惜啊！”我父亲重复道。接着，校长拿起他的辞职申请，撕成两半，说道：“我要留下。”

THE SOLDIERS.

士兵们

Tuesday, 22d.

星期二，22日

His son had been a volunteer in the army when he died: this is the reason why the head-master always goes to the Corso to see the soldiers pass, when we come out of school. Yesterday a regiment of infantry was passing, and fifty boys began to dance around the band, singing and beating time with their rulers on their bags and portfolios. We were standing in a group on the sidewalk, watching them: Garrone, squeezed into his clothes, which were too tight for him, was biting at a large piece of bread; Votini, the well-dressed boy, who always wears Florence plush; Precossi, the son of the blacksmith, with his father's jacket;and the Calabrian; and the "little mason"; and Crossi, with his red head; and Franti, with his bold face; and Robetti, too, the son of artillery captain, the boy who saved the child from the omnibus, and who now walks on crutches. Franti burst into a derisive laugh, in the face of a soldier who was limping. But all at once he felt a man's hand on his shoulder: he turned round; it was the head-master. "Take care," said the master to him; "jeering at a soldier when he is in the ranks, when he can neither avenge himself nor reply, is like insulting a man who is bound: it is baseness."

校长的儿子死的时候正在军队里当志愿兵，这就是为什么我们放学的时候，他常常走去科索大街看军队通过。昨天一支步兵联队经过，五十个男孩开始围着列队又唱又跳，还一边用尺子在书包和文件夹上打着拍子。我们聚集在人行道上，看着他们：卡隆缩在对他来说太紧的衣服里，啃着一大块面包；衣着考究的男孩华梯尼，总是穿着佛罗伦萨长毛绒；铁匠的儿子泼来可西穿着他父亲的夹克；还有那个卡拉布里亚男孩、“小石匠”、红头发的克洛西、长着宽脸的弗兰蒂，还有炮兵上尉的儿子洛佩谛，就是从公共马车下救人的男孩，他现在要拄着拐杖行走。弗兰蒂当着一个跛行的士兵的面，爆发出一声嘲笑。突然，他感到有人拍了他的肩头。他回过头一看，发现是校长。“当心啊，”校长对他说，“嘲笑一名行进队伍中的士兵，他既没法报复也不能回答，就好像侮辱一个被绑住的人一样，是一种卑鄙的做法。”

Franti disappeared. The soldiers were marching by fours, all perspiring and covered with dust, and their guns were gleaming in the sun. The head-master said:—

弗兰蒂消失了。士兵们分作四列行进，身上满是汗水和灰尘，枪支在阳光下闪闪发光。校长说：

"You ought to feel kindly towards soldiers, boys. They are our defenders, who would go to be killed for our sakes, if a foreign army were to menace our country Tomorrow. They are boys too; they are not many years older than you; and they, too, go to school; and there are poor men and gentlemen among them, just as there are among you, and they come from every part of Italy. See if you cannot recognize them by their faces; Sicilians are passing, and Sardinians, and Neapolitans, and Lombards. This is an old regiment, one of those which fought in 1848. They are not the same soldiers, but the flag is still the same. How many have already died for our country around that banner twenty years before you were born!"“你们应该喜爱士兵们，孩子们。他们是我们的保卫者。明日若是有敌军来犯，他们愿意为保护我们献出生命。他们也还只是孩子，比你们大不了几岁；他们也上学；你们中间有穷人也有绅士，他们也是一样。他们来自意大利的每寸土地。看看你们能不能从他们的脸认出他们来自哪里。西西里人走过去了，还有撒丁人、那不勒斯人，和伦巴第人。这是一支老联队，是曾经参与一八四八年的战争的一支队伍。士兵们已不是当年的士兵，但旗帜仍是当年的那面旗帜。在你们出生二十年以前，有多少士兵为了保卫我们的国家在军旗下战死啊！”

"Here it is!" said Garrone. And in fact, not far off, the flag was visible, advancing, above the heads of the soldiers.“军旗来了！”卡隆说。真的，不远处，军旗在士兵们的头顶飘扬着前进。

"Do one thing, my sons," said the head-master; "make your scholar's salute, with your hand to your brow, when the tricolor passes."“大家做一件事，我的孩子们，”校长说，“当三色旗经过时，大家手举到额前，向它行个军礼。”

The flag, borne by an officer, passed before us, all tattered and faded, and with the medals attached to the staff. We put our hands to our foreheads, all together. The officer looked at us with a smile, and returned our salute with his hand.

一位士官手扛着军旗从我们面前经过，那旗已经破裂且褪色了，旗杆上挂着许多勋章。我们一齐把手举向前额。那位士官对我们投以微笑，并用手向我们回礼。

"Bravi, boys!" said some one behind us. We turned to look; it was an old man who wore in his button-hole the blue ribbon of the Crimean campaign—a pensioned officer. "Bravi!" he said; "you have done a fine deed."“做得好，孩子们！”后面有人说道。我们转过身去看，发现一位退休军官——他的扣眼里系着克里米亚战役的蓝色缎带。“做得好啊！”他说，“你们做了件高尚的事情。”

In the meantime, the band of the regiment had made a turn at the end of the Corso, surrounded by a throng of boys, and a hundred merry shouts accompanied the blasts of the trumpets, like a war-song.

就在这时，联队在科索大街的尽头转了方向，他们被一群孩子们簇拥着，成百上千快乐的呼声伴着小号的鸣响，就像是一支战歌。

"Bravi!" repeated the old officer, as he gazed upon us; "he who respects the flag when he is little will know how to defend it when he is grown up."“做得好啊！”那位老军官边看着我们边重复道，“那些小时候懂得尊敬军旗的人，长大了也会懂得去捍卫它的。”

NELLI'S PROTECTOR.

内利的保护者

Wednesday, 23d.

星期三，23日

Nelli, too, poor little hunchback! was looking at the soldiers yesterday, but with an air as though he were thinking, "I can never be a soldier!"He is good, and he studies; but he is so puny and wan, and he breathes with difficulty. He always wears a long apron of shining black cloth. His mother is a little blond woman who dresses in black, and always comes to get him at the end of school, so that he may not come out in the confusion with the others, and she caresses him. At first many of the boys ridiculed him, and thumped him on the back with their bags, because he is so unfortunate as to be a hunchback; but he never offered any resistance, and never said anything to his mother, in order not to give her the pain of knowing that her son was the laughing-stock of his companions: they derided him, and he held his peace and wept, with his head laid against the bench.

内利，那个可怜的小驼背，昨天也在看士兵行军，但是看上去仿佛在想着：“我是不可能当兵的！”他人不错，成绩也好，但是身体弱小、面色苍白，连呼吸都很困难。他总是穿着一条反光的黑布做成的围裙。他母亲是个身材娇小的金发女人，穿着黑色衣服，总是在放学的时候来接他，这样他出来时就不会把别人认错成母亲了。她会拥抱自己的儿子。起初，很多男孩嘲笑他，用书包狠狠地打他的背，因为他不幸是驼背；但是他从不抵抗，也从不对母亲提起这些，不想让母亲知道自己的儿子是同学中的笑柄，而使她难过。他们取笑他，他不动怒，只是头靠着长凳默默哭泣。

But one morning Garrone jumped up and said, "The first person who touches Nelli will get such a box on the ear from me that he will spin round three times!"

但是一天早上卡隆跳起来说道：“下一个碰内利的人，我会朝他耳朵挥上一拳，让他转上三个圈！”

Franti paid no attention to him; the box on the ear was delivered: the fellow spun round three times, and from that time forth no one ever touched Nelli again. The master placed Garrone near him, on the same bench. They have become friends. Nelli has grown very fond of Garrone. As soon as he enters the schoolroom he looks to see if Garrone is there. He never goes away without saying, "Good by, Garrone," and Garrone does the same with him.

弗兰蒂没理会他，耳朵上当真尝到了一记拳头，转了三个圈。从此以后再也没人敢碰内利一下了。老师安排卡隆挨着他坐，让他们坐在一条长凳上。他们成为了朋友。内利越来越喜爱卡隆。他一进教室就去看卡隆是否已经到了。放学的时候，他没有一次不说“再见，卡隆”的，卡隆对他也是一样。

When Nelli drops a pen or a book under the bench, Garrone stoops quickly, to prevent his stooping and tiring himself, and hands him his book or his pen, and then he helps him to put his things in his bag and to twist himself into his coat. For this Nelli loves him, and gazes at him constantly; and when the master praises Garrone he is pleased, as though he had been praised himself. Nelli must at last have told his mother all about the ridicule of the early days, and what they made him suffer; and about the comrade who defended him, and how he had grown fond of the latter; for this is what happened this morning. The master had sent me to carry to the director, half an hour before the close of school, a programme of the lesson, and I entered the office at the same moment with a small blond woman dressed in black, the mother of Nelli, who said, "Signor Director, is there in the class with my son a boy named Garrone?"

当内利掉了一支笔或一本书在长凳底下的时候，为了怕他弯腰会累，卡隆会迅速弯腰下去捡起来给他，还帮他把东西收进书包，为他穿好外套。因为这些，内利很爱他，常常凝视着他。当老师表扬卡隆时内利就很开心，就像自己在受表扬一样。内利最终还是把早前受嘲弄和欺负的一切事情告诉了母亲，还说了有位同学站出来保护他，他又如何喜爱上这位同学的事情。于是今天早晨发生了这样的事情。放学前半小时，老师叫我拿课程表去给校长。我走进办公室的时候，恰巧遇到一位穿着黑衣的小个子金发女人，就是内利的母亲，也正进去。她说：“校长先生，我儿子班上有个名叫卡隆的男孩吗？”

"Yes," replied the head-master.“是的。”校长回答。

"Will you have the goodness to let him come here for a moment, as I have a word to say to him?"“您能不能行行好，叫他过来一会儿？我有话对他说。”

The head-master called the beadle and sent him to the school, and after a minute Garrone appeared on the threshold, with his big, close-cropped head, in perfect amazement. No sooner did she catch sight of him than the woman flew to meet him, threw her arms on his shoulders, and kissed him a great many times on the head, saying:—

校长叫来仪仗官，派他去教室里。过了一会儿，卡隆那留着短平头的大脑袋出现在办公室门口，一副很吃惊的模样。那女人一见到他，就飞跑过去，双臂抱着他的肩膀，在他头上吻了好多次，说道：

"You are Garrone, the friend of my little son, the protector of my poor child; it is you, my dear, brave boy; it is you!"Then she searched hastily in all her pockets, and in her purse, and finding nothing, she detached a chain from her neck, with a small cross, and put it on Garrone's neck, underneath his necktie, and said to him:—“你就是卡隆，我儿子的好友，我可怜的孩子的保护者。就是你，我亲爱的、勇敢的孩子，就是你啊！”接着她在口袋和钱包里匆匆翻找，一时找不出东西，于是取下脖子上挂着的一条小十字架项链，系在卡隆的脖子上，压在领带的下面，并对他说：

"Take it! wear it in memory of me, my dear boy; in memory of Nelli's mother, who thanks and blesses you."“拿去吧！好好戴着，当作我送你的纪念，我亲爱的孩子；当作感谢你、为你祈祷的内利的母亲的纪念。”

THE HEAD OF THE CLASS.

班长

Friday, 25th.

星期五，25日

Garrone attracts the love of all; Derossi, the admiration. He has taken the first medal; he will always be the first, and this year also; no one can compete with him; all recognize his superiority in all points. He is the first in arithmetic, in grammar, in composition, in drawing; he understands everything on the instant; he has a marvellous memory; he succeeds in everything without effort; it seems as though study were play to him. The teacher said to him yesterday:—

卡隆被所有人爱戴，而代洛西令人敬佩。代洛西得过一等奖牌；他总是得第一名，今年也是；没人能比得过他；所有人都承认他在各个方面的优势。算术、语法、作文和绘画，他都是第一名；任何事情他一学就会；他有惊人的记忆力；任何事情他不费吹灰之力就能成功；学习对他来说就像玩一样。昨天老师对他说：

"You have received great gifts from God; all you have to do is not to squander them."He is, moreover, tall and handsome, with a great crown of golden curls; he is so nimble that he can leap over a bench by resting one hand on it; and he already understands fencing. He is twelve years old, and the son of a merchant; he is always dressed in blue, with gilt buttons; he is always lively, merry, gracious to all, and helps all he can in examinations; and no one has ever dared to do anything disagreeable to him, or to say a rough word to him. Nobis and Franti alone look askance at him, and Votini darts envy from his eyes; but he does not even perceive it. All smile at him, and take his hand or his arm, when he goes about, in his graceful way, to collect the work. He gives away illustrated papers, drawings, everything that is given him at home; he has made a little geographical chart of Calabria for the Calabrian lad; and he gives everything with a smile, without paying any heed to it, like a grand gentleman, and without favoritism for any one. It is impossible not to envy him, not to feel smaller than he in everything. Ah! I, too, envy him, like Votini. And I feel a bitterness, almost a certain scorn, for him, sometimes, when I am striving to accomplish my work at home, and think that he has already finished his, at this same moment, extremely well, and without fatigue. But then, when I return to school, and behold him so handsome, so smiling and triumphant, and hear how frankly and confidently he replies to the master's questions, and how courteous he is, and how the others all like him, then all bitterness, all scorn, departs from my heart, and I am ashamed of having experienced these sentiments. I should like to be always near him at such times; I should like to be able to do all my school tasks with him: his presence, his voice, inspire me with courage, with a will to work, with cheerfulness and pleasure.“上帝赐予了你非凡的天赋，你所要做的就是不要浪费了那些天赋。”此外，他还又高又帅，满头金黄色的卷发；他灵活敏捷，仅凭单手一撑，就能跳过一条长凳；而且他已经通晓了剑术。他十二岁，是一位商人的儿子；他总是穿着镶着镀金纽扣的蓝色衣服；他总是很活泼愉快，对每个人都亲切有礼，考试的时候他会尽其所能帮忙；没人敢做不讨他喜欢的事情，也没人敢对他说无礼的话。只有诺琵斯和弗兰蒂对他不以为然，华梯尼看他的眼神含着嫉妒；但是他对这些毫不在意。当他优雅地四处走动去收作业时，每个人都对他微笑，去握他的手或去挽他的胳膊。有插画的报纸啦，图画啦，凡是他在家里得到的东西，他都拿来送人；他还为那个卡拉布里亚男孩制了一张小小的卡拉布里亚地图呢；他送人东西的时候总是笑着，一点儿都不在意，像一位了不起的绅士一样，并不偏爱任何一个人。要想不去妒忌他，在他面前没有自卑感，是不可能的。啊！我也妒忌他，就像华梯尼一样。有些时候，当我在家努力想完成作业的时候，我想到他此刻已经轻松完美地做完，我就感到一阵苦闷，几乎对他产生一种蔑视。但是一回到学校，看到他漂亮的脸庞和胜利的微笑，听到他坦率而自信地回答老师的问题，看到他是那样彬彬有礼，其余的人是那样喜欢他，这时所有的苦闷和不屑都从我的内心消失了，我为自己有过那些情绪而感到羞愧。此时此刻，我真高兴能与他为伴，真高兴能与他一起完成所有的课业。他的音容笑貌赋予了我勇气和学习的动力，还有快乐和满足感。

The teacher has given him the monthly story, which will be read Tomorrow, to copy,—The Little Vidette of Lombardy. He copied it this morning, and was so much affected by that heroic deed, that his face was all aflame, his eyes humid, and his lips trembling; and I gazed at him: how handsome and noble he was! With what pleasure would I not have said frankly to his face: "Derossi, you are worth more than I in everything! You are a man in comparison with me! I respect you and I admire you!"

老师把明日要念给大家的每月故事稿件交给了他，让他誊写“伦巴第的小哨兵”。他今天早晨正誊写着，被那英雄的作为深深打动了，他脸涨得通红，眼睛湿润了，嘴唇颤抖着。我凝视着他：他是多么英俊，多么高尚啊！我几乎要当着他的面坦白地说：“代洛西，你任何事情都比我强！跟我相比，你就是个大人！我尊敬你，我崇拜你！”

THE LITTLE VIDETTE OF LOMBARDY. (Monthly Story.)

伦巴第的小哨兵（每月故事）

Saturday, 26th.

星期六，26日

In 1859, during the war for the liberation of Lombardy, a few days after the battle of Solfarino and San Martino, won by the French and Italians over the Austrians, on a beautiful morning in the month of June, a little band of cavalry of Saluzzo was proceeding at a slow pace along a retired path, in the direction of the enemy, and exploring the country attentively. The troop was commanded by an officer and a sergeant, and all were gazing into the distance ahead of them, with eyes fixed, silent, and prepared at any moment to see the uniforms of the enemy's advance-posts gleam white before them through the trees. In this order they arrived at a rustic cabin, surrounded by ash-trees, in front of which stood a solitary boy, about twelve years old, who was removing the bark from a small branch with a knife, in order to make himself a stick of it. From one window of the little house floated a large tricolored flag; there was no one inside: the peasants had fled, after hanging out the flag, for fear of the Austrians. As soon as the lad saw the cavalry, he flung aside his stick and raised his cap. He was a handsome boy, with a bold face and large blue eyes and long golden hair: he was in his shirt-sleeves and his breast was bare.

一八五九年，在解放伦巴第的战争期间，法意联军大胜奥地利军的那次索尔费里诺-圣马蒂诺战役之后几天，一个美丽的六月的清晨，萨卢佐的一支骑兵队在一条幽静的小路上向着敌军的方向缓慢前行，小心地侦察敌情。这支部队由一位军官和一名军士指挥，全都凝望着远远的前方，眼神专注，屏声噤气，随时准备发现敌军前哨在前面的树林中闪烁着白光的制服。就这样，他们来到了被白蜡树包围的一间小木屋前。那里站着一个小男孩，大约十二岁光景，正在用小刀刮一根小树枝上的树皮，想给自己做根木棍。这间小屋的一扇窗户间飘动着一大面三色旗，屋里空无一人：农民们害怕奥军来袭，挂出了国旗，就逃走了。这个男孩一看见这队骑兵，就把木棍丢在一边，举起了他的帽子。他是个英俊的男孩，英勇的脸庞上长着大大的蓝眼睛和金黄的长发。他敞开着衬衫，露出胸脯。

"What are you doing here?" the officer asked him, reining in his horse. "Why did you not flee with your family?"“你在这里做什么？”军官勒绳停住马，问道，“你怎么不和家人一起逃走呢？”

"I have no family," replied the boy. "I am a foundling. I do a little work for everybody. I remained here to see the war."“我没有家人，”男孩说，“我是个弃儿。我想为大家做点儿事情。我想留下来看打仗。”

"Have you seen any Austrians pass?"“你见到奥军经过没有？”

"No; not for these three days."“没有，这三天没有见到。”

The officer paused a while in thought; then he leaped from his horse, and leaving his soldiers there, with their faces turned towards the foe, he entered the house and mounted to the roof. The house was low; from the roof only a small tract of country was visible. "It will be necessary to climb the trees," said the officer, and descended. Just in front of the garden plot rose a very lofty and slender ash-tree, which was rocking its crest in the azure. The officer stood a brief space in thought, gazing now at the tree, and again at the soldiers; then, all of a sudden, he asked the lad:—

军官停下来深思了一会儿，然后跳下马，把士兵们留在原地观察敌方。他进到屋内，爬上了屋顶。房屋很低，从屋顶上也只能望见敌方的一小片土地。“非爬上树去不可。”军官说，然后下了屋顶。园地前正好耸立着一棵高大修长的白蜡树，树顶的枝叶在碧空中摇摆着。军官站着考虑了一小会儿，一下子盯着树看，一下子又盯着士兵们看。突然，他对那个男孩说：

"Is your sight good, you monkey?"“你的视力好吗，小伙子？”

"Mine?" replied the boy. "I can spy a young sparrow a mile away."“我的视力吗？”男孩回答，“我从一英里外就能看到小麻雀呢。”

"Are you good for a climb to the top of this tree?"“你能爬上这树顶吗？”

"To the top of this tree? I? I'll be up there in half a minute."“这棵树的树顶吗，我吗？我半分钟就可以爬上去。”

"And will you be able to tell me what you see up there—if there are Austrian soldiers in that direction, clouds of dust, gleaming guns, horses?"“那你能告诉我，你在上面看到的情况吗——那个方向有没有奥军，有没有团团尘埃、闪亮的枪管或马匹？”

"Certainly I shall."“我保证会的。”

"What do you demand for this service?"“做这事你想要多少钱？”

"What do I demand?" said the lad, smiling. "Nothing. A fine thing, indeed! And then—if it were for the Germans, I wouldn't do it on any terms; but for our men! I am a Lombard!"“我想要多少钱？”男孩笑着说，“分文不取。这实在是件好作为！假如是德国人叫我做，我是断然不肯做的，但是这是为我们自己的同胞做的啊！我是伦巴第人！”

"Good! Then up with you."“好样的！那么你上去吧。”

"Wait a moment, until I take off my shoes."“稍等片刻，让我先脱了皮鞋。”

He pulled off his shoes, tightened the girth of his trousers, flung his cap on the grass, and clasped the trunk of the ash.

