Friday, 25th.
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:--
"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.
The teacher has given him the monthly story, which will be read
to-morrow, 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!"