Saturday, 22d.
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. To-day 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:--
"Ernesto Derossi!"--the boy who always has the first prize. Derossi
rose.
"Come here," said the master. Derossi left his bench and stepped up to
the little table, facing the Calabrian.
"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."
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:--
"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."
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.