Tuesday, 5th.
As the weather continues extremely fine, they have made us pass from
chamber gymnastics to gymnastics with apparatus in the garden.
Garrone was in the head-master's office yesterday when Nelli's mother,
that blond woman dressed in black, came in to get her son excused from
the new exercises. Every word cost her an effort; and as she spoke, she
held one hand on her son's head.
"He is not able to do it," she said to the head-master. But Nelli showed
much grief at this exclusion from the apparatus, at having this added
humiliation imposed upon him.
"You will see, mamma," he said, "that I shall do like the rest."
His mother gazed at him in silence, with an air of pity and affection.
Then she remarked, in a hesitating way, "I fear lest his companions--"
What she meant to say was, "lest they should make sport of him." But
Nelli replied:--
"They will not do anything to me--and then, there is Garrone. It is
sufficient for him to be present, to prevent their laughing."
And then he was allowed to come. The teacher with the wound on his neck,
who was with Garibaldi, led us at once to the vertical bars, which are
very high, and we had to climb to the very top, and stand upright on the
transverse plank. Derossi and Coretti went up like monkeys; even little
Precossi mounted briskly, in spite of the fact that he was embarrassed
with that jacket which extends to his knees; and in order to make him
laugh while he was climbing, all the boys repeated to him his constant
expression, "Excuse me! excuse me!" Stardi puffed, turned as red as a
turkey-cock, and set his teeth until he looked like a mad dog; but he
would have reached the top at the expense of bursting, and he actually
did get there; and so did Nobis, who, when he reached the summit,
assumed the attitude of an emperor; but Votini slipped back twice,
notwithstanding his fine new suit with azure stripes, which had been
made expressly for gymnastics.
In order to climb the more easily, all the boys had daubed their hands
with resin, which they call colophony, and as a matter of course it is
that trader of a Garoffi who provides every one with it, in a powdered
form, selling it at a soldo the paper hornful, and turning a pretty
penny.
Then it was Garrone's turn, and up he went, chewing away at his bread as
though it were nothing out of the common; and I believe that he would
have been capable of carrying one of us up on his shoulders, for he is
as muscular and strong as a young bull.
After Garrone came Nelli. No sooner did the boys see him grasp the bars
with those long, thin hands of his, than many of them began to laugh and
to sing; but Garrone crossed his big arms on his breast, and darted
round a glance which was so expressive, which so clearly said that he
did not mind dealing out half a dozen punches, even in the master's
presence, that they all ceased laughing on the instant. Nelli began to
climb. He tried hard, poor little fellow; his face grew purple, he
breathed with difficulty, and the perspiration poured from his brow. The
master said, "Come down!" But he would not. He strove and persisted. I
expected every moment to see him fall headlong, half dead. Poor Nelli! I
thought, what if I had been like him, and my mother had seen me! How she
would have suffered, poor mother! And as I thought of that I felt so
tenderly towards Nelli that I could have given, I know not what, to be
able, for the sake of having him climb those bars, to give him a push
from below without being seen.
Meanwhile Garrone, Derossi, and Coretti were saying: "Up with you,
Nelli, up with you!" "Try--one effort more--courage!" And Nelli made one
more violent effort, uttering a groan as he did so, and found himself
within two spans of the plank.
"Bravo!" shouted the others. "Courage--one dash more!" and behold Nelli
clinging to the plank.
All clapped their hands. "Bravo!" said the master. "But that will do
now. Come down."
But Nelli wished to ascend to the top like the rest, and after a little
exertion he succeeded in getting his elbows on the plank, then his
knees, then his feet; at last he stood upright, panting and smiling, and
gazed at us.
We began to clap again, and then he looked into the street. I turned in
that direction, and through the plants which cover the iron railing of
the garden I caught sight of his mother, passing along the sidewalk
without daring to look. Nelli descended, and we all made much of him. He
was excited and rosy, his eyes sparkled, and he no longer seemed like
the same boy.
Then, at the close of school, when his mother came to meet him, and
inquired with some anxiety, as she embraced him, "Well, my poor son, how
did it go? how did it go?" all his comrades replied, in concert, "He did
well--he climbed like the rest of us--he's strong, you know--he's
active--he does exactly like the others."
And then the joy of that woman was a sight to see. She tried to thank
us, and could not; she shook hands with three or four, bestowed a caress
on Garrone, and carried off her son; and we watched them for a while,
walking in haste, and talking and gesticulating, both perfectly happy,
as though no one were looking at them.