他脱掉了鞋，绑紧了裤管，把帽子扔到草丛上，紧抱住白蜡树的树干。

"Take care, now!" exclaimed the officer, making a movement to hold him back, as though seized with a sudden terror.“小心点儿！”军官喊道，好像突然受到了惊吓一样，作势要抱他回来。

The boy turned to look at him, with his handsome blue eyes, as though interrogating him.

男孩转回头，用他美丽的蓝眼睛看着他，好像在询问他什么。

"No matter," said the officer; "up with you."“没事，”军官说，“你上去吧。”

Up went the lad like a cat.

男孩像猫一样地爬上去了。

"Keep watch ahead!" shouted the officer to the soldiers.“注意监视前方！”军官对士兵们喊道。

In a few moments the boy was at the top of the tree, twined around the trunk, with his legs among the leaves, but his body displayed to view, and the sun beating down on his blond head, which seemed to be of gold. The officer could hardly see him, so small did he seem up there.

不一会儿，男孩就爬到了树顶。他身体缠绕着树干，双腿被树叶遮住了，但是上身仍然可见。阳光直直地照他金黄色的脑袋上，看上去就像是真金一样。军官几乎快看不到他了，他在那么高的地方，身体变得很小了。

"Look straight ahead and far away!" shouted the officer.“直直地朝前方看，朝远处看！”军官喊道。

The lad, in order to see better, removed his right hand from the tree, and shaded his eyes with it.

男孩为了看得更清楚，右手放开树干，遮在眼睛上面望。

"What do you see?" asked the officer.“你看到了什么？”军官问。

The boy inclined his head towards him, and making a speaking-trumpet of his hand, replied, "Two men on horseback, on the white road."

男孩头朝下对着军官，双手在嘴巴上圈成喇叭状，回答说：“两个骑马的人，在路上。”

"At what distance from here?"“离这里多远？”

"Half a mile."“半英里路。”

"Are they moving?"“他们在走动吗？”

"They are standing still."“他们一动不动地站着。”

"What else do you see?" asked the officer, after a momentary silence. "Look to the right."The boy looked to the right. Then he said: "Near the cemetery, among the trees, there is something glittering. It seems to be bayonets."“你还看到什么？”军官沉默了片刻，又问道，“向右看。”男孩往右边望去。随后他说：“公墓附近，树林中，有什么东西在闪光。看上去像是刺刀。”

"Do you see men?"“你看见人了吗？”

"No. They must be concealed in the grain."“没有。他们肯定藏在稻田中。”

At that moment a sharp whiz of a bullet passed high up in the air, and died away in the distance, behind the house.

就在这时，“飕”的一声，一颗子弹从高空中掠过，消失在木屋后面的某处。

"Come down, my lad!" shouted the officer. "They have seen you. I don't want anything more. Come down."“下来，我的孩子！”军官大喊，“他们看见你了。不需要更多情报了。下来吧。”

"I'm not afraid," replied the boy.“我不怕。”男孩回答。

"Come down!" repeated the officer. "What else do you see to the left?"“下来！”军官又喊，“左边你又看到什么？”

"To the left?"“左边吗？”

"Yes, to the left."“是的，左边。”

The lad turned his head to the left: at that moment, another whistle, more acute and lower than the first, cut the air. The boy was thoroughly aroused. "Deuce take them!" he exclaimed. "They actually are aiming at me!"The bullet had passed at a short distance from him.

男孩把头转向左边。就在那时，另一声“飕飕”地划破天空，比先前那次更刺耳，飞得更低。男孩完全激动了。“见鬼！”他嚷道，“他们真的是瞄准我的！”子弹从他身旁飞过，距离很近。

"Down!" shouted the officer, imperious and irritated.“下来！”军官急躁地吼着命令道。

"I'll come down presently," replied the boy. "But the tree shelters me. Don't fear. You want to know what there is on the left?"“我立刻下来。”男孩回答，“但是有树掩护我。我不怕。你想知道左边情况怎样吗？”

"Yes, on the left," answered the officer; "but come down."“是的，左边，”军官说，“但是你要下来。”

"On the left," shouted the lad, thrusting his body out in that direction, "yonder, where there is a chapel, I think I see—"“左边，”男孩身体往左倾，大声道，“左边，有座小教堂，我想我看见——”

A third fierce whistle passed through the air, and almost instantaneously the boy was seen to descend, catching for a moment at the trunk and branches, and then falling headlong with arms outspread.

第三发子弹穿过空中，几乎在同时，男孩身体开始下落，被树干和树枝暂时拦截了一会儿，然后张开双臂猛地摔到了地上。

"Curse it!" exclaimed the officer, running up.“该死！”军官嚷道，跑上前去。

The boy landed on the ground, upon his back, and remained stretched out there, with arms outspread and supine; a stream of blood flowed from his breast, on the left. The sergeant and two soldiers leaped from their horses; the officer bent over and opened his shirt: the ball had entered his left lung. "He is dead!" exclaimed the officer.

男孩脸朝天躺在地上，还保持着向外伸展的姿势，双臂张开着，手掌心朝上，一股鲜血从他的左胸迸出。军士和两个士兵跳下了马；军官弯下身，解开了他的衬衫：子弹射入了他的左肺。“他死了！”军官喊道。

"No, he still lives!" replied the sergeant.—"Ah, poor boy! brave boy!" cried the officer. "Courage, courage!"But while he was saying "courage," he was pressing his handkerchief on the wound. The boy rolled his eyes wildly and dropped his head back. He was dead. The officer turned pale and stood for a moment gazing at him; then he laid him down carefully on his cloak upon the grass; then rose and stood looking at him; the sergeant and two soldiers also stood motionless, gazing upon him: the rest were facing in the direction of the enemy.“不，他还活着！”军士回答。“啊，可怜的孩子！勇敢的孩子！”军官哭喊着，“勇敢些，勇敢些！”正当他说着“勇敢些”的时候，他用手帕按压住男孩的伤口。男孩眼珠飞速滚了滚，头向后垂了下去。他死了。军官脸色发白，站在那里睁睁地看着他好一会儿；接着小心翼翼地把男孩横倒在铺在草丛上的他的外衣上，然后站起来看着他；军士和两个士兵也一动不动地站着，看着他。其他的士兵面朝敌方。

"Poor boy!" repeated the officer. "Poor, brave boy!"“可怜的孩子！”军官重复说道，“可怜的，勇敢的孩子！”

Then he approached the house, removed the tricolor from the window, and spread it in guise of a funeral pall over the little dead boy, leaving his face uncovered. The sergeant collected the dead boy's shoes, cap, his little stick, and his knife, and placed them beside him.

随后他走向木屋，将窗户上的三色旗取下，铺开来盖在死去的男孩身上做柩衣，只露出男孩的脸。军士集拢了死去的男孩的鞋、帽子、小木棍和刀，把它们放在他身旁。

They stood for a few moments longer in silence; then the officer turned to the sergeant and said to him, "We will send the ambulance for him: he died as a soldier; the soldiers shall bury him."Having said this, he wafted a kiss with his hand to the dead boy, and shouted "To horse!"All sprang into the saddle, the troop drew together and resumed its road.

他们又在静默中站了良久，然后军官转向军士，对他说：“我们要抬担架来，他是作为士兵牺牲的，士兵们该好好地葬他。”说完这些，他用手献了一吻给死去的男孩，喊道：“上马！”全体上了马，整齐队伍重新上路。

And a few hours later the little dead boy received the honors of war.

几小时之后，这个死去的小男孩就被授予了战争的勋章。

At sunset the whole line of the Italian advance-posts marched forward towards the foe, and along the same road which had been traversed in the morning by the detachment of cavalry, there proceeded, in two files, a heavy battalion of sharpshooters, who, a few days before, had valiantly watered the hill of San Martino with blood. The news of the boy's death had already spread among the soldiers before they left the encampment. The path, flanked by a rivulet, ran a few paces distant from the house. When the first officers of the battalion caught sight of the little body stretched at the foot of the ash-tree and covered with the tricolored banner, they made the salute to it with their swords, and one of them bent over the bank of the streamlet, which was covered with flowers at that spot, plucked a couple of blossoms and threw them on it. Then all the sharpshooters, as they passed, plucked flowers and threw them on the body. In a few minutes the boy was covered with flowers, and officers and soldiers all saluted him as they passed by: "Bravo, little Lombard!""Farewell, my lad!""I salute thee, gold locks!""Hurrah!""Glory!""Farewell!"One officer tossed him his medal for valor; another went and kissed his brow. And flowers continued to rain down on his bare feet, on his blood-stained breast, on his golden head. And there he lay asleep on the grass, enveloped in his flag, with a white and almost smiling face, poor boy! as though he heard these salutes and was glad that he had given his life for his Lombardy.

日落时分，意军的前哨沿着早晨这支骑兵的分遣队走过的道路，整体向敌军进发。那是一整营的神枪手，列成两队，不久前曾英勇地血洗了圣马丁山。士兵们离开营地以前，男孩死去的消息就已经传遍了。这条侧面有小溪流过的道路，与木屋相距只有几步。当营内第一队军官看到躺在白蜡树下、盖着三色旗的小小身躯时，他们挥剑对他行了军礼。其中有一位军官来到遍布鲜花的溪岸边，俯身采摘了几朵鲜花，抛撒在尸体上。随后，当经过此地时，所有的神枪手们都摘了鲜花向尸体上抛撒。不一会儿，男孩身上盖满了鲜花，军官和士兵们经过时都高呼道：“做得好，小伦巴第人！”“永别了，我的孩子！”“我向你致敬，金发男孩！”“好哇！”“好家伙！”“永别了！”一位军官把自己的英勇勋章向他抛去，另一位前去亲吻了他的额头。鲜花继续如雨点般落在他的光脚上、他血染的胸膛上，还有他金色的头上。他躺在草丛上沉睡，包裹在国旗里，露出苍白的几乎在微笑的脸，可怜的孩子！好像他能听到这些致敬的言语，并且很欣慰能为他的伦巴第捐躯。

THE POOR.

穷人

Tuesday, 29th.

星期二，29日

To give one's life for one's country as the Lombard boy did, is a great virtue; but you must not neglect the lesser virtues, my son. This morning as you walked in front of me, when we were returning from school, you passed near a poor woman who was holding between her knees a thin, pale child, and who asked alms of you. You looked at her and gave her nothing, and yet you had some coppers in your pocket. Listen, my son. Do not accustom yourself to pass indifferently before misery which stretches out its hand to you and far less before a mother who asks a copper for her child. Reflect that the child may be hungry; think of the agony of that poor woman. Picture to yourself the sob of despair of your mother, if she were some day forced to say, "Enrico, I cannot give you any bread even Today!"When I give a soldo to a beggar, and he says to me, "God preserve your health, and the health of all belonging to you!" you cannot understand the sweetness which these words produce in my heart, the gratitude that I feel for that poor man. It seems to me certain that such a good wish must keep one in good health for a long time, and I return home content, and think, "Oh, that poor man has returned to me very much more than I gave him!"Well, let me sometimes feel that good wish called forth, merited by you; draw a soldo from your little purse now and then, and let it fall into the hand of a blind man without means of subsistence, of a mother without bread, of a child without a mother. The poor love the alms of boys, because it does not humiliate them, and because boys, who stand in need of everything, resemble themselves: you see that there are always poor people around the schoolhouses. The alms of a man is an act of charity; but that of a child is at one and the same time an act of charity and a caress—do you understand? It is as though a soldo and a flower fell from your hand together. Reflect that you lack nothing, and that they lack everything, that while you aspire to be happy, they are content simply with not dying. Reflect, that it is a horror, in the midst of so many palaces, along the streets thronged with carriages, and children clad in velvet, that there should be women and children who have nothing to eat. To have nothing to eat! O God! Boys like you, as good as you, as intelligent as you, who, in the midst of a great city, have nothing to eat, like wild beasts lost in a desert! Oh, never again, Enrico, pass a mother who is begging, without placing a soldo in her hand!

像伦巴第男孩那样为国捐躯，是无上的美德,但是你也不要忽略了那些较小的美德啊，我的儿子。今天早上当我们从学校回家时，你走在我前面，你经过了一个穷困的女人，膝上还抱着个瘦小苍白的小孩，她向你求施舍。你看了她一眼，什么也没给，但是你口袋里明明就有些铜币。听着，我的儿子。不幸的人在你面前伸手向你求乞的时候，不要习惯于冷漠地走开，尤其是对于为了自己的孩子讨一枚铜币的母亲，更不该那样。想想那孩子也许正挨着饿呢，想想那可怜的女人是多么痛苦啊。想象一下你母亲绝望的啜泣，假如有一天她不得已要对你说：“安利柯，我今天没法给你面包吃了！”我将一枚铜币给乞讨的人时，他对我说：“上帝保佑您健康，保佑您家人的健康！”你无法体会这些话带给我内心的快乐，和我对那个可怜的人的感激之情。对我而言，那些祝福的话语就好像真的可以让人长久健康一样。我满足地回到家里，想道：“哦，那个可怜的人回报给我的比我给他的要多得多啊！”那么，让我偶尔也感受下因你而产生的祝福吧，时不时地从你的钱包里掏出一枚铜币，把它送到无计谋生的盲人、苦于生计的母亲，或是没有母亲的孤儿手中吧。穷人喜欢男孩们的施舍，因为这不会让他们觉得耻辱，因为男孩们正是处于需求一切的阶段，这和穷人有些类似。你可以看到，校舍周围总有穷人在乞讨。施舍是一种慈善活动，但是一个孩子的施舍则既是一种慈善活动，同时也是爱的举动——你明白吗？就好像将铜币和鲜花一同从你手中送出去。想想你什么都不缺，但是他们什么都没有；你追求快乐的同时，他们但求不死就很满足。想想吧，在如此多华丽的娱乐场所中，在挤满马车的街道上，在身着天鹅绒的孩子们中间，竟有女人和孩子没有食物充饥，这是多么恐怖啊。没有食物充饥啊！哦，上帝啊！像你一样的男孩，像你一样听话和聪明的男孩，在这座大城市里，竟然如同在沙漠中迷路的野兽一般，没有食物充饥啊！哦，安利柯，再遇到乞食的母亲，再也不要一枚铜币都不给就走开了！

Thy Father.

你的父亲DECEMBER. 十二月

THE TRADER.

商人

Thursday, 1st.

星期四，1日

My father wishes me to have some one of my companions come to the house every holiday, or that I should go to see one of them, in order that I may gradually become friends with all of them. Sunday I shall go to walk with Votini, the well-dressed boy who is always polishing himself up, and who is so envious of Derossi. In the meantime, Garoffi came to the house Today,—that long, lank boy, with the nose like an owl's beak, and small, knavish eyes, which seem to be ferreting everywhere. He is the son of a grocer; he is an eccentric fellow; he is always counting the soldi that he has in his pocket; he reckons them on his fingers very, very rapidly, and goes through some process of multiplication without any tables; and he hoards his money, and already has a book in the Scholars' Savings Bank. He never spends a soldo, I am positive; and if he drops a centesimo under the benches, he is capable of hunting for it for a week. He does as magpies do, so Derossi says. Everything that he finds—worn-out pens, postage-stamps that have been used, pins, candle-ends—he picks up. He has been collecting postage-stamps for more than two years now; and he already has hundreds of them from every country, in a large album, which he will sell to a bookseller later on, when he has got it quite full. Meanwhile, the bookseller gives him his copy-books gratis, because he takes a great many boys to the shop. In school, he is always bartering; he effects sales of little articles every day, and lotteries and exchanges; then he regrets the exchange, and wants his stuff back; he buys for two and gets rid of it for four; he plays at pitch-penny, and never loses; he sells old newspapers over again to the tobacconist; and he keeps a little blank-book, in which he sets down his transactions, which is completely filled with sums and subtractions. At school he studies nothing but arithmetic; and if he desires the medal, it is only that he may have a free entrance into the puppet-show. But he pleases me; he amuses me. We played at keeping a market, with weights and scales. He knows the exact price of everything; he understands weighing, and makes handsome paper horns, like shopkeepers, with great expedition. He declares that as soon as he has finished school he shall set up in business—in a new business which he has invented himself. He was very much pleased when I gave him some foreign postage-stamps; and he informed me exactly how each one sold for collections. My father pretended to be reading the newspaper; but he listened to him, and was greatly diverted. His pockets are bulging, full of his little wares; and he covers them up with a long black cloak, and always appears thoughtful and preoccupied with business, like a merchant. But the thing that he has nearest his heart is his collection of postage-stamps. This is his treasure; and he always speaks of it as though he were going to get a fortune out of it. His companions accuse him of miserliness and usury. I do not know: I like him; he teaches me a great many things; he seems a man to me. Coretti, the son of the wood-merchant, says that he would not give him his postage-stamps to save his mother's life. My father does not believe it.

每逢假日，父亲就希望我招呼朋友到家里来，或者我去看他们，这样我就可能渐渐地和他们都成为好朋友了。星期天我要和华梯尼去散步，他就是那个总是在整理仪容的、衣着讲究的男孩，他嫉妒代洛西嫉妒得要命。同时，卡洛斐今天来访——就是那个瘦高的男孩，鼻子长得像猫头鹰的嘴，小而奸诈的眼睛似乎在四处打量。他是一位杂货商的儿子，是个古怪的家伙，总是数着口袋里的铜币，非常快速地用手指头计算着，不用乘法表就能心算乘法。他把钱积攒起来，在学者储蓄银行已经拥有了一个户头。我敢确定，他从来没花过一个铜币。哪怕他有一分钱滚到座位底下，他都会找上一个星期才肯罢休。他和有收集零碎东西癖好的人做一样的事，代洛西是这么说的。所有他看到的东西——用坏了的钢笔、使用过的邮票、大头针、点剩的蜡烛——他都捡起来。他收集邮票已经有两年多时间了，他已经集了成百上千张来自各个国家的邮票，放在一本大集邮簿里，打算以后集满了整本就卖给一位书商。同时，那位书商给他免费的字帖，因为他带了很多男孩到书店去购书。在学校里，他总是在以物易物，每天都做着小物品、彩票和交换物品的买卖，交换了以后又会后悔，想把自己的物品要回来。他拿两个换回来，再收回四个换出去。他很会玩投钱的游戏，从未输过；他把旧报纸转卖给烟草商；他有一本小小的账簿，用来记他的交易，里面记满了收入和支出的款项。在学校里，他除了算术以外什么都不好好学；假如说他也想得到奖牌，也不外乎一个原因，那就是他想得到木偶戏的免费入场券。但是他让我高兴，他能逗我笑。我们用砝码和天平玩过运筹市场的游戏。他知道每件物品的确切价格；他懂得如何称重；他会像一些店主那样，动作敏捷地折纸喇叭。他宣称，他一毕业就去从商——去经营一项他自己发明的生意。当我送给他一些外国邮票时，他非常地开心，还告诉我每张邮票的准确卖价。父亲假装在看报纸，其实是在听他讲话，并且觉得非常解闷。他的口袋鼓鼓的，装满了他的小商品，他用一件长长的黑色外衣把它们盖住。他好像一位商人一样，总是一副思考的模样，全神贯注在生意里。但是他最看重的还是他的集邮簿。这是他的珍宝，他常常提到它，就好像要靠它赚一大笔钱似的。同伴们都指责他吝啬，只贪图利益。我不知道。我喜欢他，他教会我很多事情，他对我来说就像个大人。木材商的儿子可莱谛说，卡洛斐不会舍得用他的邮票去救他母亲的性命的。我父亲却不信这话。

"Wait a little before you condemn him," he said to me; "he has this passion, but he has heart as well."“批评他之前，先等一会儿，”他对我说，“他对集邮有热情，但他心地也不坏。”

VANITY.

