My Companion Coretti

朋友可莱谛

Sunday, 13th.

星期日，13号。

My father forgave me; but I remained rather sad and then my mother sent me, with the porter's big son, to take a walk on the Corso. Half-way down the Corso, as we were passing a cart which was standing in front of a shop, I heard some one call me by name: I turned round; it was Coretti, my schoolmate, with chocolate-colored clothes and his catskin cap, all in a perspiration, but merry, with a big load of wood on his shoulders. A man who was standing in the cart was handing him an armful of wood at a time, which he took and carried into his father's shop, where he piled it up in the greatest haste.

父亲饶恕了我了，我还悲着。母亲送我出去，叫我和门房的儿子到河边去散步。两人在河边走着，到了一家门口停着货车的店前，听到有人在叫我。我回头去看，原来是同学可莱谛。他身上流着汗正在活泼地扛着柴。立在货车上的人抱了柴递给他，可莱谛接了运到自己的店里，急忙堆在一起。

"What are you doing, Coretti?" I asked him.

“可莱谛，你在做什么？”我问。

"Don't you see?" he answered, reaching out his arms to receive the load; "I am reviewing my lesson."

“你看不见吗？”他把两只手伸向柴去，一面回答我。“我正在复习功课哩！”他接着说。

I laughed; but he seemed to be serious, and, having grasped the armful of wood, he began to repeat as he ran, "The conjugation of the verb--consists in its variations according to number--according to number and person". And then, throwing down the wood and piling it, "according to--according to the time--according to the time to which the action refers." And turning to the cart for another armful, "according to the mode in which the action is enunciated."

我笑了，可是可莱谛却认真地在嘴里这样念着：“动词的活用，因了数——数与人称的差异而变化——”一面抱着一捆柴走，放下了柴，把它堆好了：“又因动作起来的时而变化——，”走到车旁取柴：“又因表出动作的法而变化。”

It was our grammar lesson for the following day. "What would you have me do?" he said. "I am putting my time to use. My father has gone off with the man on business; my mother is ill. It falls to me to do the unloading. In the meantime, I am going over my grammar lesson. It is a difficult lesson to-day; I cannot succeed in getting it into my head.--My father said that he would be here at seven o'clock to give you your money," he said to the man with the cart.

这是明日文法的复习。“你要我怎么办呢？”他说。“我真忙啊！父亲因事出门去了，母亲病了在床上卧着，所以我不能不做事。一边做事，一边读着文法。今日的文法很难呢，无论怎样记，也记不牢。——父亲说过，七点钟回来付钱的哩。”他又向运货的人说。

The cart drove off. "Come into the shop a minute," Coretti said to me.

货车去了。“请进来！”可莱谛说。

I went in. It was a large apartment, full of piles of wood and fagots, with a steelyard on one side.

我进了店里，店屋广阔，满堆着木柴，木柴旁边挂着秤。