Page:De Amicis - Heart, translation Hapgood, 1922.djvu/64

 crown of golden curls; he is so nimble that he can leap over a bench by resting one hand on it; and he already understands fencing. He is twelve years old, and the son of a merchant; he is always dressed in blue, with gilt buttons; he is always lively, merry, gracious to all, and helps us as much as he can in examinations. No one has ever dared to play a trick on him or call him names.

Nobis and Franti alone look askance at him, and Votini darts envy from his eyes: but he does not even perceive it. All smile at him, and take his hand or his arm, when he goes about, in his graceful way, to collect the work. He gives away illustrated papers, drawings, everything that is given him at home. He has made a little geographical chart of Calabria for the Calabrian lad; and he gives everything with a smile, without paying any heed to it, like a grand gentleman, and without favoritism for any one. It is impossible not to envy him, not to feel smaller than he in everything.

Ah! I, too, envy him, like Votini. And I feel a bitterness, almost a certain scorn, for him, sometimes, when I am striving to do my work at home, and think that he has already finished his correctly, at this same moment, and without fatigue. But then, when I return to school, and behold him so handsome, so smiling and triumphant, and hear how frankly and confidently he replies to the master's questions, and how courteous he is, and how the others all like him, then all the bitterness, all scorn, departs from my heart, and I am ashamed of having felt that way. I should like to be always near him at such times. I should like to be