Page:De Amicis - Heart, translation Hapgood, 1922.djvu/157

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DADDY'S NURSE
131

he took out of his hands the monthly story, Daddy's Nurse, which the teacher had given him to copy out, in order that he might copy it for him; he gave him pens, and stroked his shoulder, and made me promise on my honor that I would say nothing to any one; and when we left school, he said to me hastily:—

“His father came to get him yesterday; he will be here again this morning: do as I do.”

We went into the street. Crossi's father was there, a little to one side: a man with a black beard sprinkled with gray, badly dressed, and with a colorless, thoughtful face. Derossi shook Crossi's hand, in a way to attract attention, and said to him in a loud tone, “Farewell until we meet again, Crossi,”—and passed his hand under his chin. I did the same. But as he did so, Derossi turned crimson, and so did I; and Crossi's father gazed straight at us, with a kindly glance; but through it shone a look of distrust and doubt which made our hearts grow cold.




DADDY'S NURSE

(Monthly Story.)


One morning, on a rainy day in March, a lad dressed like a country boy, all wet and muddy, with a bundle of clothes under his arm, came up to the porter of the great hospital at Naples, and, presenting a letter, asked for his father. He had a fine, oval face, of a pale brown hue, thoughtful eyes, and two thick lips, always half open, which displayed extremely white teeth. He came from a village in the neighborhood of Naples. His father, who had left home a year previously to