虚荣心

Monday, 5th.

星期一，5日

Yesterday I went to take a walk along the Rivoli road with Votini and his father. As we were passing through the Via Dora Grossa we saw Stardi, the boy who kicks disturbers, standing stiffly in front of the window of a book-shop, with his eyes fixed on a geographical map; and no one knows how long he had been there, because he studies even in the street. He barely returned our salute, the rude fellow! Votini was well dressed—even too much so. He had on morocco boots embroidered in red, an embroidered coat, small silken frogs, a white beaver hat, and a watch; and he strutted. But his vanity was destined to come to a bad end on this occasion. After having run a tolerably long distance up the Rivoli road, leaving his father, who was walking slowly, a long way in the rear, we halted at a stone seat, beside a modestly clad boy, who appeared to be weary, and was meditating, with drooping head. A man, who must have been his father, was walking to and fro under the trees, reading the newspaper. We sat down. Votini placed himself between me and the boy. All at once he recollected that he was well dressed, and wanted to make his neighbor admire and envy him. He lifted one foot, and said to me, "Have you seen my officer's boots?"He said this in order to make the other boy look at them; but the latter paid no attention to them.

昨日我、华梯尼和他的父亲三人一起沿着里弗利街散步。当经过维亚多拉格罗萨的时候，我们看见了斯带地，那个赶走滋事者的男孩。他直挺挺地站在书店的橱窗前，眼睛盯着一张地图。没人知道他在那里站了多久，因为即使在街上他也会用功学习。他几乎没有回应我们的招呼，真是没礼貌的家伙！华梯尼穿得很漂亮——甚至有点儿过头了。他穿着一双红色的绣花摩洛哥皮靴、一件上面有丝质盘花纽扣的绣花的外套，戴着一顶白海狸毛帽子和一块手表，一副趾高气扬的样子。但是在这种场合，他的虚荣心注定要落个不好的下场。我们沿着里弗利街向上跑了相当长的一段路，丢下他父亲远远地在后面慢慢走着。我们在一个石凳边停了起来，旁边坐着一个衣着朴素的男孩，他看上去很累，垂着头正在深思着什么。一个看上去像是他父亲的男人，在树下来回踱步，看着报纸。我们坐了下来。华梯尼坐在我和那个男孩中间。突然，他想起了自己穿得很华丽，想要引起他身旁的人的羡慕和嫉妒。他抬起一只脚，对我说：“你看过我的军靴了吗？”他这样说，是想让另外那个男孩看看靴子，但是后者毫不理会。

Then he dropped his foot, and showed me his silk frogs, glancing askance at the boy the while, and said that these frogs did not please him, and that he wanted to have them changed to silver buttons; but the boy did not look at the frogs either.

随后他放下脚，一边给我看他的丝质盘花纽扣，一边斜眼瞅着那个男孩，说他不太喜欢那些纽扣，想把他们换成银扣子，但是那个男孩也没有看盘花纽扣。

Then Votini fell to twirling his very handsome white castor hat on the tip of his forefinger; but the boy—and it seemed as though he did it on purpose—did not deign even a glance at the hat.

随后华梯尼将他那漂亮的白海狸毛帽子用手指顶住打起转来，但是那个男孩仍旧不看帽子一眼——就和故意那样做的一样。

Votini, who began to become irritated, drew out his watch, opened it, and showed me the wheels; but the boy did not turn his head. "Is it of silver gilt?"I asked him.

华梯尼被激怒了，他脱下手表，打开盖子，给我看里面的齿轮，但是那个男孩连脸也不转过来。“是镀金的吗？”我问他。

"No," he replied; "it is gold."“不，”他回答，“就是金的。”

"But not entirely of gold," I said; "there must be some silver with it."“但不是纯金吧，”我说，“里面肯定掺了些白银吧。”

"Why, no!" he retorted; and, in order to compel the boy to look, he held the watch before his face, and said to him, "Say, look here! isn't it true that it is entirely of gold?"“那不可能！”他反驳道，为了让那个男孩看，他把表送到他面前，对他说，“看这儿！这不就是纯金的吗？”

The boy replied curtly, "I don't know."

男孩简略地答道：“我不知道。”

"Oh! oh!" exclaimed Votini, full of wrath, "what pride!"“哦！哦！”华梯尼满腔怒火，嚷道，“多骄傲啊！”

As he was saying this, his father came up, and heard him; he looked steadily at the lad for a moment, then said sharply to his son, "Hold your tongue!" and, bending down to his ear, he added, "he is blind!"

正当他这样说的时候，他的父亲走上前来，听到了这些话，静静注视了那个男孩一会儿，接着厉声对自己的儿子说：“住口！”然后他俯身下去贴着儿子的耳朵又说道，“他是盲人！”

Votini sprang to his feet, with a shudder, and stared the boy in the face: the latter's eyeballs were glassy, without expression, without sight. Votini stood humbled,—speechless,—with his eyes fixed on the ground. At length he stammered, "I am sorry; I did not know."

华梯尼颤抖了一下，跳了起来，细看男孩的脸，发现他眼神呆滞，没有表情，什么也看不见。华梯尼颓然站着，也不作声了，眼睛盯着地面。过了一会儿，他结结巴巴地说：“对不起，我不知道。”

But the blind boy, who had understood it all, said, with a kind and melancholy smile, "Oh, it's no matter!"

那个盲眼男孩已经明白了一切，他亲切却悲伤地笑着说：“哦，没关系的！”

Well, he is vain; but Votini has not at all a bad heart. He never laughed again during the whole of the walk.

虽然华梯尼爱慕虚荣，但是他的心地却也不坏。下面的散步过程中，他再也没笑过。

THE FIRST SNOW-STORM.

第一场暴风雪

Saturday, 10th.

星期六，10日

Farewell, walks to Rivoli! Here is the beautiful friend of the boys! Here is the first snow! Ever since yesterday evening it has been falling in thick flakes as large as gillyflowers. It was a pleasure this morning at school to see it beat against the panes and pile up on the window-sills; even the master watched it, and rubbed his hands; and all were glad, when they thought of making snowballs, and of the ice which will come later, and of the hearth at home. Stardi, entirely absorbed in his lessons, and with his fists pressed to his temples, was the only one who paid no attention to it. What beauty, what a celebration there was when we left school! All danced down the streets, shouting and tossing their arms, catching up handfuls of snow, and dashing about in it, like poodles in water. The umbrellas of the parents, who were waiting for them outside, were all white; the policeman's helmet was white; all our satchels were white in a few moments. Every one appeared to be beside himself with joy—even Precossi, the son of the blacksmith, that pale boy who never laughs; and Robetti, the lad who saved the little child from the omnibus, poor fellow! he jumped about on his crutches. The Calabrian, who had never touched snow, made himself a little ball of it, and began to eat it, as though it had been a peach; Crossi, the son of the vegetable-vendor, filled his satchel with it; and the little mason made us burst with laughter, when my father invited him to come to our house Tomorrow. He had his mouth full of snow, and, not daring either to spit it out or to swallow it, he stood there choking and staring at us, and made no answer. Even the schoolmistress came out of school on a run, laughing; and my mistress of the first upper class, poor little thing! ran through the drizzling snow, covering her face with her green veil, and coughing; and meanwhile, hundreds of girls from the neighboring schoolhouse passed by, screaming and frolicking on that white carpet; and the masters and the beadles and the policemen shouted, "Home! home!" swallowing flakes of snow, and whitening their moustaches and beards. But they, too, laughed at this wild hilarity of the scholars, as they celebrated the winter.

里弗利街的散步，暂别了！男孩们美丽的朋友到来了！初雪来了！从昨晚开始，像紫罗兰花瓣一样大片而密集的雪花就一直在飘洒。今天早晨在学校看到雪花拍打着窗户，并在窗台上堆积，可真高兴啊，连班主任也搓着手往外看。大家想起滚雪球、随后而结的冰和家里的壁炉，都很开心。斯带地全神贯注在功课上，拳头抵着太阳穴，是唯一一个对下雪毫不感兴趣的人。放学回家的时候，外面可美了，好一场盛大的庆祝场面！大家都在街道上跳着舞，呼喊着，挥舞着手臂，猛地抓起满手的雪乱冲乱撞，就像掉进水中的狮子狗一样。在校外等候的家长们的雨伞全都白了；警察的头盔也全白了；我们的书包一会儿也全白了。大家都高兴地忘形了——连铁匠的儿子泼来可西，那个从来不笑的苍白男孩也笑了；还有从公共马车下救出小孩的洛佩谛也笑了，可怜的家伙！他杵着拐杖跳着。卡拉布里亚男孩从未触摸过雪，他做了一个小雪球给自己，开始像吃桃子一样吃起来；蔬菜小贩的儿子克洛西往自己书包里装满了雪；我父亲邀“小石匠”明天来家里玩的时候，他把我们都逗笑了。他含了满嘴雪，既不敢吐出来又不敢吞下去，站在那里噎住了，眼睁睁看着我们，说不出话来。就连女老师们也都笑着跑出来了，我二年级时的女老师也在，可怜的人啊！她在细细的小雪中跑出来了，脸上遮着绿色的面纱，咳嗽着。就在这时，有几百个来自邻校的女孩路过，正在那雪白的地毯上尖叫着嬉戏。老师、仪仗官和警察们喊着：“快回家吧！回家吧！”他们吞咽着雪花，胡子都被染白了。但是看着学生们如此狂欢着，好像在庆祝冬天一样，他们也笑了。

You hail the arrival of winter; but there are boys who have neither clothes nor shoes nor fire. There are thousands of them, who descend to their villages, over a long road, carrying in hands bleeding from chilblains a bit of wood to warm the schoolroom. There are hundreds of schools almost buried in the snow, bare and dismal as caves, where the boys suffocate with smoke or chatter their teeth with cold as they gaze in terror at the white flakes which descend unceasingly, which pile up without cessation on their distant cabins threatened by avalanches. You rejoice in the winter, boys. Think of the thousands of creatures to whom winter brings misery and death.

你在欢呼冬天的到来，却有孩子没有衣服、鞋子穿，也没有火暖身。有成千上万的孩子，为了让教室变暖，大老远地到乡下去，用生着冻疮、流着血的手搬来一点儿木柴。成百上千的学校几乎被大雪掩埋，光秃凄凉得和洞穴一样，那里的孩子们恐惧地望着无休止地下着的雪花，被烟熏得呼吸困难，冻得牙齿打战。雪不停地在他们破败的小屋顶上堆积，随时都有雪崩的危险。孩子们，你们因为冬天来了而欢喜。不要忘了还有成千上万的人，冬天带给他们的是不幸和死亡啊。

Thy Father.

你的父亲

THE LITTLE MASON.

小石匠

Sunday, 11th.

星期日，11日

The little mason came Today, in a hunting-jacket, entirely dressed in the cast-off clothes of his father, which were still white with lime and plaster. My father was even more anxious than I that he should come. How much pleasure he gives us! No sooner had he entered than he pulled off his ragged cap, which was all soaked with snow, and thrust it into one of his pockets; then he advanced with his listless gait, like a weary workman, turning his face, as smooth as an apple, with its ball-like nose, from side to side;and when he entered the dining-room, he cast a glance round at furniture, and fixed his eyes on a small picture of Rigoletto, a hunchbacked jester, and made a "hare's face."

小石匠今天到家里来了，穿着一件打猎夹克，全身都是他父亲穿剩的旧衣服，上面仍沾着石灰和石膏。我父亲比我还要急切地希望他到家里来。我们见了他有多么高兴啊！他一进门就摘下被雪完全浸湿的破帽子，塞进口袋里，然后像一个疲惫的工人一样迈着倦怠的步子往里面走。他光滑如苹果般的脸上长着球似的鼻子，脸从一边转到另外一边，四处打量着。他走进餐厅的时候，把四周的陈设打量了一圈后，就盯着一张画着一个驼背小丑的《弄臣》小图片看，然后他扮了一次野兔鬼脸。

It is impossible to refrain from laughing when one sees him make that hare's face. We went to playing with bits of wood: he possesses an extraordinary skill at making towers and bridges, which seem to stand as though by a miracle, and he works at it quite seriously, with the patience of a man. Between one tower and another he told me about his family: they live in a garret; his father goes to the evening school to learn to read, and his mother is a washerwoman. And they must love him, of course, for he is clad like a poor boy, but he is well protected from the cold, with neatly mended clothes, and with his necktie nicely tied by his mother's hands. His father, he told me, is a fine man,—a giant, who has trouble in getting through doors, but he is kind, and always calls his son "hare's face”: the son, on the contrary, is rather small. At four o'clock we lunched on bread and goat's-milk cheese, as we sat on the sofa; and when we rose, I do not know why, but my father did not wish me to brush off the back, which the little mason had spotted with white, from his jacket: he restrained my hand, and then rubbed it off himself on the sly. While we were playing, the little mason lost a button from his hunting-jacket, and my mother sewed it on, and he grew quite red, and began to watch her sew, in perfect amazement and confusion, holding his breath the while. Then we gave him some albums of caricatures to look at, and he, without being aware of it himself, imitated the grimaces of the faces there so well, that even my father laughed. He was so much pleased when he went away that he forgot to put on his tattered cap; and when we reached the landing, he made a hare's face at me once more in sign of his gratitude. His name is Antonio Rabucco, and he is eight years and eight months old.

看了他扮的兔脸，谁都会忍不住要笑的。我们一起去堆积木。他对建塔和造桥有着超凡的技巧，积木能奇迹般地站立不倒。他做这工作时相当地严肃，像大人一样有耐心。在建塔的间隙，他给我讲起他的家庭：他们全家住在一间阁楼里，父亲去夜校学认字，母亲是个洗衣妇。他们一定很爱他，因为他虽然衣着破旧，但是穿得很暖和，破处也补得很整齐。要不是出自母亲的手，他的领带绝不会系得那样好看。他告诉我，他父亲是个好人——体型巨大，进门都有些困难，但是很亲切，总是叫儿子“兔脸”：儿子跟他相反，身材瘦小。四点钟的时候，我们坐在沙发上吃面包和羊奶起司。等我们站起来时，小石匠夹克上的石灰把靠背蹭上了白色的斑点，我不知道为什么父亲不让我去擦拭，而是拨开了我的手，自己暗地里去擦掉了。我们玩耍的时候，小石匠的打猎夹克上掉了一颗纽扣，母亲替他缝上了。他脸色通红，在一旁看着，带着一脸惊奇和困惑的表情，一时连呼吸都屏住了。接着我给了他几册漫画书看，他不自觉地做起了上面的鬼脸来，而且学得可像了，连我父亲都笑了起来。回去的时候，他高兴得连他的破帽子都忘了戴上。到了门口的台阶时，他又扮了一次兔脸给我看，当作感谢。他的名字叫安东尼奥·拉勃柯，今年八岁零八个月。

Do you know, my son, why I did not wish you to wipe off the sofa? Because to wipe it while your companion was looking on would have been almost the same as administering a reproof to him for having soiled it. And this was not well, in the first place, because he did not do it intentionally, and in the next, because he did it with the clothes of his father, who had covered them with plaster while at work; and what is contracted while at work is not dirt; it is dust, lime, varnish, whatever you like, but it is not dirt. Labor does not engender dirt. Never say of a laborer coming from his work, "He is filthy."You should say, "He has on his garments the signs, the traces, of his toil."Remember this. And you must love the little mason, first, because he is your comrade; and next, because he is the son of a workingman.

我的儿子，你知道为什么我不让你去擦拭沙发上的污迹吗？因为当着他的面擦拭，简直就是在指责他弄脏了沙发。这样做不好。首先，他不是有意弄脏的；其次，弄脏沙发的是他父亲的衣服，而那衣服上的石灰是工作中沾染上的。凡是工作中沾染上的都绝不是龌龊的东西，不管是灰尘、石灰、清漆也好，不管你喜不喜欢，都不是龌龊的东西。劳动不会产生龌龊之物。绝不要说一个工作回来的劳动者“肮脏”。你应该说：“他衣服上有他辛苦工作的痕迹。”好好记住。你要善待小石匠，因为他既是你的朋友，更是一个工人的儿子。

Thy Father.

你的父亲

A SNOWBALL.

雪球

Friday, 16th.

星期五，16日

It is still snow, snow. A shameful thing happened in connection with the snow this morning when we came out of school. A flock of boys had no sooner got into the Corso than they began to throw balls of that watery snow which makes missiles as solid and heavy as stones. Many persons were passing along the sidewalks. A gentleman called out, "Stop that, you little rascals!" and just at that moment a sharp cry rose from another part of the street, and we saw an old man who had lost his hat and was staggering about, covering his face with his hands, and beside him a boy who was shouting, "Help! help!"

天还在下着雪。今天上午我们从学校回家的时候，发生了一件与雪有关的不体面的事情。一群男孩刚一走进科索大街，就用松软的雪做成像石头一样坚硬沉重的雪球，开始互相投掷。当时，许多人在人行道上来来往往。一位绅士大声喊道：“别扔了，你们这些小淘气鬼！”就在那时，从街道的另一端传来一声尖声惊叫，我们看到一位老人在那里摇摇晃晃地站着，帽子掉在了地上，双手遮住了脸。靠近他的一个男孩大叫着：“救人啊！救人啊！”

People instantly ran from all directions. He had been struck in the eye with a ball. All the boys dispersed, fleeing like arrows. I was standing in front of the bookseller's shop, into which my father had gone, and I saw several of my companions approaching at a run, mingling with others near me, and pretending to be engaged in staring at the windows: there was Garrone, with his penny roll in his pocket, as usual; Coretti, the little mason; and Garoffi, the boy with the postage-stamps. In the meantime a crowd had formed around the old man, and a policeman and others were running to and fro, threatening and demanding: "Who was it? Who did it? Was it you? Tell me who did it!" and they looked at the boys' hands to see whether they were wet with snow.

人们立刻从四面八方跑来。他被雪球砸中了眼睛。所有的男孩都四下散开，箭一般地飞速逃走了。我当时正站在书店门口，父亲已经进去了。我看到几个朋友朝我这里跑来，混在我身旁的人群中，假装忙着看橱窗里的东西：有卡隆，他像往常一样把钱卷在口袋里；还有小石匠可莱谛；还有集邮的男孩卡洛斐。这时，人们把那个老人围住了，一名警察和其他一些人来回跑着，都厉声质问道：“是谁？谁干的？是你吗？告诉我是谁干的！”他们检查孩子们的手，看他们的手有没有被雪水浸湿。

Garoffi was standing beside me. I perceived that he was trembling all over, and that his face was as white as that of a corpse. "Who was it? Who did it?" the crowd continued to cry. Then I overheard Garrone say in a low voice to Garoffi, "Come, go and present yourself; it would be cowardly to allow any one else to be arrested."

卡洛斐站在我身旁。我察觉到他浑身颤抖着，脸色像尸体一样惨白。“是谁？谁干的？”人们继续大声喊道。这时我听到卡隆压低声音对卡洛斐说：“喂！走过去承认了吧，让无辜的人被逮捕，那是懦夫所为。”

"But I did not do it on purpose," replied Garoffi, trembling like a leaf.“但我不是故意的。”卡洛斐像树叶一样发抖着答道。

"No matter; do your duty," repeated Garrone.“没关系，做你分内的事。”卡隆重申道。

"But I have not the courage."“但我没那份勇气。”

"Take courage, then; I will accompany you."“勇敢些，我会陪你走过去。”

And the policeman and the other people were crying more loudly than ever: "Who was it? Who did it? One of his glasses has been driven into his eye! He has been blinded! The ruffians!"

