Page:De Amicis - Heart, translation Hapgood, 1922.djvu/236

204 While he was explaining, we could hear in a neighboring street a blacksmith hammering on his anvil, and in the house opposite a woman singing to lull her baby to sleep. Far away, in the Cernaia barracks, the trumpets were sounding. Every one seemed glad, even Stardi. Presently the blacksmith began to hammer more vigorously, the woman to sing more loudly. The teacher paused and lent an ear. Then he said, slowly, as he gazed out of the window:—

“The smiling sky, a singing mother, an honest man at work, boys at study,—these are beautiful things.”

When we left school, we saw that every one else was cheerful also. All walked in a line, stamping loudly with their feet, and humming, as though on the eve of a four days' vacation, The schoolmistresses were playful; the one with the red feather tripped along behind the children like a schoolgirl. The parents of the boys were chatting together and smiling, and Crossi's mother, the vegetable-vendor, had so many bunches of violets in her basket, that they filled the whole large hall with perfume.

I have never felt so glad as this morning on catching sight of my mother, who was waiting for me in the street. And I said to her as I ran to meet her:—

“Oh, I am happy! what is it that makes me so happy to-day?”

And my mother answered smilingly that it was the beautiful season and a good conscience.