"You ought to feel kindly towards soldiers, boys. They are our defenders, who would go to be killed for our sakes, if a foreign army were to menace our country to-morrow. They are boys too; they are not many years older than you; and they, too, go to school; and there are poor men and gentlemen among them, just as there are among you, and they come from every part of Italy. See if you cannot recognize them by their faces; Sicilians are passing, and Sardinians, and Neapolitans, and Lombards. This is an old regiment, one of those which fought in 1848. They are not the same soldiers, but the flag is still the same. How many have already died for our country around that banner twenty years before you were born!"

“你们不可不感谢兵士们啊！他们是我们的防御者。一旦有外国军队来侵犯我国，他们就是代我们去拼命的人。他们和你们年纪相差不多，都是少年，也是在那里用功的。看哪！你们一看他们的面色，就可知道全意大利各处的人都有在里面：西西里人也有，耐普尔斯人也有，赛地尼亚人也有，隆巴尔地人也有。这是曾经加入过一八四四年战争的古联队，兵士虽经变更，军旗还是当时的军旗，在你们未出生以前，为了国家在这军旗下战死过的人，不知多少呢！”

"Here it is!" said Garrone. And in fact, not far off, the flag was visible, advancing, above the heads of the soldiers.

“来了！”卡隆叫着说。真的，军旗就在兵士们的头上飘扬。

"Do one thing, my sons," said the head-master; "make your scholar's salute, with your hand to your brow, when the tricolor passes."

“大家听着！三色旗通过的时候，应该行举手注目的敬礼！”

The flag, borne by an officer, passed before us, all tattered and faded, and with the medals attached to the staff. We put our hands to our foreheads, all together. The officer looked at us with a smile, and returned our salute with his hand.

一个士官捧了联队旗在我们面前通过。旗已经破裂了，褪色了，旗竿顶上挂着勋章。大家向着旗行举手注目礼。旗手对了我们微笑，举手答礼。

"Bravi, boys!" said some one behind us. We turned to look; it was an old man who wore in his button-hole the blue ribbon of the Crimean campaign--a pensioned officer. "Bravi!" he said; "you have done a fine deed."

“诸位，难得。”后面有人这样说。回头去看，原来是年老的退职主官，纽孔里挂着克里米亚战役的从军徽章，“难得！你们做得好！”他反复着说。

In the meantime, the band of the regiment had made a turn at the end of the Corso, surrounded by a throng of boys, and a hundred merry shouts accompanied the blasts of the trumpets, like a war-song. "Bravi!" repeated the old officer, as he gazed upon us; "he who respects the flag when he is little will know how to defend it when he is grown up."

这时候，乐队已沿着河转了方向了，小孩们的哄闹声与喇叭声彼此和着。老士官目注着我们说：“难得，难得！从小尊敬军旗的人，长大了就是拥护军旗的。”