警察和其他路人愈加大声地叫喊着：“是谁？谁干的？他的一只镜片戳到眼睛里去了！他恐怕是要瞎了！真是恶棍啊！”

I thought that Garoffi would fall to the earth. "Come," said Garrone, resolutely, "I will defend you;" and grasping him by the arm, he thrust him forward, supporting him as though he had been a sick man. The people saw, and instantly understood, and several persons ran up with their fists raised; but Garrone thrust himself between, crying:—

我以为卡洛斐要跌倒在地上了。“来吧，”卡隆坚决地说，“我会为你辩护的。”他抓住卡洛斐的胳膊，把他往前推，像对待病人那样支撑着他。人们看见了，立刻明白了是怎么回事，有几个人扬着拳头跑过来，但是卡隆挡到了前面，喊道：

"Do ten men of you set on one boy?"“你们十个大人要对付一个小孩吗？”

Then they ceased, and a policeman seized Garoffi by the hand and led him, pushing aside the crowd as he went, to a pastry-cook's shop, where the wounded man had been carried. On catching sight of him, I suddenly recognized him as the old employee who lives on the fourth floor of our house with his grandnephew. He was stretched out on a chair, with a handkerchief over his eyes.

于是他们停住了，一名警察抓住卡洛斐的手，领着他前进，边走边推开两旁的人群。他们来到一家糕点店前，受伤的人已经被抬到了里面。一看见伤者，我就认出他是住在我们四楼的一名老雇员，和侄孙一起生活。他躺着椅子里，眼睛上盖着一条手帕。

"I did not do it intentionally!" sobbed Garoffi, half dead with terror; "I did not do it intentionally!"“我不是有意的！”卡洛斐哽咽着说，吓得只剩半条命了，“我不是有意的！”

Two or three persons thrust him violently into the shop, crying, "Your face to the earth! Beg his pardon!" and they threw him to the ground. But all at once two vigorous arms set him on his feet again, and a resolute voice said:—

两三个人猛地把他扔进店里，嚷道：“磕头谢罪！请求他的宽恕！”随后他们把他扔到地上。但是突然两只强有力的手臂扶他又站了起来，一个果敢的声音说道：

"No, gentlemen!"It was our head-master, who had seen it all. "Since he has had the courage to present himself," he added, "no one has the right to humiliate him."All stood silent. "Ask his forgiveness," said the head-master to Garoffi. Garoffi, bursting into tears, embraced the old man's knees, and the latter, having felt for the boy's head with his hand, caressed his hair. Then all said:—“不，先生们！”这是我们的校长，他把一切都看在眼里，“他既然已有勇气站出来，”他补充道，“没人有权利再去羞辱他。”大家鸦雀无声。“去请求他的原谅。”校长对卡洛斐说。卡洛斐眼中突然迸出泪来，抱住老人的膝盖；老人用手摸索着男孩的脑袋，抚摸了他的头发。这时大家都说：

"Go away, boy! go, return home."“去吧，孩子！回家去吧。”

And my father drew me out of the crowd, and said to me as we passed along the street, "Enrico, would you have had the courage, under similar circumstances, to do your duty,—to go and confess your fault?"

父亲将我都人群中拉出来，边沿街走着边对我说：“安利柯，要是在类似情形下，你会有勇气去承担责任——走出去承认错误吗？”

I told him that I should. And he said, "Give me your word, as a lad of heart and honor, that you would do it.""I give thee my word, father mine!"

我告诉他我会的。随后他说：“以一个正直有荣誉感的孩子的名义向我保证，你会那样做。”“我向你保证，我的父亲！”

THE MISTRESSES.

女老师

Saturday, 17th.

星期六，17日

Garoffi was thoroughly terrified Today, in the expectation of a severe punishment from the teacher; but the master did not make his appearance; and as the assistant was also missing, Signora Cromi, the oldest of the schoolmistresses, came to teach the school; she has two grown-up children, and she has taught several women to read and write, who now come to accompany their sons to the Baretti schoolhouse.

今天卡洛斐害怕老师会严厉地惩罚他，整个一副胆战心惊的样子，谁料老师没来学校，助教也没来，于是学校最年长的女老师克洛弥夫人前来上课。她有两个儿女都已成年，她教会了不少女人读书和写字，这些女人现在陪同着她们的儿子到巴莱缇校舍来上课。

She was sad Today, because one of her sons is ill. No sooner had they caught sight of her, than they began to make an uproar. But she said, in a slow and tranquil tone, "Respect my white hair; I am not only a school-teacher, I am also a mother"; and then no one dared to speak again, in spite of that brazen face of Franti, who contented himself with jeering at her on the sly.

她今天有些难过，因为她的一个儿子生病了。大家一看见她，就爆发出一阵骚动。她用低沉平静的声调说：“请你们对我的白发表示些敬意，我不仅是一名老师，同时也是一名母亲。”随后再也没人敢出声了，唯有那厚脸皮的弗兰蒂，还在暗自嘲笑她来取乐。

Signora Delcati, my brother's teacher, was sent to take charge of Signora Cromi's class, and to Signora Delcati's was sent the teacher who is called "the little nun," because she always dresses in dark colors, with a black apron, and has a small white face, hair that is always smooth, very bright eyes, and a delicate voice, that seems to be forever murmuring prayers. And it is incomprehensible, my mother says; she is so gentle and timid, with that thread of a voice, which is always even, which is hardly audible, and she never speaks loud nor flies into a passion; but, nevertheless, she keeps the boys so quiet that you cannot hear them,and the most roguish bow their heads when she merely admonishes them with her finger, and her school seems like a church; and it is for this reason, also, that she is called "the little nun."

我弟弟的老师代尔卡谛女士被派去负责克洛弥夫人教的班级，而代尔卡谛女士的班级则由绰号“小修女”的老师负责了，她总是穿着黑色的衣服，围着黑色的围裙，长着一张小而白净的脸，头发永远很光滑，眼睛明亮、声音纤细，好像总在低声念着祈祷词。我母亲说，她又温柔又羞怯，细声细气的，甚至常常听不到她的声音，从不大声说话也不发脾气，但是却能让孩子们乖乖地不作声，这真是不可思议。她只要轻轻地用手指规诫他们，就连最淘气的孩子也会低下头，她的教室就像一间教堂，因此大家叫她“小修女”。

But there is another one who pleases me,—the young mistress of the first lower, No. 3, that young girl with the rosy face, who has two pretty dimples in her cheeks, and who wears a large red feather on her little bonnet, and a small cross of yellow glass on her neck. She is always cheerful, and keeps her class cheerful; she is always calling out with that silvery voice of hers, which makes her seem to be singing, and tapping her little rod on the table, and clapping her hands to impose silence;then, when they come out of school, she runs after one and another like a child, to bring them back into line: she pulls up the cap of one, and buttons the coat of another; so that they may not take cold;she follows them even into the street, in order that they may not fall to quarrelling; she beseeches the parents not to whip them at home; she brings lozenges to those who have coughs; she lends her muff to those who are cold;and she continually tormented by the smallest children, who caress her and demand kisses, and pull at her veil and her mantle; but she let them do it, and kisses them all with a smile, and returns home all rumpled and with her throat all bare, panting and happy, with her beautiful dimples and her red feather. She is also the girls' drawing-teacher, and she supports her mother and a brother by her own labor.

此外还有一位教一年级三班的女老师，也是我喜欢的。她是位容貌美丽的年轻小姐，脸颊上有两个迷人的酒窝，小帽子上插着一根大大的红色羽毛，脖子上戴着黄玻璃做的十字架。她总是很欢乐，也让课堂保持欢乐的气氛；她总是用她银铃般的嗓音大声说话，听上去像在歌唱；她会轻敲桌上的小教鞭或是拍手让孩子们安静下来；当孩子们放学的时候，她像孩子一样追着一个又一个地跑，把他们带回队列中去；她替一个孩子戴好帽子，又替另一个扣好外套，以防他们着凉；她一直把他们送到街上，以防他们在路上争吵；她恳求家长不要在家鞭打孩子；她带止咳糖来给咳嗽的孩子吃；她把暖手筒借给感到冷的孩子戴；她总是被最小的孩子们折磨着，他们抚摸她，向她索吻，乱扯她的面纱和披风，但是她都任由他们做，还微笑着一一地去吻他们；她回家去的时候，衣服都被弄得乱七八糟的，脖子上光光的，披肩也不见了，带着她迷人的酒窝和红色羽毛，她气喘吁吁地，却很开心满足。她也是女孩们的绘画老师，用自己赚的钱养活着母亲和弟弟呢。

IN THE HOUSE OF THE WOUNDED MAN.

探望受伤者

Sunday, 18th.

星期日，18日

The grandnephew of the old employee who was struck in the eye by Garoffi's snowball is with the schoolmistress who has the red feather: we saw him Today in the house of his uncle, who treats him like a son. I had finished writing out the monthly story for the coming week,—The Little Florentine Scribe,—which the master had given to me to copy; and my father said to me:—

那位被卡洛斐的雪球砸伤了眼睛的老雇员的侄孙，正是戴红羽毛的那位老师班里的学生。我们今天在他叔公家看到他了，他叔公待他如亲生儿子一样。我已经按老师的吩咐誊写完了下个星期要讲的每月故事——“佛罗伦萨的小抄写员”。父亲对我说：

"Let us go up to the fourth floor, and see how that old gentleman's eye is."“我们上四楼去，看看老先生的眼睛怎么样了。”

We entered a room which was almost dark, where the old man was sitting up in bed, with a great many pillows behind his shoulders; by the bedside sat his wife, and in one corner his nephew was amusing himself. The old man's eye was bandaged. He was very glad to see my father; he made us sit down, and said that he was better, that his eye was not only not ruined, but that he should be quite well again in a few days. "It was an accident," he added. "I regret the terror which it must have caused that poor boy."Then he talked to us about the doctor, whom he expected every moment to attend him. Just then the door-bell rang.

我们走进了一间很昏暗的房间，老人背后垫着很多枕头，端坐在床上，床边坐着他的妻子，侄子在角落里玩耍。老人的一只眼睛上缠着绷带。他见到我父亲很高兴，叫我们坐下，说他好些了，受伤的眼睛不仅不碍事，而且过不久就能痊愈了。“那是一场意外，”他补充道，“那个可怜的孩子肯定受了不少惊吓，真是抱歉。”接着他跟我们谈起了医生，说医生过一会儿就要来看他。就在那时门铃响了。

"There is the doctor," said his wife.“医生来了。”他妻子说。

The door opened—and whom did I see? Garoffi, in his long cloak, standing, with bowed head, on the threshold, and without the courage to enter.

门开了——猜我看见了谁？卡洛斐穿着长斗篷站在门口，低垂着头，不敢进来。

"Who is it?" asked the sick man.“是谁啊？”病人问道。

"It is the boy who threw the snowball," said my father. And then the old man said:—“是那个扔雪球的男孩。”我父亲说。老人说道：

"Oh, my poor boy! come here; you have come to inquire after the wounded man, have you not? But he is better; be at ease; he is better and almost well. Come here."“哦，我可怜的孩子！过来吧，你是来探望我的，是吗？已经好多了，放心吧，已经好多了，几乎要痊愈了。过来吧。”

Garoffi, who did not perceive us in his confusion, approached the bed, forcing himself not to cry; and the old man caressed him, but could not speak.

卡洛斐在混乱中没有发现我们也在，他走到床边，强忍着眼泪；老人抚摸着他，但是说不出话来。

"Thanks," said the old man; "go and tell your father and mother that all is going well, and that they are not to think any more about it."“谢谢，”老人说，“回去告诉你的父母，一切都进展顺利，他们不必再挂念。”

But Garoffi did not move, and seemed to have something to say which he dared not utter.

但是卡洛斐站着不动，似乎有些话要说，却不敢说出口。

"What have you to say to me? What is it that you want?"“你想对我说什么吗？你想说什么呢？”

"I!—Nothing."“我——没什么了。”

"Well, good by, until we meet again, my boy; go with your heart in peace."“那么再见吧，我的孩子，请放心回去吧。”

Garoffi went as far as the door; but there he halted, turned to the nephew, who was following him, and gazed curiously at him. All at once he pulled some object from beneath his cloak, put it in the boy's hand, and whispered hastily to him, "It is for you," and away he went like a flash. The boy carried the object to his uncle; we saw that on it was written, I give you this; we looked inside, and uttered an exclamation of surprise. It was the famous album, with his collection of postage-stamps, which poor Garoffi had brought, the collection of which he was always talking, upon which he had founded so many hopes, and which had cost him so much trouble; it was his treasure, poor boy! it was the half of his very blood, which he had presented in exchange for his pardon.

卡洛斐走到门口，却停住了，转过身，面向跟在他身后、正好奇地盯着他看的那个侄子。突然他从斗篷里拿出了什么东西，放到男孩手里，匆忙地低声对他说：“这是给你的。”然后闪电般地走远了。男孩把那东西拿给他叔叔。我们看见上面写着“敬赠”；打开包装纸，我们看了不觉大吃了一惊。卡洛斐带来的东西是他出名的集邮簿，他总是谈起的收集品，他对那个簿子寄予了那么多的希望，付出了那么多的心血；那是他的珍宝啊，可怜的男孩！他竟把视如生命一般的宝物，拿来换取宽恕了。

THE LITTLE FLORENTINE SCRIBE. (Monthly Story.)

佛罗伦萨的小抄写员（每月故事）

He was in the fourth elementary class. He was a graceful Florentine lad of twelve, with black hair and a white face, the eldest son of an employee on the railway, who, having a large family and but small pay, lived in straitened circumstances. His father loved him and was tolerably kind and indulgent to him—indulgent in everything except in that which referred to school: on this point he required a great deal, and showed himself severe, because his son was obliged to attain such a rank as would enable him to soon obtain a place and help his family; and in order to accomplish anything quickly, it was necessary that he should work a great deal in a very short time. And although the lad studied, his father was always exhorting him to study more.

他是小学五年级的学生。他是个懂礼貌的十二岁佛罗伦萨男孩，黑头发白皮肤，是一个铁路职员的长子，家里人口多，却收入微薄，生活很困窘。他父亲很爱他，对他相当宽容和蔼，所有的事情都顺着他，除了学业的事：在这上面他要求严格，因为他希望儿子成绩优秀，早日毕业找到份工作，来帮助家计。要想早日达成这件事，儿子就必须在很短的时间里学习大量的知识。尽管这孩子已经用功学了，他父亲还是总劝他更用功些。

His father was advanced in years, and too much toil had aged him before his time. Nevertheless, in order to provide for the necessities of his family, in addition to the toil which his occupation imposed upon him, he obtained special work here and there as a copyist, and passed a good part of the night at his writing-table. Lately, he had undertaken, in behalf of a house which published journals and books in parts, to write upon the parcels the names and addresses of their subscribers, and he earned three lire for every five hundred of these paper wrappers, written in large and regular characters. But this work wearied him, and he often complained of it to his family at dinner.

他父亲年纪大了，多年的辛苦劳作使他看上去比实际岁数还要老。尽管如此，为了维持家庭的基本开销，除了在岗位上辛苦工作，他又在各处接了抄写员的活儿来做。这项特殊的工作让他在写字台前度过了大部分夜晚的时光。后来，他承担了一份工作，是替一家在某些地方发行期刊和书籍的出版社书写寄给订阅者的包裹上的姓名和地址，用大号的标准字体写在包装纸上，每写五百张赚三里拉。但是这工作很是辛苦，他总在晚餐时向家人抱怨。

"My eyes are giving out," he said; "this night work is killing me."One day his son said to him, "Let me work instead of you, papa; you know that I can write like you, and fairly well."But the father answered:—“我的眼睛快不行了，”他说，“这份夜工在消减我的寿命呢。”一天，他儿子对他说：“让我替你工作吧，爸爸，你知道我可以模仿你的笔迹，我会写得很好的。”但是父亲回答：

"No, my son, you must study; your school is a much more important thing than my wrappers; I feel remorse at robbing you of a single hour; I thank you, but I will not have it; do not mention it to me again."“不行，我的儿子，你要好好学习，你的学业比我抄写封皮要重要多了，哪怕占用你一小时的时间，我也会自责的。我谢谢你的好意，但我不能接受，再也不要提这件事了。”

The son knew that it was useless to insist on such a matter with his father, and he did not persist; but this is what he did. He knew that exactly at midnight his father stopped writing, and quitted his workroom to go to his bedroom; he had heard him several times: as soon as the twelve strokes of the clock had sounded, he had heard the sound of a chair drawn back, and the slow step of his father. One night he waited until the latter was in bed, then dressed himself very, very softly, and felt his way to the little workroom, lighted the petroleum lamp again, seated himself at the writing-table, where lay a pile of white wrappers and the list of addresses, and began to write, imitating exactly his father's handwriting. And he wrote with a will, gladly, a little in fear, and the wrappers piled up, and from time to time he dropped the pen to rub his hands, and then began again with increased alacrity, listening and smiling. He wrote a hundred and sixty—one lira! Then he stopped, placed the pen where he had found it, extinguished the light, and went back to bed on tiptoe.

儿子知道在这件事情上向父亲坚决要求也无济于事，所以不再坚持，却在心里默默打算。他知道父亲午夜停止抄写后从工作间走回卧室的准确时间，他听到过几次。十二点的钟声一响，他就听到椅子向后拖的声音，还有父亲缓慢的脚步声。一天晚上，他等父亲睡了以后，轻手轻脚地穿好衣服，摸索着来到小工作间，又将煤油灯点燃，坐在摆着一堆白色封皮和一列地址的写字台前，开始模仿父亲的笔迹抄写起来。他写的时候心里既高兴又有些害怕，封皮渐渐堆积起来；他时不时地停下笔摩擦一下手掌，然后又更加敏捷地抄写起来，一面微笑着，一面聆听着动静。他写了一百六十张——值一个里拉了！他停下了，将笔放回原处，熄了灯，踮着脚尖回到了床上。

At noon that day his father sat down to the table in a good humor. He had perceived nothing. He performed the work mechanically, measuring it by the hour, and thinking of something else, and only counted the wrappers he had written on the following day. He seated himself at the table in a fine humor, and slapping his son on one shoulder, he said to him:—

那天中午父亲坐到写字台前，心情很好。他一点儿也没有察觉。他机械地工作，按时间计量，总想着别的事情，而且第二天才会数写好的封皮的数目。他高兴地坐在写字台前，拍着儿子的肩膀，对他说：

"Eh, Giulio! Your father is even a better workman than you thought. In two hours I did a good third more work than usual last night. My hand is still nimble, and my eyes still do their duty."And Giulio, silent but content, said to himself, "Poor daddy, besides the money, I am giving him some satisfaction in the thought that he has grown young again. Well, courage!"“喂，我的孩子！你父亲工作得比你想象的还要优秀得多啦。昨晚的两小时里，我比平常多做了三分之一的工作呢。我手指还是很灵活，眼睛也还没花。”那孩子没说什么，但是却很满足，心里想到：“可怜的爸爸，除了钱，我还带给了他又变年轻了的满足感。好吧，加油干吧！”

Encouraged by these good results, when night came and twelve o'clock struck, he rose once more, and set to work. And this he did for several nights. And his father noticed nothing; only once, at supper, he uttered this exclamation, "It is strange how much oil has been used in this house lately!"This was a shock to Giulio; but the conversation ceased there, and the nocturnal labor proceeded.

被这些好结果鼓励着，当夜晚降临，十二点钟声敲响，他就又起身去工作。他这样做了好几晚。他父亲什么也没察觉到。只是有一次，晚餐时，他惊叫道：“家里最近用了这么多煤油，可真奇怪！”那孩子吓了一跳，但是谈话就此打住了，夜晚的工作继续着。

However, by dint of thus breaking his sleep every night, Giulio did not get sufficient rest: he rose in the morning fatigued, and when he was doing his school work in the evening, he had difficulty in keeping his eyes open. One evening, for the first time in his life, he fell asleep over his copy-book.

