Saturday, 11th.
The idea of Carlo Nobis rubbing off his sleeve affectedly, when Precossi
touches him in passing! That fellow is pride incarnate because his
father is a rich man. But Derossi's father is rich too. He would like to
have a bench to himself; he is afraid that the rest will soil it; he
looks down on everybody and always has a scornful smile on his lips: woe
to him who stumbles over his foot, when we go out in files two by two!
For a mere trifle he flings an insulting word in your face, or a threat
to get his father to come to the school. It is true that his father did
give him a good lesson when he called the little son of the charcoal-man
a ragamuffin. I have never seen so disagreeable a schoolboy! No one
speaks to him, no one says good by to him when he goes out; there is not
even a dog who would give him a suggestion when he does not know his
lesson. And he cannot endure any one, and he pretends to despise Derossi
more than all, because he is the head boy; and Garrone, because he is
beloved by all. But Derossi pays no attention to him when he is by; and
when the boys tell Garrone that Nobis has been speaking ill of him, he
says:--
"His pride is so senseless that it does not deserve even my passing
notice."
But Coretti said to him one day, when he was smiling disdainfully at his
catskin cap:--
"Go to Derossi for a while, and learn how to play the gentleman!"
Yesterday he complained to the master, because the Calabrian touched his
leg with his foot. The master asked the Calabrian:--
"Did you do it intentionally?"--"No, sir," he replied, frankly.--"You
are too petulant, Nobis."
And Nobis retorted, in his airy way, "I shall tell my father about it."
Then the teacher got angry.
"Your father will tell you that you are in the wrong, as he has on other
occasions. And besides that, it is the teacher alone who has the right
to judge and punish in school." Then he added pleasantly:--
"Come, Nobis, change your ways; be kind and courteous to your comrades.
You see, we have here sons of workingmen and of gentlemen, of the rich
and the poor, and all love each other and treat each other like
brothers, as they are. Why do not you do like the rest? It would not
cost you much to make every one like you, and you would be so much
happier yourself, too!--Well, have you no reply to make me?"
Nobis, who had listened to him with his customary scornful smile,
answered coldly:--
"No, sir."
"Sit down," said the master to him. "I am sorry for you. You are a
heartless boy."
This seemed to be the end of it all; but the little mason, who sits on
the front bench, turned his round face towards Nobis, who sits on the
back bench, and made such a fine and ridiculous hare's face at him, that
the whole class burst into a shout of laughter. The master reproved him;
but he was obliged to put his hand over his own mouth to conceal a
smile. And even Nobis laughed, but not in a pleasant way.