Page:De Amicis - Heart, translation Hapgood, 1922.djvu/209

Rh flags; on one side stood a small green table, and upon it lay all the certificates of premiums, tied with the tricolored ribbons. The band was stationed in the pit, under the stage; the schoolmasters and mistresses filled all one side of the first balcony, which had been reserved for them; the benches and passages of the pit were crammed with hundreds of boys, who were to sing, and who carried the music in their hands. At the back and all about, masters and mistresses could be seen going to and fro, arranging the prize scholars in lines; and it was full of parents who were giving a last touch to their hair and the last pull to their neckties.

No sooner had I gone in a box with my family than I perceived in the opposite box the young mistress with the red feather, who was smiling and showing all the pretty dimples in her cheeks; and with her my brother's teacher and the little nun, dressed wholly in black, and my kind mistress of the upper first; but she was so pale, poor thing! and coughed so hard that she could be heard all over the theatre. In the pit I instantly espied Garrone's dear, big face and the little blonde head of Nelli, who was clinging close to the other's shoulder. A little further on I saw Garoffi, with his owl's beak nose, who was making great efforts to collect the printed catalogues of the prize-winners. He already had a large bundle of them which he could put to some use in his bartering—we shall find out what it is to-morrow. Near the door was the wood-seller with his wife,—both dressed in holiday attire,—together with their boy, who has a third prize in the second grade. I was amazed at no longer beholding