然而，这样每晚睡眠被打断，孩子得不到充足的睡眠：他早晨起来很疲倦，晚上做功课的时候，眼睛几乎要闭起来。一天晚上，他有生以来第一次伏在字帖上睡着了。

"Courage! courage!" cried his father, clapping his hands; "to work!"“用功啊！用功！”他父亲拍着手大喊道，“学习去！”

He shook himself and set to work again. But the next evening, and on the days following, the same thing occurred, and worse: he dozed over his books, he rose later than usual, he studied his lessons in a languid way, he seemed disgusted with study. His father began to observe him, then to reflect seriously, and at last to reprove him. He should never have done it!

他把自己摇醒，又去学习了。但是第二天晚上，接下来的一些晚上，同样的事情又发生了，也更糟了：他伏在书本上打盹，起得比平常晚，上课没精打采的，好像对学习很反感。他父亲开始观察他，认真考虑之后，最后责备了他。他本不应该那样做的！

"Giulio," he said to him one morning, "you put me quite beside myself; you are no longer as you used to be. I don't like it. Take care; all the hopes of your family rest on you. I am dissatisfied; do you understand?"“孩子，”一天早晨父亲对他说，“你真对不住我啊，你不再是从前的那个你了。我不喜欢你这样。当心点儿，家里所有的希望都寄托在你身上呢。我很不满意，你明白吗？”

At this reproof, the first severe one, in truth, which he had ever received, the boy grew troubled.

面对这有生以来第一次严厉的斥责，男孩心情变得很不平静。

"Yes," he said to himself, "it is true; it cannot go on so; this deceit must come to an end."“是的，”他自言自语道，“没错，不能再这样下去了，这种欺骗行为必须停止了。”

But at dinner, on the evening of that very same day, his father said with much cheerfulness, "Do you know that this month I have earned thirty-two lire more at addressing those wrappers than last month!" and so saying, he drew from under the table a paper package of sweets which he had bought, that he might celebrate with his children this extraordinary profit, and they all hailed it with clapping of hands. Then Giulio took heart again, courage again, and said in his heart, "No, poor papa, I will not cease to deceive you; I will make greater efforts to work during the day, but I shall continue to work at night for you and for the rest."And his father added, "Thirty-two lire more! I am satisfied. But that boy there," pointing at Giulio, "is the one who displeases me."And Giulio received the reprimand in silence, forcing back two tears which tried to flow; but at the same time he felt a great pleasure in his heart. And he continued to work by main force; but fatigue added to fatigue rendered it ever more difficult for him to resist. Thus things went on for two months. The father continued to reproach his son, and to gaze at him with eyes which grew constantly more wrathful. One day he went to make inquiries of the teacher, and the teacher said to him: "Yes, he gets along, he gets along, because he is intelligent; but he no longer has the good will which he had at first. He is drowsy, he yawns, his mind is distracted. He writes short compositions, scribbled down in all haste, in bad chirography. Oh, he could do a great deal, a great deal more."

但是就在当天晚上吃晚餐的时候，他父亲兴高采烈地说：“你知道吗，这个月我抄写封皮的地址比上个月多挣了三十二里拉！”这样说着，他从桌子底下拿出一纸袋先前买的糖果来，是买来和孩子们一同庆祝这额外的收益的，孩子们都拍手欢呼。这时那个孩子又振作了起来，勇气也恢复了，他在心里自语道：“不，可怜的爸爸，我不能停止欺骗你。白天我会更加刻苦学习，但是为了你，为了其他人，晚上我还是要继续工作。”他父亲补充道：“多赚了三十二里拉呢！我很满意。但是那孩子，”他手指向大儿子，“可真让我生气。”孩子默默接受着训斥，强忍住快落下的眼泪，但是同时他心里却十分快乐。他继续以最大的气力投入工作。但是疲劳不断累积，使得他更加难以坚持。这样过了两个月。父亲继续责备儿子，看他的眼睛里怒火越来越旺。一日他去造访老师，老师对他说：“是的，他成绩还行，因为他很聪明，但是他不再有最初那样的学习决心了。他昏昏欲睡，打呵欠，还分心。他作文写得短，一看就是匆匆忙忙地胡乱写下的，笔迹很潦草。哦，他当然是可以做得更好的，是可以做得比这要好得多的。”

That evening the father took the son aside, and spoke to him words which were graver than any the latter had ever heard. "Giulio, you see how I toil, how I am wearing out my life, for the family. You do not second my efforts. You have no heart for me, nor for your brothers, nor for your mother!"

那天晚上父亲把儿子叫到一旁，对他说了比以往任何话都还要严厉的话。“孩子，你看到的，我为了这个家庭多么辛劳地工作，累得精疲力竭。你不支持我的努力。你也不想想我、你的兄弟们，还有你的母亲！”

"Ah no! don't say that, father!" cried the son, bursting into tears, and opening his mouth to confess all. But his father interrupted him, saying:—“啊，不！请不要那样说，父亲！”儿子眼泪决堤了，哭着说，正要把所有的事情都坦白。但是父亲打断他，说道：

"You are aware of the condition of the family; you know that good will and sacrifices on the part of all are necessary. I myself, as you see, have had to double my work. I counted on a gift of a hundred lire from the railway company this month, and this morning I have learned that I shall receive nothing!"“你了解家里的境况，你知道，为了整个家，坚定的决心和牺牲都是必需的。你也看到了，我加倍了自己的工作量。我本来指望着这个月能从铁路公司得到一百里拉报酬，但是今天早晨我接到消息，那笔钱是没戏了！

At this information, Giulio repressed the confession which was on the point of escaping from his soul, and repeated resolutely to himself: "No, papa, I shall tell you nothing; I shall guard my secret for the sake of being able to work for you;I will recompense you in another way for the sorrow which I occasion you; I will study enough at school to win promotion; the important point is to help you to earn our living, and to relieve you of the fatigue which is killing you."

听到这个消息，孩子话到嘴边又咽了回去，自己在心里反复坚决地想道：“不，爸爸，我什么也不能告诉你，为了能替你工作，我要好好保守这个秘密。对于我带给你的担忧，我会用其他方式补偿你的，我会在学校好好用功学习争取升级，重要的是能帮助你养活我们全家，缓解折磨着你的疲惫。”

And so he went on, and two months more passed, of labor by night and weakness by day, of desperate efforts on the part of the son, and of bitter reproaches on the part of the father. But the worst of it was, that the latter grew gradually colder towards the boy, only addressed him rarely, as though he had been a recreant son, of whom there was nothing any longer to be expected, and almost avoided meeting his glance. And Giulio perceived this and suffered from it, and when his father's back was turned, he threw him a furtive kiss, stretching forth his face with a sentiment of sad and dutiful tenderness; and between sorrow and fatigue, he grew thin and pale, and he was constrained to still further neglect his studies. And he understood well that there must be an end to it some day, and every evening he said to himself, "I will not get up to-night”; but when the clock struck twelve, at the moment when he should have vigorously reaffirmed his resolution, he felt remorse: it seemed to him, that by remaining in bed he should be failing in a duty, and robbing his father and the family of a lira. And he rose, thinking that some night his father would wake up and discover him, or that he would discover the deception by accident, by counting the wrappers twice; and then all would come to a natural end, without any act of his will, which he did not feel the courage to exert. And thus he went on.

于是他继续夜晚操劳、白天疲惫，拼命地工作；父亲却更加严厉地责备他。这样又过了两个月。但是最糟糕的是，父亲对儿子越来越冷淡，很少对他说话，好像他是个懦弱的儿子，没什么好期望了一样，而且几乎都不看他一眼。孩子感受到了这些，承受着痛苦，当父亲转身走开时，他悄悄地飞吻他，脸上是一种悲伤和恭顺的表情。因为又悲伤又疲惫，他变得又瘦又苍白，他不得不荒废更多的功课。他十分清楚，这种日子总有一天要停止的，并且每天晚上他都对自己说“我今晚不起床”，但是当钟声敲响十二点，就在这要重申决心的时刻，他感到自责了。对他而言，继续睡在床上就好像在逃避自己的义务，抢了父亲和家里的一个里拉一样。他起来了，想着某个夜晚父亲可能会醒来发现他，或者父亲会偶然数了两次封皮的数目，发现了这场欺骗，那时一切就自然而然地结束了，也不是出于他的意愿，因为他没勇气这么做。因此他继续做着夜工。

But one evening at dinner his father spoke a word which was decisive so far as he was concerned. His mother looked at him, and as it seemed to her that he was more ill and weak than usual, she said to him, "Giulio, you are ill."And then, turning to his father with anxiety: "Giulio is ill. See how pale he is Giulio, my dear, how do you feel?"

但是一天晚上晚餐时父亲说了一句对他至关重要的话。他母亲看着他，觉得他好像比往常更虚弱、更不健康了，她对他说：“孩子，你病了。”接着她向着他父亲焦急地说：“他病了。你看他脸色多苍白啊，亲爱的，你感觉怎么样？”

His father gave a hasty glance, and said: "It is his bad conscience that produces his bad health. He was not thus when he was a studious scholar and a loving son."

父亲向他瞟了一眼，说：“就算身体病了也是坏心肠引起的。以前他是用功的学生和忠实的儿子时，他可不会病的。”

"But he is ill!" exclaimed the mother.“但是他确实病了啊！”母亲嚷道。

"I don't care anything about him any longer!" replied the father.“我对他的事情再不关心了！”父亲回答。

This remark was like a stab in the heart to the poor boy. Ah! he cared nothing any more. His father, who once trembled at the mere sound of a cough from him! He no longer loved him; there was no longer any doubt; he was dead in his father's heart. "Ah, no! my father," said the boy to himself, his heart oppressed with anguish, "now all is over indeed; I cannot live without your affection; I must have it all back. I will tell you all; I will deceive you no longer. I will study as of old, come what will, if you will only love me once more, my poor father! Oh, this time I am quite sure of my resolution!"

这句话像一把刀，刺进了可怜的男孩心里。啊！他对我再不关心了。他父亲曾经为他的一声咳嗽都会担忧啊！他不再爱他了，不需怀疑，他在父亲心中已死去了。“啊，不！我的父亲，”男孩心里承受着巨大的痛苦，想道，“现在一切真的结束了，我没有你的爱是活不下去的，我必须挽回你的爱。我会把一切告诉你，我不会再欺骗你了。只要你能再爱我，无论如何，我一定像以前一样用功，我可怜的父亲啊！哦，这次我算是下定了决心了！”

Nevertheless he rose that night again, by force of habit more than anything else; and when he was once up, he wanted to go and salute and see once more, for the last time, in the quiet of the night, that little chamber where he toiled so much in secret with his heart full of satisfaction and tenderness. And when he beheld again that little table with the lamp lighted and those white wrappers on which he was never more to write those names of towns and persons, which he had come to know by heart, he was seized with a great sadness, and with an impetuous movement he grasped the pen to recommence his accustomed toil. But in reaching out his hand he struck a book, and the book fell. The blood rushed to his heart. What if his father had waked! Certainly he would not have discovered him in the commission of a bad deed: he had himself decided to tell him all, and yet—the sound of that step approaching in the darkness,—the discovery at that hour, in that silence,—his mother, who would be awakened and alarmed,—and the thought, which had occurred to him for the first time, that his father might feel humiliated in his presence on thus discovering all;—all this terrified him almost. He bent his ear, with suspended breath. He heard no sound. He laid his ear to the lock of the door behind him—nothing. The whole house was asleep. His father had not heard. He recovered his composure, and he set himself again to his writing, and wrapper was piled on wrapper. He heard the regular tread of the policeman below in the deserted street; then the rumble of a carriage which gradually died away; then, after an interval, the rattle of a file of carts, which passed slowly by; then a profound silence, broken from time to time by the distant barking of a dog. And he wrote on and on: and meanwhile his father was behind him. He had risen on hearing the fall of the book, and had remained waiting for a long time: the rattle of the carts had drowned the noise of his footsteps and the creaking of the door-casing; and he was there,with his white head bent over Giulio's little black head, and he had seen the pen flying over the wrappers, and in an instant he had divined all, remembered all, understood all, and a despairing penitence, but at the same time an immense tenderness, had taken possession of his mind and had held him nailed to the spot suffocating behind his child.

尽管如此，那天夜里他又单单因为习惯起来了。他既然已经起来，就想最后一次去看看在夜深人静时，他带着满心的满足感和柔情秘密地辛勤工作的小房间。当他再一次看到亮灯的写字台上，看到那些白色封皮，想到他不再会去抄写那些烂熟于心的镇名和人名了，他心里感到一阵悲伤，冲动地抓起笔又开始了他惯常的辛苦工作。但是他伸出手的时候，碰到了一本书，书掉落在地上。血液一下子都涌向他的心脏。要是父亲醒了可怎么办啊！当然父亲也不会认为他在做什么坏事，他本已经下定决心要把一切告诉他了，但是——黑暗中越来越近的脚步声——要是这时候发现真相，在这一片寂静中——母亲肯定会警觉会醒来。他父亲发现一切时会感到多么懊悔惭愧啊——这个想法第一次出现在他脑中，却是所有念头中最让他感到害怕的。他侧着耳朵，屏住呼吸。他没听到任何声音。他把耳朵贴在背后的门锁上——也没听到任何声音。一家人都在安睡。父亲没听到响声。他恢复了平静，又开始抄写起来，封皮一张张堆起来。他听到楼下空无一人的街道上警察的有节奏的皮靴声；接着隆隆的马车声渐行渐远；间隔了一会儿，一列货车嘎嘎地缓缓驶过；此后一切归于宁静，只听到远方时不时传来的狗吠声。他还在不停地写着。此时，他父亲已经站在了他的背后。听到书本落地的声音，他就起来了，在那里等了许久。货车嘎嘎通过的声音掩盖了他的脚步声和开门的嘎吱声。他站在孩子身后，白发苍苍的脑袋俯在孩子长着黑发的小脑袋上，看到钢笔在封皮上飞舞着，一瞬间他记起了一切，恍然大悟，心中充满了无限的懊悔和慈爱，像钉在地上一样一动不动。

Suddenly Giulio uttered a piercing shriek: two arms had pressed his head convulsively. "Oh, papa, papa! forgive me, forgive me!" he cried, recognizing his parent by his weeping.

突然，孩子爆发出一声刺耳的尖叫，两只抽搐的手臂抱住了他的头。“哦，爸爸，爸爸！原谅我，原谅我吧！”他听出了父亲的哭泣声，叫着说。

"Do you forgive me!" replied his father, sobbing, and covering his brow with kisses. "I have understood all, I know all; it is I, it is I who ask your pardon, my blessed little creature; come, come with me!" and he pushed or rather carried him to the bedside of his mother, who was awake, and throwing him into her arms, he said:—“你要原谅我！”父亲啜泣着回答，吻了又吻他的额头，“我全明白了，我全知道了，是我该恳求你的原谅啊，我亲爱的小家伙。来吧，跟我走！”他把儿子抱到已经醒了的母亲的床前，把儿子投入他母亲的怀抱，说道，

"Kiss this little angel of a son, who has not slept for three months, but has been toiling for me, while I was saddening his heart, and he was earning our bread!"The mother pressed him to her breast and held him there, without the power to speak; at last she said: "Go to sleep at once, my baby, go to sleep and rest.—Carry him to bed."“亲吻这个小天使吧，三个月没睡好觉，为我辛苦地干活，我却一直伤着他的心，他赚了我们全家的食粮啊！”母亲把她紧紧拥入怀里，没力气说话，最后她说：“快去睡吧，我的宝贝，好好地睡上一觉——抱他去床上吧。”

The father took him from her arms, carried him to his room, and laid him in his bed, still breathing hard and caressing him, and arranged his pillows and coverlets for him.

父亲从母亲怀里接过儿子，把他抱到他的房里，放到床上，替他铺好枕头盖好棉被，仍然重重地呼吸着，抚摸着他。

"Thanks, papa," the child kept repeating; "thanks; but go to bed yourself now; I am content; go to bed, papa."“谢谢你，爸爸，”孩子一直重复说，“谢谢，你也快去睡吧，我很好，爸爸，快去睡吧。”

But his father wanted to see him fall asleep; so he sat down beside the bed, took his hand, and said to him, "Sleep, sleep, my little son!"and Giulio, being weak, fell asleep at last, and slumbered many hours, enjoying, for the first time in many months, a tranquil sleep, enlivened by pleasant dreams; and as he opened his eyes, when the sun had already been shining for a tolerably long time, he first felt, and then saw, close to his breast, and resting upon the edge of the little bed, the white head of his father, who had passed the night thus, and who was still asleep, with his brow against his son's heart.

但是他父亲想看着他入睡，于是他坐在床边，握着儿子的手，对他说：“睡吧，睡吧，我的小宝贝！”孩子很疲倦，终于睡熟了，睡了很久，这几个月来第一次享受着平静的睡眠，做了很多愉快的梦。他睁开眼睛时，太阳已经老高了，他先是感觉到，随后看到了父亲白发苍苍的头枕着这小床的边缘，靠着他的胸膛。父亲就这样睡了一夜，额头贴着儿子的胸，仍在安睡着。

WILL.

决心

Wednesday, 28th.

星期三，28日

There is Stardi in my school, who would have the force to do what the little Florentine did. This morning two events occurred at the school: Garoffi, wild with delight, because his album had been returned to him, with the addition of three postage-stamps of the Republic of Guatemala, which he had been seeking for three months; and Stardi, who took the second medal; Stardi the next in the class after Derossi! All were amazed at it. Who could ever have foretold it, when, in October, his father brought him to school bundled up in that big green coat, and said to the master, in presence of every one:—

我们学校里，只有斯带地拥有小佛罗伦萨人那样的毅力。今天早晨学校发生了两件事情：卡洛斐的集邮簿被送还到他手里，老人还替他加上了三枚他寻找了三个月之久的危地马拉共和国的邮票，他欣喜若狂；斯带地获得了二等奖牌，他在班里仅次于代洛西了！同学们都对此大为吃惊。谁能料到这样的事情啊，十月份的时候，他父亲还带着裹在大件的绿色外套的他到学校里来，当着所有人的面，对老师说：

"You must have a great deal of patience with him, because he is very hard of understanding!"“您一定要对他多点儿耐心，这孩子理解能力很差！”

Every one credited him with a wooden head from the very beginning. But he said, "I will burst or I will succeed," and he set to work doggedly, to studying day and night, at home, at school, while walking, with set teeth and clenched fists, patient as an ox, obstinate as a mule; and thus, by dint of trampling on every one, disregarding mockery, and dealing kicks to disturbers, this big thick-head passed in advance of the rest. He understood not the first thing of arithmetic, he filled his compositions with absurdities, he never succeeded in retaining a phrase in his mind; and now he solves problems, writes correctly, and sings his lessons like a song. And his iron will can be divined from the seeing how he is made, so very thickset and squat, with a square head and no neck, with short, thick hands, and coarse voice. He studies even on scraps of newspaper, and on theatre bills, and every time that he has ten soldi, he buys a book; he has already collected a little library, and in a moment of good humor he allowed the promise to slip from his mouth that he would take me home and show it to me. He speaks to no one, he plays with no one, he is always on hand, on his bench, with his fists pressed to his temples, firm as a rock, listening to the teacher. How he must have toiled, poor Stardi! The master said to him this morning, although he was impatient and in a bad humor, when he bestowed the medals:—

一开始大家都想当然地认为他是个木头脑袋。但是他说：“我会奋发图强的，我会成功的。”他开始顽强地用功，日以继夜地学，无论是在家里、学校还是走路的时候，都咬紧了牙关、捏紧了拳头在学习，像牛一样坚韧，像骡子一样固执。就这样，不理睬任何人和任何嘲笑，赶跑一切打扰他学习的人，这个呆子在考试中名列前茅了。他起初对算术一窍不通，作文里全是荒谬的句子，连一个短语都记不住；而现在，他能解出算术问题，作文写得通顺，读起课文来就像唱歌一样了。从他的外貌就能看出他刚强的品格。他又矮又壮，方方的脑袋，脖子很短，手指又粗又短，嗓音沙哑。就算是破报纸或剧场的广告，他都拿起来读；每次只要有了十个铜币，他就去买书；他已经拥有了一个小图书馆，有一次心情好的时候，他许诺过我将来带我去他家，给我看看他的小图书馆。他不和人闲谈，也不和人玩耍；他总是坐在长凳上，用像石头一样结实的拳头抵着太阳穴，仔细聆听老师的教诲。他不知付出了多少努力啊，可怜的斯带地！老师今天早晨虽然有点儿不耐烦，心情不太好，但是授予他奖牌的时候，还是对他说：

"Bravo, Stardi! he who endures, conquers."But the latter did not appear in the least puffed up with pride—he did not smile; and no sooner had he returned to his seat, with the medal, than he planted his fists on his temples again, and became more motionless and more attentive than before. But the finest thing happened when he went out of school; for his father, a blood-letter, as big and squat as himself, with a huge face and a huge voice, was there waiting for him. He had not expected this medal, and he was not willing to believe in it, so that it was necessary for the master to reassure him, and then he began to laugh heartily, and tapped his son on the back of the neck, saying energetically, "Bravo! good! my dear pumpkin; you'll do!" and he stared at him, astonished and smiling. And all the boys around him smiled too, except Stardi. He was already ruminating the lesson for Tomorrow morning in that huge head of his.“做得好啊，斯带地！有志者事竟成。”但是斯带地并没有表现出一丁点儿骄傲的样子——他没有笑，一拿着奖牌回到座位上，他就又将拳头抵在太阳穴上了，变得比从前更加专注和有定力了。他放学走出校门时，最有趣的事情发生了。他父亲正在门口等着他，他是个医生，和他一样又矮又壮，脸很大，嗓门也大。他从没想过儿子会得到奖牌，也不敢相信。老师亲自跟他确认了，他才开始尽情地放声大笑，并轻拍儿子的颈背，精力充沛地说道：“做得好，我亲爱的小南瓜！你会有出息的！”然后盯着儿子，吃惊地笑着。周围的男孩们也笑了，除了斯带地。他那巨大的脑袋已经在沉思明日的功课了。

GRATITUDE.

