Friday, 26th.
You are now beginning to comprehend the poetry of school, Enrico;
but at present you only survey the school from within. It will seem
much more beautiful and more poetic to you twenty years from now,
when you go thither to escort your own boys; and you will then
survey it from the outside, as I do. While waiting for school to
close, I wander about the silent street, in the vicinity of the
edifice, and lay my ear to the windows of the ground floor, which
are screened by Venetian blinds. At one window I hear the voice of
a schoolmistress saying:--
"Ah, what a shape for a _t_! It won't do, my dear boy! What would
your father say to it?"
At the next window there resounds the heavy voice of a master,
which is saying:--
"I will buy fifty metres of stuff--at four lire and a half the
metre--and sell it again--"
Further on there is the mistress with the red feather, who is
reading aloud:--
"Then Pietro Micca, with the lighted train of powder--"
From the adjoining class-room comes the chirping of a thousand
birds, which signifies that the master has stepped out for a
moment. I proceed onward, and as I turn the corner, I hear a
scholar weeping, and the voice of the mistress reproving and
comforting him. From the lofty windows issue verses, names of great
and good men, fragments of sentences which inculcate virtue, the
love of country, and courage. Then ensue moments of silence, in
which one would declare that the edifice is empty, and it does not
seem possible that there should be seven hundred boys within; noisy
outbursts of hilarity become audible, provoked by the jest of a
master in a good humor. And the people who are passing halt, and
all direct a glance of sympathy towards that pleasing building,
which contains so much youth and so many hopes. Then a sudden dull
sound is heard, a clapping to of books and portfolios, a shuffling
of feet, a buzz which spreads from room to room, and from the lower
to the higher, as at the sudden diffusion of a bit of good news: it
is the beadle, who is making his rounds, announcing the dismissal
of school. And at that sound a throng of women, men, girls, and
youths press closer from this side and that of the door, waiting
for their sons, brothers, or grandchildren; while from the doors of
the class-rooms little boys shoot forth into the big hall, as from
a spout, seize their little capes and hats, creating a great
confusion with them on the floor, and dancing all about, until the
beadle chases them forth one after the other. And at length they
come forth, in long files, stamping their feet. And then from all
the relatives there descends a shower of questions: "Did you know
your lesson?--How much work did they give you?--What have you to do
for to-morrow!--When does the monthly examination come?"
And then even the poor mothers who do not know how to read, open
the copy-books, gaze at the problems, and ask particulars: "Only
eight?--Ten with commendation?--Nine for the lesson?"
And they grow uneasy, and rejoice, and interrogate the masters, and
talk of prospectuses and examinations. How beautiful all this is,
and how great and how immense is its promise for the world!