Page:De Amicis - Heart, translation Hapgood, 1922.djvu/148

 all. But Derossi pays no attention to him when he is by; and when the boys tell Garrone that Nobis had been speaking ill of him, he says:—

“His pride is so silly that it is not worth fighting about.”

But Coretti said to him one day, when Nobis 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 teacher, because the Calabrian touched his leg with his foot. The teacher asked the Calabrian:—“Did you do it intentionally?”

“No, sir,” he replied, frankly.

“You are too petulant, Nobis,” said the teacher.

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.”