感恩

Saturday, 31st.

星期六，31日

Your comrade Stardi never complains of his teacher; I am sure of that. "The master was in a bad temper, was impatient,"—you say it in a tone of resentment. Think an instant how often you give way to acts of impatience, and towards whom? towards your father and your mother, towards whom your impatience is a crime. Your master has very good cause to be impatient at times! Reflect that he has been laboring for boys these many years, and that if he has found many affectionate and noble individuals among them, he has also found many ungrateful ones, who have abused his kindness and ignored his toils; and that, between you all, you cause him far more bitterness than satisfaction. Reflect, that the most holy man on earth, if placed in his position, would allow himself to be conquered by wrath now and then. And then, if you only knew how often the teacher goes to give a lesson to a sick boy, all alone, because he is not ill enough to be excused from school and is impatient on account of his suffering, and is pained to see that the rest of you do not notice it, or abuse it! Respect, love, your master, my son. Love him, also, because your father loves and respects him; because he consecrates his life to the welfare of so many boys who will forget him; love him because he opens and enlightens your intelligence and educates your mind;because one of these days, when you have become a man, and when neither I nor he shall be in the world, his image will often present itself to your mind, side by side with mine, and then you will see certain expressions of sorrow and fatigue in his honest countenance to which you now pay no heed: you will recall them, and they will pain you, even after the lapse of thirty years; and you will feel ashamed, you will feel sad at not having loved him, at having behaved badly to him. Love your master; for he belongs to that vast family of fifty thousand elementary instructors, scattered throughout all Italy, who are the intellectual fathers of the millions of boys who are growing up with you; the laborers, hardly recognized and poorly recompensed, who are preparing in our country a people superior to those of the present. I am not content with the affection which you have for me, if you have it not also for all those who are doing you good, and among these, your master stands first, after your parents. Love him as you would love a brother of mine; love him when he caresses and when he reproves you; when he is just, and when he appears to you to be unjust; love him when he is amiable and gracious; and love him even more when you see him sad. Love him always. And always pronounce with reverence that name of "teacher," which, after that of your father, is the noblest, the sweetest name which one man can apply to another man.

我敢肯定，你的同学斯带地从来没有抱怨过老师。“老师心情不好，有点儿不耐烦。”你说这话的语气里有些不满。你想想看，你不是也时常会有不耐烦的时候吗？还是对你的父母呢。那可是种罪过啊。你的老师偶尔不耐烦是完全可以理解的。想想他为孩子们操劳了这么多年，假如说这其中有他喜欢的和品德高尚的学生，必然也有些忘恩负义的学生，辜负他的好心，无视他的辛劳。在你们所有人之中，你带给他的辛酸多于欣慰。想想看，就算是世上最了不起的圣人，处在他的位置上，也会时不时地发发脾气的啊。要是你知道这位老师是多么频繁地给一个生病的孩子单独授课，因为他没病到不能来学校的地步，又因为病痛的折磨变得不耐烦；看到你们对此视而不见或是恶言相向，他该多伤心啊！亲爱的儿子，请尊重你的老师。你也要爱他，因为你父亲敬爱和尊重他，因为他把生命奉献给了将会把他遗忘的众多的孩子们。你要爱他，因为他启迪了你的才智，教化了你的心灵。因为有一天你要长大成人，那时我和他都将已不在人世，他的形象会和我的形象会一起常常出现在你的脑中，你会看到老师诚恳的面容上露出悲伤和疲倦的表情，那是你现在不曾留意到的；你会回忆起那些来，即使时光已荏苒三十载，你还是会难过；你会因为没爱过他，对他不好而感到羞愧，感到悲伤。爱你的老师吧，因为他是遍布整个意大利的五万小学教师的大家庭中的一员，他们是同你一起成长的无数男孩的知识之父；他们默默无闻、收入微薄，却正在为祖国储备一批比现在这批要更加优秀的人才。有恩于你的人里面，排首位的是你的老师，其次才是你的父母。你若不爱他们，即使你再怎样爱我，我也不会高兴。将他像叔父一样来爱；他喜欢你也好责骂你也罢，你都要爱他；他公道也好不公也罢，你都要爱他；他和蔼可亲的时候要爱他，他悲伤的时候更要爱他。要永远爱他。要总是带着敬意来叫一声“老师”，这是除了“父亲”之外，一个人对另一个人最崇高和悦耳的称呼了。

Thy Father.

你的父亲JANUARY. 一月

THE ASSISTANT MASTER.

助教

Wednesday, 4th.

星期三，4日

My father was right; the master was in a bad humor because he was not well; for the last three days, in fact, the assistant has been coming in his stead,—that little man, without a beard, who seems like a youth. A shameful thing happened this morning. There had been an uproar on the first and second days, in the school, because the assistant is very patient and does nothing but say, "Be quiet, be quiet, I beg of you."

我父亲说对了，老师心情不好是因为他生病了。实际上在过去的三天里，已经有助教来代替他了——那是个没有胡子、看起来很年轻的小个子男人。今天早上发生了一件丢脸的事。头两天里，教室里已经出现了混乱，那是因为这位助教的脾气很好，只会说：“安静，安静，求你们了。”

But this morning they passed all bounds. Such a noise arose, that his words were no longer audible, and he admonished and besought; but it was a mere waste of breath. Twice the head-master appeared at the door and looked in; but the moment he disappeared the murmur increased as in a market. It was in vain that Derossi and Garrone turned round and made signs to their comrades to be good, so that it was a shame. No one paid any heed to them. Stardi alone remained quiet, with his elbows on the bench, and his fists to his temples, meditating, perhaps, on his famous library; and Garoffi, that boy with the hooked nose and the postage-stamps, who was wholly occupied in making a catalogue of the subscribers at two centesimi each, for a lottery for a pocket inkstand. The rest chattered and laughed, pounded on the points of pens fixed in the benches, and snapped pellets of paper at each other with the elastics of their garters.

但今天早上情况变得不可收拾了。吵闹声已经大到听不见他的声音了，尽管他又劝诫又恳求，但那也只是白费力气罢了。校长已经到门口来视察过两次了，但是他一走，窃窃私语声就大了起来，课堂变得像市集般喧闹。代洛西和卡隆转过头来，用手势示意同学们安静点儿，这也无济于事。这真是件丢脸的事。没有人听他们的。只有斯带地一个人很安静，他手肘支在课桌上沉思，拳头抵着太阳穴，或许是在想他那间有名的图书馆吧；而卡洛斐，那个长着鹰钩鼻的集邮的男孩，正在全神贯注地为那些交给他两分钱的人做彩券，奖品是一个袖珍墨水盒。其他人则有说有笑，有的用钢笔尖使劲扎课桌，有的用他们背带裤上的松紧带互相弹纸球。

The assistant grasped now one, now another, by the arm, and shook him; and he placed one of them against the wall—time wasted. He no longer knew what to do, and he entreated them. "Why do you behave like this? Do you wish me to punish you by force?"Then he thumped the little table with his fist, and shouted in a voice of wrath and lamentation, "Silence! silence! silence!"It was difficult to hear him. But the uproar continued to increase. Franti threw a paper dart at him, some uttered cat-calls, others thumped each other on the head; the hurly-burly was indescribable; when, all of a sudden, the beadle entered and said:—

助教一会儿管管这个，一会儿管管那个，抓着他们的手臂摇他们，还把一个拉去面壁——也是在浪费时间。他不知道怎么办才好了，就恳求他们：“你们为什么要这么做？你们想让我体罚你们吗？”然后他重重地用拳头捶在那张小桌子上，用愤怒又悲哀的声音喊道：“安静！安静！安静！”很难听清他在说什么。可吵闹声变得越来越大。弗兰蒂朝他扔了一个纸团，有些人发出嘘声，其他人在交头接耳；骚动已经无法形容了。这时，一名教工突然进来，说：

"Signor Master, the head-master has sent for you."The master rose and went out in haste, with a gesture of despair. Then the tumult began more vigorously than ever. But suddenly Garrone sprang up, his face all convulsed, and his fists clenched, and shouted in a voice choked with rage:—“先生，校长找您。”助教带着失望的神情，匆忙起身出去了。这时喧闹声更大了。但是卡隆突然站了起来，他的脸抽搐着，拳头紧握着，怒气冲冲地喊道：

"Stop this! You are brutes! You take advantage of him because he is kind. If he were to bruise your bones for you, you would be as abject as dogs. You are a pack of cowards! The first one of you that jeers at him again, I shall wait for outside, and I will break his teeth,—I swear it,—even under the very eyes of his father!"“停下来！你们这群畜生！因为他很善良，你们就这样欺负他。要是他打得你们皮开肉绽，你们就会像狗一样对他卑躬屈膝了。你们这群胆小鬼！要是谁敢再嘲笑他，我就在外面等谁，把他的牙齿打掉——我发誓——当着他父亲的面打！”

All became silent. Ah, what a fine thing it was to see Garrone, with his eyes darting flames! He seemed to be a furious young lion. He stared at the most daring, one after the other, and all hung their heads. When the assistant re-entered, with red eyes, not a breath was audible. He stood in amazement; then, catching sight of Garrone, who was still all fiery and trembling, he understood it all, and he said to him, with accents of great affection, as he might have spoken to a brother, "I thank you, Garrone."

所有人都沉默了。啊，能看到眼睛里喷着怒火的卡隆真是太好了！他就像一头被激怒的小狮子。从做得最过分的那个人开始，卡隆一个一个地盯着他们看，所有人都低着头。当助教红着眼睛回来的时候，教室里静得连呼吸声都听得到。他惊讶地站着，接着看到了依然激动地颤抖着的卡隆，他什么都明白了，然后用对弟弟说话时那种充满感情的语气对他说：“谢谢你，卡隆。”

STARDI'S LIBRARY.

斯带地的图书馆

I have been home with Stardi, who lives opposite the schoolhouse; and I really experienced a feeling of envy at the sight of his library. He is not at all rich, and he cannot buy many books; but he preserves his schoolbooks with great care, as well as those which his relatives give him; and he lays aside every soldo that is given to him, and spends it at the bookseller's. In this way he has collected a little library; and when his father perceived that he had this passion, he bought him a handsome bookcase of walnut wood, with a green curtain, and he has had most of his volumes bound for him in the colors that he likes. Thus when he draws a little cord, the green curtain runs aside, and three rows of books of every color become visible, all ranged in order, and shining, with gilt titles on their backs,—books of tales, of travels, and of poetry; and some illustrated ones. And he understands how to combine colors well: he places the white volumes next to the red ones, the yellow next the black, the blue beside the white, so that, viewed from a distance, they make a very fine appearance; and he amuses himself by varying the combinations. He has made himself a catalogue. He is like a librarian. He is always standing near his books, dusting them, turning over the leaves, examining the bindings: it is something to see the care with which he opens them, with his big, stubby hands, and blows between the pages: then they seem perfectly new again. I have worn out all of mine. It is a festival for him to polish off every new book that he buys, to put it in its place, and to pick it up again to take another look at it from all sides, and to brood over it as a treasure. He showed me nothing else for a whole hour. His eyes were troubling him, because he had read too much. At a certain time his father, who is large and thickset like himself, with a big head like his, entered the room, and gave him two or three taps on the nape of the neck, saying with that huge voice of his:—

斯带地的家就住在学校对面，我去过他家。看到他的图书馆的那一刻，我确实觉得很羡慕。他并不是很有钱，也买不起很多书，但他却能把书保管得非常好，不管是教科书还是他亲戚送他的书，并且他把得到的每一个铜币都存起来去买书。就这样，他已经收藏出一个小型图书馆了。他父亲得知他的这种热情后，就给他买了一个精致的桃木书架，外面挂着一个绿色的帘子，其中大部分的书都是按照他喜欢的颜色分类放置的。他只要拉一根细线，那绿色的帘子就会滑到一边，三排颜色各异的书就露出来了，所有的书都整整齐齐地排放着，书脊上的镀金字闪闪发光——有故事书、游记、诗集，还有一些是有插图的报章杂志。他能把颜色安排得很好：白色的挨着红色的，黄色的挨着黑色的，蓝色的挨着白色的，从远处看起来非常漂亮。他也以变换颜色的排列为乐。他还自己制作了目录。他俨然就是一位图书管理员。他常常站在这些书旁，打扫灰尘，翻看书页，检查装订。看着他用短粗而肥大的手打开书，在纸页间吹气，就能看出他对书的爱护。打扫之后，它们就像全新的一样了。我的书都已经破烂不堪了。对他来说，把买来的新书擦拭干净、放在架子上，再不时地拿出来看个够，并且把书像宝贝一样惦记着，就很快乐了。整整一个小时，他都没有给我看其他的东西。他的视力让他很苦恼，因为他看书看得太多了。过了一会儿，他那位和他一样矮矮胖胖、头很大的父亲进来了，拍了拍他的脖子，用跟他一样的大嗓门说：

"What do you think of him, eh? of this head of bronze? It is a stout head, that will succeed in anything, I assure you!"“你觉得他怎么样？还有这颗铜头？这颗脑袋可是很结实的，将来总会有所作为的，我保证！”

And Stardi half closed his eyes, under these rough caresses, like a big hunting-dog. I do not know, I did not dare to jest with him; it did not seem true to me, that he was only a year older than myself; and when he said to me, "Farewell until we meet again," at the door, with that face of his that always seems wrathful, I came very near replying to him, "I salute you, sir," as to a man. I told my father afterwards, at home: "I don't understand it; Stardi has no natural talent, he has not fine manners, and his face is almost ridiculous; yet he suggests ideas to me."And my father answered, "It is because he has character."And I added, "During the hour that I spent with him he did not utter fifty words, he did not show me a single plaything, he did not laugh once; yet I liked to go there."

斯带地半闭着眼睛，在他父亲粗糙的爱抚下，就像只猎狗。我不知道，我也不敢开他玩笑，在我看来他并不像只比我大一岁的人。当他板着那张似乎总是很严肃的脸孔，在门口对我说“再见吧”，我也几乎像对待大人一样回答他：“向你致敬，先生。”我回家以后告诉父亲：“我也不知道怎么了，斯带地不是天才，举止也不算得体，并且长得可以算是好笑了，然而他却能给我启发。”我父亲回答道：“那是因为他品德好啊。”我补充道：“在我跟他相处的那一个小时里，他说的话不超过五十个字，他没有给我看一个玩具，甚至一次也没笑过，可我喜欢去那里。”

And my father answered, "That is because you esteem him."

我父亲回答：“那是因为你尊重他。”

THE SON OF THE BLACKSMITH-IRONMONGER.

铁匠的儿子

Yes, but I also esteem Precossi; and to say that I esteem him is not enough,—Precossi, the son of the blacksmith-ironmonger,—that thin little fellow, who has kind, melancholy eyes and a frightened air; who is so timid that he says to every one, "Excuse me"; who is always sickly, and who, nevertheless, studies so much. His father returns home, intoxicated with brandy, and beats him without the slightest reason in the world, and flings his books and his copy-books in the air with a backward turn of his hand; and he comes to school with the black and blue marks on his face, and sometimes with his face all swollen, and his eyes inflamed with much weeping. But never, never can he be made to acknowledge that his father beats him.

是的，可是我也敬重泼来可西。说敬重他是远远不够的——泼来可西，铁匠的儿子——那个瘦小的家伙有着一双善良、忧郁的眼睛和一副怯生生的样子；他是那么地羞怯，以至于见谁就说“不好意思”；他体弱多病，却仍然努力学习。他父亲喝完白兰地后，醉醺醺地回到家，毫无理由地打他，反手就把他的书和字帖扔向空中；他上学时脸上常带着青黑色的伤痕，有时候还一脸浮肿，眼睛哭得通红。但是他从来不向别人承认他父亲打了他。

"Your father has been beating you," his companions say to him; and he instantly exclaims, "That is not true! it is not true!" for the sake of not dishonoring his father.“你父亲打你了。”他的伙伴们对他说。他为了不使父亲蒙羞而立刻大声喊道：“不是这样的！不是这样的！”

"You did not burn this leaf," the teacher says to him, showing him his work, half burned.“这一页不是你烧的吧。”老师一面对他说，一面给他看他那已经烧掉一半的作业。

"Yes," he replies, in a trembling voice; "I let it fall on the fire."“是我烧的，”他声音颤抖地回答，“我把它掉在火中了。”

But we know very well, nevertheless, that his drunken father overturned the table and the light with a kick, while the boy was doing his work. He lives in a garret of our house, on another staircase. The portress tells my mother everything: my sister Silvia heard him screaming from the terrace one day, when his father had sent him headlong down stairs, because he had asked for a few soldi to buy a grammar. His father drinks, but does not work, and his family suffers from hunger. How often Precossi comes to school with an empty stomach and nibbles in secret at a roll which Garrone has given him, or at an apple brought to him by the schoolmistress with the red feather, who was his teacher in the first lower class. But he never says, "I am hungry; my father does not give me anything to eat."His father sometimes comes for him, when he chances to be passing the schoolhouse,—pallid, unsteady on his legs, with a fierce face, and his hair over his eyes, and his cap awry; and the poor boy trembles all over when he catches sight of him in the street; but he immediately runs to meet him, with a smile; and his father does not appear to see him, but seems to be thinking of something else. Poor Precossi! He mends his torn copy-books, borrows books to study his lessons, fastens the fragments of his shirt together with pins; and it is a pity to see him performing his gymnastics, with those huge shoes in which he is fairly lost, in those trousers which drag on the ground, and that jacket which is too long, and those huge sleeves turned back to the very elbows. And he studies; he does his best; he would be one of the first, if he were able to work at home in peace. This morning he came to school with the marks of finger-nails on one cheek, and they all began to say to him:—"It is your father, and you cannot deny it this time; it was your father who did that to you. Tell the head-master about it, and he will have him called to account for it."

但是我们仍然非常清楚地知道，他那喝醉了的父亲在他做作业的时候一脚踢翻了桌子和蜡烛。他住在我家那栋楼的阁楼，经由另外的楼梯上去。女帮工什么都跟我母亲讲：我姐姐西尔维娅有天听到他在楼梯间尖叫，因为他向他父亲要一点儿钱买语法书，结果被倒栽葱似的扔下楼梯。他父亲酗酒却不工作，这样他一家都要挨饿。泼来可西经常饿着肚子上学，悄悄地啃卡隆给他的面包卷或是以前教过他的那位戴着红色羽毛的女老师给他的苹果。但他从来不说：“我好饿，我父亲不给我东西吃。”他父亲有时候会来接他，那也只是在他刚巧路过学校的时候——有气无力、摇摇晃晃地走着，面色凶狠，头发遮着眼睛，帽子歪戴着。那可怜的男孩在街上看到他就浑身发抖，但是马上又笑着跑去见他，他父亲却又好像在想其他的事情，而没有看见他。可怜的泼来可西！他修补好破烂的字帖，向别人借书来学习，用别针把衬衫上的补丁别牢。看他穿着大得几乎可以装下他整个人的鞋子、拖着地的裤子和袖子卷到手肘的夹克做体操，我心里真不是滋味。他竭尽全力地学习。他要是能在家安安静静地学习，很可能会是前几名的。今天早上他来学校时，一侧的脸颊上还带着指甲印，他们都开始跟他说：“是你父亲，这次你不能再否认了，就是你父亲对你做的这些。告诉校长吧，他会叫他来对此负责的。”

But he sprang up, all flushed, with a voice trembling with indignation:—

但是他一下子跳了起来，满脸通红，带着因愤怒而颤抖的声音喊道：

"It's not true! it's not true! My father never beats me!"“不是这样的！不是这样的！我父亲从没打过我！”

But afterwards, during lesson time, his tears fell upon the bench, and when any one looked at him, he tried to smile, in order that he might not show it. Poor Precossi! Tomorrow Derossi, Coretti, and Nelli are coming to my house; I want to tell him to come also; and I want to have him take luncheon with me: I want to treat him to books, and turn the house upside down to amuse him, and to fill his pockets with fruit, for the sake of seeing him contented for once, poor Precossi! who is so good and so courageous.

但是后来上课的时候，他的眼泪滴在了课桌上，而有人看他时，他就尽量微笑回应，不认别人看出来。可怜的泼来可西！明天代洛西、可莱谛和内利要来我家，我想叫他也来。我想跟他一起吃午餐，我想用书来款待他，把屋子弄得乱七八糟来逗他开心，在他的口袋里装满水果，就为了看一次他满足的样子。可怜的泼来可西！他是那么地善良勇敢。

A FINE VISIT.

愉快的来访

Thursday, 12th.

星期四，12日

This has been one of the finest Thursdays of the year for me. At two o'clock, precisely, Derossi and Coretti came to the house, with Nelli, the hunchback: Precossi was not permitted by his father to come. Derossi and Coretti were still laughing at their encounter with Crossi, the son of the vegetable-seller, in the street,—the boy with the useless arm and the red hair,—who was carrying a huge cabbage for sale, and with the soldo which he was to receive for the cabbage he was to go and buy a pen. He was perfectly happy because his father had written from America that they might expect him any day. Oh, the two beautiful hours that we passed together! Derossi and Coretti are the two jolliest boys in the school; my father fell in love with them. Coretti had on his chocolate-colored tights and his catskin cap. He is a lively imp, who wants to be always doing something, stirring up something, setting something in motion. He had already carried on his shoulders half a cartload of wood, early that morning; nevertheless, he galloped all over the house, taking note of everything and talking incessantly, as sprightly and nimble as a squirrel; and passing into the kitchen, he asked the cook how much we had to pay a myriagramme for wood, because his father sells it at forty-five centesimi. He is always talking of his father, of the time when he was a soldier in the 49th regiment, at the battle of Custoza, where he served in the squadron of Prince Umberto; and he is so gentle in his manners! It makes no difference that he was born and brought up surrounded by wood: he has nobility in his blood, in his heart, as my father says. And Derossi amused us greatly; he knows geography like a master: he shut his eyes and said:—

这是今年对我来说最愉快的一个星期四了。两点整的时候，代洛西、可莱谛，还有驼背的内利来到我家：泼来可西因为他父亲不允许而没有来。代洛西和可莱谛还在笑着说他们在街上碰见卖菜人家的儿子克洛西了——那个有只胳膊不好使，一头红发的男孩——他正拿着一棵巨大的卷心菜在叫卖，他要拿着卖卷心菜得来的铜币去买钢笔。他非常高兴，因为他父亲从美国来信，说他指不定哪天就回来了。哦，我们在一起度过了多么美妙的两个小时啊！代洛西和可莱谛是学校里最活泼的两个男孩了，我父亲非常喜欢他们。可莱谛穿着巧克力色的紧身衣，戴着一顶猫皮帽。他是个活泼的小淘气，总想着做点儿什么，引起点儿什么，发动点儿什么。那天一大早，他就已经用肩膀扛了半货车的木柴；尽管如此，他还在家里来来回回地跑，记录着所有事情，不停地说话，活蹦乱跳地像只松鼠一样；他还跑到厨房问厨师一万克木柴要多少钱，因为他父亲卖四十五分。他经常说起他的父亲，说他当时在第四十九团当兵，在库斯托扎战役中效力于温培尔脱亲王的中队，还说他举止可得体了！出生成长在柴火堆里对他没有丝毫影响。就像他父亲说的那样，他骨子里流着贵族的血。代洛西把我们逗得开心极了，他精通地理，闭着眼睛说：

"There, I see the whole of Italy; the Apennines, which extend to the Ionian Sea, the rivers flowing here and there, the white cities, the gulfs, the blue bays, the green islands;" and he repeated the names correctly in their order and very rapidly, as though he were reading them on the map; and at the sight of him standing thus, with his head held high, with all his golden curls, with his closed eyes, and all dressed in bright blue with gilt buttons, as straight and handsome as a statue, we were all filled with admiration. In one hour he had learned by heart nearly three pages, which he is to recite the day after Tomorrow, for the anniversary of the funeral of King Vittorio. And even Nelli gazed at him in wonder and affection, as he rubbed the folds of his apron of black cloth, and smiled with his clear and mournful eyes. This visit gave me a great deal of pleasure; it left something like sparks in my mind and my heart. And it pleased me, too, when they went away, to see poor Nelli between the other two tall, strong fellows, who carried him home on their arms, and made him laugh as I have never seen him laugh before. On returning to the dining-room, I perceived that the picture representing Rigoletto, the hunchbacked jester, was no longer there. My father had taken it away in order that Nelli might not see it.“嗯，我看到了整个意大利，亚平宁山脉延伸到了伊奥尼亚海，河水流向各地，有白色的城市、海湾、蓝色的港湾，还有绿色的岛屿。”他快速又准确地按顺序重复着那些名字，就像在看着地图读一样。看到他那样站在那里，头仰得高高的，一头金色卷发，眼睛闭着，一身亮蓝色的衣服，扣子是镀金的，就像一尊雕塑一样挺拔帅气，我们都赞叹不已。一个小时的时间里，他记下了将近三页的内容，这是他要在后天维托里奥国王葬礼周年纪念时背诵的。就连内利也惊奇又羡慕地看着他，他搓着他那黑布围裙上的褶子，清澈而忧伤的眼睛里露出笑意。这次的来访带给了我很多快乐，它在我心里和脑海里都留下了火花。在他们走的时候，内利被另外两个高高壮壮的家伙用胳膊架着回家，他也被逗笑了，我之前从来没看过他笑，这也让我非常高兴。回餐厅的时候，我察觉到画着驼背的小丑《弄臣》的那幅画不在了。我父亲为了不让内利看到就把它取下来了。

THE FUNERAL OF VITTORIO EMANUELE.

维托里奥·埃马努埃莱的葬礼

January, 17th.

一月十七日

Today, at two o'clock, as soon as we entered the schoolroom, the master called up Derossi, who went and took his place in front of the little table facing us, and began to recite, in his vibrating tones, gradually raising his limpid voice, and growing flushed in the face:—

今天两点钟，我们一进教室，老师就叫住了代洛西，他走过去站在小课桌前，面向我们开始背诵，一开始声音有些颤抖，后来就慢慢清晰洪亮了。他脸色渐渐泛红，背着：

"Four years ago, on this day, at this hour, there arrived in front of the Pantheon at Rome, the funeral car which bore the body of Vittorio Emanuele II., the first king of Italy, dead after a reign of twenty-nine years, during which the great Italian fatherland, broken up into seven states, and oppressed by strangers and by tyrants, had been brought back to life in one single state, free and independent; after a reign of twenty-nine years, which he had made illustrious and beneficent with his valor, with loyalty, with boldness amid perils, with wisdom amid triumphs, with constancy amid misfortunes. The funeral car arrived, laden with wreaths, after having traversed Rome under a rain of flowers, amid the silence of an immense and sorrowing multitude, which had assembled from every part of Italy; preceded by a legion of generals and by a throng of ministers and princes, followed by a retinue of crippled veterans, by a forest of banners, by the envoys of three hundred towns, by everything which represents the power and the glory of a people, it arrived before the august temple where the tomb awaited it. At that moment twelve cuirassiers removed the coffin from the car. At that moment Italy bade her last farewell to her dead king, to her old king whom she had loved so dearly, the last farewell to her soldier, to her father, to the twenty-nine most fortunate and most blessed years in her history. It was a grand and solemn moment. The looks, the souls, of all were quivering at the sight of that coffin and the darkened banners of the eighty regiments of the army of Italy, borne by eighty officers, drawn up in line on its passage: for Italy was there in those eighty tokens, which recalled the thousands of dead, the torrents of blood, our most sacred glories, our most holy sacrifices, our most tremendous griefs. The coffin, borne by the cuirassiers, passed, and then the banners bent forward all together in salute,—the banners of the new regiments, the old, tattered banners of Goito, of Pastrengo, of Santa Lucia, of Novara, of the Crimea, of Palestro, of San Martino, of Castelfidardo; eighty black veils fell, a hundred medals clashed against the staves, and that sonorous and confused uproar, which stirred the blood of all, was like the sound of a thousand human voices saying all together, 'Farewell, good king, gallant king, loyal king! Thou wilt live in the heart of thy people as long as the sun shall shine over Italy.'“四年前的今天，就在此刻，意大利第一位国王维托里奥·埃马努埃莱二世的灵车开到了罗马万神殿前，他在位的二十九年间，曾分裂成七个州、饱受外来者和暴君压迫的伟大祖国意大利统一了，成为了一个自由、独立的国度；他在位的二十九年间，功绩卓越、行善慈爱、英勇无畏、忠于人民，胜不骄、败不馁。灵车满载着花环而至，在如雨般鲜花的沐浴下横穿过罗马，从意大利各地聚集而来参加葬礼的大量群众都因痛苦而沉默着。众多将军、大臣和亲王在灵车前开道，车后面跟着一队伤残老兵、林立的旗帜、三百多个城镇的使节，以及一切能够代表一个人权利和荣耀的东西。它来到了庄严肃穆的神庙前，那里也是陵墓的所在。就在那时，十二名重骑兵将棺木移出灵车。就在那时，意大利最后一次对她逝去的国王，那位她曾经那么深爱的老国王说了再见；最后一次对她的士兵、她的父亲以及她历史上最幸运和幸福的二十九年说了再见。那是个重大而庄严的时刻。所有人的面孔和灵魂都因看到棺木和八十面暗黑色意大利军团的旗帜而战栗，这些旗帜由八十位军官擎着，整齐地排列在道路两旁：意大利能从这八十个象征物中回想起数以万计的英烈、急流般涌动的热血，以及我们最神圣的荣耀、最虔诚的牺牲和最巨大的悲恸。重骑兵们抬着棺木走过，其后的旗帜一起向前倾斜敬礼——这些旗帜有新军团的，也有经历了戈伊托、帕斯特伦戈、圣卢西亚、诺瓦拉、克里米亚、帕勒斯楚、圣马蒂诺和卡斯特尔菲达多之战而破烂不堪的老军旗；八十面黑色的旗帜降下，几百枚勋章撞击着旗杆，发出一波又一波洪亮的声响，激荡着所有人的血液，就像有成千上万的人齐声说道：‘再见了，善良的国王、英勇的国王、忠诚的国王！只要太阳在意大利升起，您就永远活在人民心中。’

"After this, the banners rose heavenward once more, and King Vittorio entered into the immortal glory of the tomb."“之后，那些旗帜再一次朝天立起，维托里奥国王进入了象征不朽荣耀的陵墓。”

FRANTI EXPELLED FROM SCHOOL.

弗兰蒂被开除了

Saturday, 21st.

星期六，21日

Only one boy was capable of laughing while Derossi was declaiming the funeral oration of the king, and Franti laughed. I detest that fellow. He is wicked. When a father comes to the school to reprove his son, he enjoys it; when any one cries, he laughs. He trembles before Garrone, and he strikes the little mason because he is small; he torments Crossi because he has a helpless arm; he ridicules Precossi, whom every one respects; he even jeers at Robetti, that boy in the second grade who walks on crutches, through having saved a child. He provokes those who are weaker than himself, and when it comes to blows, he grows ferocious and tries to do harm. There is something beneath that low forehead, in those turbid eyes, which he keeps nearly concealed under the visor of his small cap of waxed cloth, which inspires a shudder. He fears no one; he laughs in the master's face; he steals when he gets a chance; he denies it with an impenetrable countenance; he is always engaged in a quarrel with some one; he brings big pins to school, to prick his neighbors with; he tears the buttons from his own jackets and from those of others, and plays with them: his paper, books, and copy-books are all crushed, torn, dirty; his ruler is jagged, his pens gnawed, his nails bitten, his clothes covered with stains and rents which he has got in his brawls. They say that his mother has fallen ill from the trouble that he causes her, and that his father has driven him from the house three times; his mother comes every now and then to make inquiries, and she always goes away in tears. He hates school, he hates his companions, he hates the teacher. The master sometimes pretends not to see his rascalities, and he behaves all the worse. He tried to get a hold on him by kind treatment, and the boy ridiculed him for it. He said terrible things to him, and the boy covered his face with his hands, as though he were crying; but he was laughing. He was suspended from school for three days, and he returned more perverse and insolent than before. Derossi said to him one day, "Stop it! don't you see how much the teacher suffers?" and the other threatened to stick a nail into his stomach. But this morning, at last, he got himself driven out like a dog. While the master was giving to Garrone the rough draft of The Sardinian Drummer-Boy, the monthly story for January, to copy, he threw a petard on the floor, which exploded, making the schoolroom resound as from a discharge of musketry. The whole class was startled by it. The master sprang to his feet, and cried:—

在代洛西诵读国王的葬礼演说时，只有一个人在笑，那就是弗兰蒂。我讨厌那个家伙。他很缺德。有谁的父亲到学校来责骂儿子时，他就很高兴；有人哭时他反而笑。他在卡隆面前唯唯诺诺，却因为小石匠身材矮小而去欺负他；他因为克洛西有一只不能用的胳膊，就跑去戏弄他；他奚落人人都尊重的泼来可西；他甚至还嘲笑二年级那个为了救人而拄上拐的洛佩谛。他挑衅那些比他弱小的人，一旦扭打起来，他就变得很凶，还非要打伤对方。在他窄窄的前额下，那双几乎完全藏在他的蜡布帽子帽檐下的浑浊的眼睛里藏着些令人害怕的东西。他谁也不怕，当着校长的面大笑；他一有机会就偷东西，否认时还出奇地冷静；他经常跟别人吵架；他还带着大别针来学校扎他的同桌；他不但扯自己夹克上的扣子，还扯别人的来玩；他的试卷、书籍和字帖全都又脏又破；他的尺子边缘参差不齐，钢笔上都是牙印，指甲也咬得秃秃的，衣服上因打架而满是污渍和破洞。听他们说他母亲因为他惹的麻烦而生病了，他父亲曾把他踢出家门三次；他的母亲不时地来询问他的情况，却总是流着眼泪离开。他讨厌学校，讨厌他的同伴，讨厌他的老师。老师有时候会假装没看到他做的坏事，他却愈加放肆。老师试着想要用宽容来感化他，那个男孩却对此嗤之以鼻。他要是讲恐怖的事情吓唬他，那个男孩就用手捂住脸，就像是在哭，可实际上他却在笑。他曾被学校停课三天，回来后却变得更任性更无礼。代洛西有一天对他说：“别闹了！你没看到老师多难受吗？”其他人则威胁他要用钉子扎他肚子。但是今天早上，他终于像条狗一样被踢了出去。在老师给卡隆一月份的每月故事《撒丁岛的少年鼓手》的草稿让他抄写时，弗兰蒂在地上扔了一个爆竹，爆炸声像步枪的枪声一样回荡在教室里。整个班的人都被吓了一跳。老师跳了起来，大声喊道：

"Franti, leave the school!"“弗兰蒂，滚出学校！”

The latter retorted, "It wasn't I;" but he laughed. The master repeated:—

后者反驳说：“不是我干的。”可他在笑。老师又说了一遍：

"Go!"“出去！”

"I won't stir," he answered.“我不走。”他回答道。

Then the master lost his temper, and flung himself upon him, seized him by the arms, and tore him from his seat. He resisted, ground his teeth, and made him carry him out by main force. The master bore him thus, heavy as he was, to the head-master, and then returned to the schoolroom alone and seated himself at his little table, with his head clutched in his hands, gasping, and with an expression of such weariness and trouble that it was painful to look at him.

这时老师火了，冲到他面前，抓着他的胳膊把他从座位上拖起来。他咬牙切齿地反抗，还是硬生生地被拽了出来。老师艰难地把他拖到校长办公室，一个人回到教室，坐在他的小课桌前，双手紧紧地抱着头，喘息着。看着他这么一副疲劳又烦恼的样子，我心里很不好受。

"After teaching school for thirty years!" he exclaimed sadly, shaking his head. No one breathed. His hands were trembling with fury, and the perpendicular wrinkle that he has in the middle of his forehead was so deep that it seemed like a wound. Poor master! All felt sorry for him. Derossi rose and said, "Signor Master, do not grieve. We love you."And then he grew a little more tranquil, and said, "We will go on with the lesson, boys."“我教了三十年书，竟然发生这种事！”他摇摇头，悲哀地说。大家都屏住呼吸。他的手因生气而发抖，他前额中间那条竖直的皱纹深得像条疤痕。可怜的老师啊！大家都为他感到难过。代洛西站起来说：“先生，请不要再悲伤了。我们爱你。”于是他也稍稍平静了下来，说道：“我们继续上课吧，孩子们。”

THE SARDINIAN DRUMMER-BOY. (Monthly Story.)

撒丁岛的少年鼓手（每月故事）

On the first day of the battle of Custoza, on the 24th of July, 1848, about sixty soldiers, belonging to an infantry regiment of our army, who had been sent to an elevation to occupy an isolated house, suddenly found themselves assaulted by two companies of Austrian soldiers, who, showering them with bullets from various quarters, hardly gave them time to take refuge in the house and to barricade the doors, after leaving several dead and wounded on the field. Having barred the doors, our men ran in haste to the windows of the ground floor and the first story, and began to fire brisk discharges at their assailants, who, approaching gradually, ranged in a semicircle, made vigorous reply. The sixty Italian soldiers were commanded by two non-commissioned officers and a captain, a tall, dry, austere old man, with white hair and mustache; and with them there was a Sardinian drummer-boy, a lad of a little over fourteen, who did not look twelve, small, with an olive-brown complexion, and two small, deep, sparkling eyes. The captain directed the defence from a room on the first floor, launching commands that seemed like pistol-shots, and no sign of emotion was visible on his iron countenance. The drummer-boy, a little pale, but firm on his legs, had jumped upon a table, and was holding fast to the wall and stretching out his neck in order to gaze out of the windows, and athwart the smoke on the fields he saw the white uniforms of the Austrians, who were slowly advancing. The house was situated at the summit of a steep declivity, and on the side of the slope it had but one high window, corresponding to a chamber in the roof: therefore the Austrians did not threaten the house from that quarter, and the slope was free; the fire beat only upon the front and the two ends.

一八四八年七月二十四日，那是库斯托扎战役的第一天。大约六十名被遣往高地占领一座空屋的我军步兵团士兵突然遭到两连奥地利士兵的突袭，顿时陷入枪林弹雨之中，艰难地撤入屋内，以屋门作掩护，而代价是抛下了几名伤亡的士兵。一关上门，我军士兵就迅速冲到一楼和二楼的窗口敏捷地抗击攻击者。此时，敌军已经以半圆形的队形围攻过来，进行着有力的反击。这六十个意大利士兵受两名未经任命的军官和一名上尉的指挥，上尉是一位身材高大、面无表情、一丝不苟的老人，须发已经全白了。他们中间有一个撒丁岛的少年鼓手，年过十四，看起来却只有十二岁，身材矮小，皮肤呈黄褐色，两只小眼睛，眼神深邃而炯炯有神。上尉在二楼的一个房间里指挥防御，发号施令的声音像打枪一样，从他钢铁一般的面庞上看不出一丝情绪。那个少年鼓手面色有点儿苍白，但还能稳稳地跳上桌子，迅速靠在墙边，脖子伸出窗外观察敌情。硝烟中，他看到了穿着白色制服的奥地利人在慢慢逼近。这座房子建在一个陡峭山坡的最高处，斜坡那一面只有屋顶阁楼开了一扇很高的窗户，因此奥军并没有进攻这一面，这样斜坡那一面就是安全的。战火只烧到前面和旁边两面。

But it was an infernal fire, a hailstorm of leaden bullets, which split the walls on the outside, ground the tiles to powder, and in the interior cracked ceilings, furniture, window-frames, and door-frames, sending splinters of wood flying through the air, and clouds of plaster, and fragments of kitchen utensils and glass, whizzing, and rebounding, and breaking everything with a noise like the crushing of a skull. From time to time one of the soldiers who were firing from the windows fell crashing back to the floor, and was dragged to one side. Some staggered from room to room, pressing their hands on their wounds. There was already one dead body in the kitchen, with its forehead cleft. The semicircle of the enemy was drawing together.

但是这是一场地狱般的战争，冰雹一样的铅制子弹炸开了外墙，炸碎了瓦片，屋内的天花板、家具、门窗框也被炸得粉碎，碎木片和墙灰满天飞，厨房用品和玻璃的碎片飞鸣着、回旋着，一切都在一种颅骨被压碎般的声音中毁灭了。偶尔有伏在窗口射击的士兵倒下，重重地摔在地上，然后被拖到房间一边。还有些士兵手捂着伤口，一瘸一拐地在房间里走来走去。厨房里已经放着一具前额开裂的尸体了。队伍呈半圆形的敌军聚在了一起。

At a certain point the captain, hitherto impassive, was seen to make a gesture of uneasiness, and to leave the room with huge strides, followed by a sergeant. Three minutes later the sergeant returned on a run, and summoned the drummer-boy, making him a sign to follow. The lad followed him at a quick pace up the wooden staircase, and entered with him into a bare garret, where he saw the captain writing with a pencil on a sheet of paper, as he leaned against the little window; and on the floor at his feet lay the well-rope.

这时，表情依然冷漠的上尉表现出一丝担心，大步离开了房间，后面跟着一名中士。三分钟后，中士跑着回来，叫来了那个少年鼓手，示意他跟着出来。小伙子快步跟他走上木楼梯，进到一间空的阁楼，看到上尉正倚着那扇小窗户，用铅笔在纸上写着什么；他脚边的地上有一条井绳。

The captain folded the sheet of paper, and said sharply, as he fixed his cold gray eyes, before which all the soldiers trembled, on the boy:—

上尉把纸折了起来，定了定他那双所有士兵看到都会颤抖的冷峻的灰色眼睛，严厉地对小伙子说：

"Drummer!"“鼓手！”

The drummer-boy put his hand to his visor.

少年鼓手把手举到帽檐边敬礼。

The captain said, "You have courage."

上尉说：“你很勇敢。”

The boy's eyes flashed.

少年眼睛一亮。

"Yes, captain," he replied.“是的，上尉。”他回答道。

"Look down there," said the captain, pushing him to the window; "on the plain, near the houses of Villafranca, where there is a gleam of bayonets. There stand our troops, motionless. You are to take this billet, tie yourself to the rope, descend from the window, get down that slope in an instant, make your way across the fields, arrive at our men, and give the note to the first officer you see. Throw off your belt and knapsack."“看这下面。”上尉说着把他推到窗前，“在平原上，维罗纳那些房子附近，有一丝刺刀的微光。那里驻扎着我们的军队，他们正严阵以待。你现在的任务是，把绳子绑在身上，顺着窗户下去，快速降到斜坡底，然后穿过田野，找到我们的人，把这张字条交给你遇到的第一个军官。现在解下你的皮带和背包。”

The drummer took off his belt and knapsack and thrust the note into his breast pocket; the sergeant flung the rope out of the window, and held one end of it clutched fast in his hands; the captain helped the lad to clamber out of the small window, with his back turned to the landscape.

鼓手解下皮带和背包，迅速把字条塞进胸前的口袋里；中士把绳子扔出窗外，双手紧紧抓着绳子的一端；上尉帮着那个小伙子背面朝外爬出那扇小窗户。

"Now look out," he said; "the salvation of this detachment lies in your courage and in your legs."“现在你要小心了。”他说，“要拯救这个特遣队，就看你的勇气和你的双腿了。”

"Trust to me, Signor Captain," replied the drummer-boy, as he let himself down.“请相信我，上尉阁下。”少年鼓手一面下降一面回答道。

"Bend over on the slope," said the captain, grasping the rope, with the sergeant.“过斜坡时俯下身子。”上尉叮嘱道，同时跟中士一起紧紧抓着绳子。

"Never fear."“请不必担心。”

"God aid you!"“愿上帝保佑你！”

In a few moments the drummer-boy was on the ground; the sergeant drew in the rope and disappeared; the captain stepped impetuously in front of the window and saw the boy flying down the slope.

过了一会儿，少年鼓手降到了地面；中士收起绳子，不见了；上尉焦急地在窗前走来走去，看着少年飞身跳下斜坡。

He was already hoping that he had succeeded in escaping unobserved, when five or six little puffs of powder, which rose from the earth in front of and behind the lad, warned him that he had been espied by the Austrians, who were firing down upon him from the top of the elevation: these little clouds were thrown into the air by the bullets. But the drummer continued to run at a headlong speed. All at once he fell to the earth. "He is killed!" roared the captain, biting his fist. But before he had uttered the word he saw the drummer spring up again. "Ah, only a fall," he said to himself, and drew a long breath. The drummer, in fact, set out again at full speed; but he limped. "He has turned his ankle," thought the captain. Again several cloudlets of powder smoke rose here and there about the lad, but ever more distant. He was safe. The captain uttered an exclamation of triumph. But he continued to follow him with his eyes, trembling because it was an affair of minutes: if he did not arrive yonder in the shortest possible time with that billet, which called for instant succor, either all his soldiers would be killed or he should be obliged to surrender himself a prisoner with them.

他正期待着他能不被发现而顺利逃走时，那小伙子前后的地面上突然冒起五六股烟，说明他已经被奥军发现了，而他们正在高处朝他射击：这几股烟雾就是子弹激起的。但是鼓手仍在埋着头用全力奔跑。突然，他倒下了。“他死了！”上尉紧握着拳头咆哮道。但是他话音还未落，就看到鼓手又一跃而起。“哦，原来是摔倒了。”他长舒一口气，安慰自己。实际上，鼓手又一次开始全速奔跑，却是一瘸一拐地在跑。“他扭到脚踝了。”上尉想。又有几股云状的硝烟在那小伙子周围升起，但都没有打中。他还是安全的。上尉暗自感叹着胜利。但他还是一直焦虑地盯着他，因为这几分钟至关重要：如果他没有在最短的时间内把那张可以带来及时支援的字条送到，那么他和所有的士兵都将战死，或者被迫投降做俘虏。

The boy ran rapidly for a space, then relaxed his pace and limped, then resumed his course, but grew constantly more fatigued, and every little while he stumbled and paused.

那小伙子飞快地跑出一段距离，然后一瘸一拐地放慢脚步，然后再继续跑，但随着疲劳感持续增强，他每过一小会儿就走走停停、步履蹒跚。

"Perhaps a bullet has grazed him," thought the captain, and he noted all his movements, quivering with excitement; and he encouraged him, he spoke to him, as though he could hear him; he measured incessantly, with a flashing eye, the space intervening between the fleeing boy and that gleam of arms which he could see in the distance on the plain amid the fields of grain gilded by the sun. And meanwhile he heard the whistle and the crash of the bullets in the rooms beneath, the imperious and angry shouts of the sergeants and the officers, the piercing laments of the wounded, the ruin of furniture, and the fall of rubbish.“可能有子弹擦伤他了。”上尉想，同时注意着他的一举一动，激动得浑身颤抖着；他鼓励他，跟他说话，就好像他能听到似的；他能看到远处平原上被太阳照得金灿灿的庄稼地里有一丝武器闪出的微光，并一直用炯炯有神的眼睛估量着那个飞逃的少年与那丝光亮之间的距离。同时，他听到下面房间里传来了子弹的呼啸声和撞击声、中士们和军官们迫切而愤怒的吼声、伤员们凄厉的痛哭声，还有家具被毁、碎片掉落的声音。

"On! courage!" he shouted, following the far-off drummer with his glance. "Forward! run! He halts, that cursed boy! Ah, he resumes his course!"“哦！拿出勇气来！”他大声叫着，目光紧盯着远处的鼓手，“前进啊！快跑啊！他停下来了，该死的！啊，他又继续前进了！”

An officer came panting to tell him that the enemy, without slackening their fire, were flinging out a white flag to hint at a surrender. "Don't reply to them!" he cried, without detaching his eyes from the boy, who was already on the plain, but who was no longer running, and who seemed to be dragging himself along with difficulty.

一名军官大口喘着气进来告诉他，敌人丝毫没有放缓进攻，并且挂出白旗示意他们投降。“不要理他们！”他喊着，视线并没有离开那少年。少年已经到达了平原，但他没有再跑，似乎只是艰难地拖着腿前行。

"Go! run!" said the captain, clenching his teeth and his fists; "let them kill you; die, you rascal, but go!"Then he uttered a horrible oath. "Ah, the infamous poltroon! he has sat down!"In fact, the boy, whose head he had hitherto been able to see projecting above a field of grain, had disappeared, as though he had fallen; but, after the lapse of a minute, his head came into sight again; finally, it was lost behind the hedges, and the captain saw it no more.“快啊！快跑啊！”上尉咬着牙、攥着拳头说道，“让他们杀了你吧，你这个混蛋，不跑就要死！”然后他骂了一句可怕的话：“啊，这个无耻的懦夫！他坐下了！”事实上，少年好像摔倒了，本来一直能看到他的头在庄稼地里，现在看不见了；但是，过了一会儿，又能看见他的头了；最后，它消失在篱笆后面，上尉再也看不见它了。

Then he descended impetuously; the bullets were coming in a tempest; the rooms were encumbered with the wounded, some of whom were whirling round like drunken men, and clutching at the furniture; the walls and floor were bespattered with blood; corpses lay across the doorways; the lieutenant had had his arm shattered by a ball; smoke and clouds of dust enveloped everything.

然后他迅速下楼。子弹如暴风雨一般袭来；房间里到处都是伤员，有些像醉汉一样乱转，紧紧抓着家具；墙壁和地面上溅满了血迹；尸体横在门口；中尉被步枪打断了手臂；硝烟笼罩了一切。

"Courage!" shouted the captain. "Stand firm at your post! Succor is on the way! Courage for a little while longer!"“拿出勇气！”上尉大喊，“坚守自己的岗位！援军马上就到了！拿出勇气再坚持一小会儿！”

The Austrians had approached still nearer: their contorted faces were already visible through the smoke, and amid the crash of the firing their savage and offensive shouts were audible, as they uttered insults, suggested a surrender, and threatened slaughter. Some soldiers were terrified, and withdrew from the windows; the sergeants drove them forward again. But the fire of the defence weakened; discouragement made its appearance on all faces. It was not possible to protract the resistance longer. At a given moment the fire of the Austrians slackened, and a thundering voice shouted, first in German and then in Italian, "Surrender!"

奥军继续逼近，透过烟雾已经能看到他们扭曲的脸孔，炮火声中已经能听到他们粗野挑衅的话语，他们谩骂、劝降，还威胁说要进行一场屠杀。一些士兵吓坏了，从窗口撤了回来，中士又命令他们向前。但抵御的火力还是减弱了，所有人脸上都露出沮丧的神情。抵抗已经不可能再坚持了。这时奥军的火力弱了下来，一个雷鸣般的声音先用德语，而后用意大利语吼道：“投降吧！”

"No!" howled the captain from a window.“绝不！”上尉在窗口咆哮着说。

And the firing recommenced more fast and furious on both sides. More soldiers fell. Already more than one window was without defenders. The fatal moment was near at hand. The captain shouted through his teeth, in a strangled voice, "They are not coming! they are not coming!" and rushed wildly about, twisting his sword about in his convulsively clenched hand, and resolved to die; when a sergeant descending from the garret, uttered a piercing shout, "They are coming!""They are coming!" repeated the captain, with a cry of joy.

然后更快更猛烈的炮火从两面重新攻来。更多的士兵倒下了。已经有不止一处的窗口没有人防御了。生死攸关的时刻马上就要到来了。上尉用令人窒息的声音从牙缝里挤出几句话：“他们不会来了！他们不会来了！”他狂躁地走来走去，双手痉挛般地紧紧握着军刀挥舞，决心战死。这时，一名中士从阁楼下来，尖声喊着：“他们来了！”“他们来了！”上尉欣喜地叫着重复道。

At that cry all, well and wounded, sergeants and officers, rushed to the windows, and the resistance became fierce once more. A few moments later a sort of uncertainty was noticeable, and a beginning of disorder among the foe. Suddenly the captain hastily collected a little troop in the room on the ground floor, in order to make a sortie with fixed bayonets. Then he flew up stairs. Scarcely had he arrived there when they heard a hasty trampling of feet, accompanied by a formidable hurrah, and saw from the windows the two-pointed hats of the Italian carabineers advancing through the smoke, a squadron rushing forward at great speed, and a lightning flash of blades whirling in the air, as they fell on heads, on shoulders, and on backs. Then the troop darted out of the door, with bayonets lowered; the enemy wavered, were thrown into disorder, and turned their backs; the field was left unincumbered, the house was free, and a little later two battalions of Italian infantry and two cannons occupied the eminence.

一听到这叫声，所有人，不论是受伤的还是没受伤的，不论是中士还是军官，全都冲到窗口，抵御再一次猛烈起来。过了一会儿，情况出现了变化，敌军开始出现一阵骚乱。上尉突然间迅速集合好了一楼的一小支队伍，用套好的刺刀做突击。然后他飞身跑上楼。他还没到达楼上，就听到一阵急促的脚步声，其中还夹杂着震耳欲聋的叫好声，接着从窗口看到意大利卡宾枪手的两头尖尖的帽子正穿过浓烟前进，一个中队飞速向前挺进，刺刀在空中闪着光，砍在敌军头上、肩膀上和背上。这时，刚组建的队伍放低刺刀、冲出房门；敌军开始动摇，陷入混乱，转身回撤；空地上再无阻碍，房子也安全了，一会儿工夫，两个意大利步兵营和两门大炮就占领了高地。

The captain, with the soldiers that remained to him, rejoined his regiment, went on fighting, and was slightly wounded in the left hand by a bullet on the rebound, in the final assault with bayonets.

上尉带着剩余的士兵重新加入队伍，继续战斗，他的左臂在最后一次刺刀拼杀中被反弹的子弹所伤。

The day ended with the victory on our side.

当天以我军的胜利而告终。

But on the following day, the conflict having begun again, the Italians were overpowered by the overwhelming numbers of the Austrians, in spite of a valorous resistance, and on the morning of the 27th they sadly retreated towards the Mincio.

但是第二天，交火又开始了，虽然我军奋勇抵抗，还是寡不敌众，在二十七日清晨令人惋惜地向明乔河撤退。

The captain, although wounded, made the march on foot with his soldiers, weary and silent, and, arrived at the close of the day at Goito, on the Mincio, he immediately sought out his lieutenant, who had been picked up with his arm shattered, by our ambulance corps, and who must have arrived before him. He was directed to a church, where the field hospital had been installed in haste. Thither he betook himself. The church was full of wounded men, ranged in two lines of beds, and on mattresses spread on the floor; two doctors and numerous assistants were going and coming, busily occupied; and suppressed cries and groans were audible.

上尉虽然受了伤，依然和士兵们一起步行前进，一路劳顿，却一言不发，在到达明乔河的戈伊托的那天晚上，他立刻寻找胳膊受伤的中尉。中尉是乘救护车撤退的，应该比他先到。他被领到一座教堂，那里有匆忙搭建的战地医院。他走了进去。教堂里到处都是伤员，病床排成两列，床垫就直接铺在地板上；两名医生和很多助手忙碌地走来走去；压抑着的叫喊声和呻吟声不绝于耳。

No sooner had the captain entered than he halted and cast a glance around, in search of his officer.

上尉一进来就停下脚步四处张望，寻找他的副官。

At that moment he heard himself called in a weak voice,—"Signor Captain!"He turned round. It was his drummer-boy. He was lying on a cot bed, covered to the breast with a coarse window curtain, in red and white squares, with his arms on the outside, pale and thin, but with eyes which still sparkled like black gems.

这时，他听到一个微弱的声音喊道：“上尉阁下！”他转过身。那是他的少年鼓手。他躺在一张帆布床上，胸前盖着一块红白格子的破窗帘，一双苍白消瘦的手露在外面，但眼睛依然闪着黑宝石一般的光芒。

"Are you here?" asked the captain, amazed, but still sharply. "Bravo! You did your duty."“你在这儿啊？”上尉惊讶却依然严厉地问道，“太棒了！你完成了任务。”

"I did all that I could," replied the drummer-boy.“我竭尽所能了。”少年鼓手回答。

"Were you wounded?" said the captain, seeking with his eyes for his officer in the neighboring beds.“你受伤了吗？”上尉一边问着，一边看向周围的床铺，寻找他的副官。

"What could one expect?" said the lad, who gained courage by speaking, expressing the lofty satisfaction of having been wounded for the first time, without which he would not have dared to open his mouth in the presence of this captain; "I had a fine run, all bent over, but suddenly they caught sight of me. I should have arrived twenty minutes earlier if they had not hit me. Luckily, I soon came across a captain of the staff, to whom I gave the note. But it was hard work to get down after that caress! I was dying of thirst. I was afraid that I should not get there at all. I wept with rage at the thought that at every moment of delay another man was setting out yonder for the other world. But enough! I did what I could. I am content. But, with your permission, captain, you should look to yourself: you are losing blood."“我别无他求了。”那小伙子说，他有了说话的勇气，第一次表现出负伤带来的无上满足感，不然他是不敢在上尉面前张嘴的，“我一路好跑，一直弯着身子，但他们还是突然发现了我。要是没被打中我还能早到二十分钟呢。幸运的是我很快遇到了一名上尉，并把字条给了他。可是被击中之后很难继续走了！我渴死了。我怕我根本到不了那里。我一想到每晚一秒就会有人被送往另一个世界，就愤怒地大哭。可这对我来说足够了！我尽了全力了。我很满足。但是上尉，请允许我说，您应该当心自己：您在流血。”

Several drops of blood had in fact trickled down on the captain's fingers from his imperfectly bandaged palm.

几滴血确实顺着上尉没包扎好的手掌从指尖滴了下来。

"Would you like to have me give the bandage a turn, captain? Hold it here a minute."“让我来帮您重新包扎吧，上尉。按着这里一会儿。”

The captain held out his left hand, and stretched out his right to help the lad to loosen the knot and to tie it again; but no sooner had the boy raised himself from his pillow than he turned pale and was obliged to support his head once more.

上尉张开左手，伸出右手帮那小伙子把结拆开重新打好，但是少年刚一起身离开枕头，脸色立刻变得苍白，不得不再次躺下。

"That will do, that will do," said the captain, looking at him and withdrawing his bandaged hand, which the other tried to retain. "Attend to your own affairs, instead of thinking of others, for things that are not severe may become serious if they are neglected."

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