My Brother's Schoolmistress.

弟弟的女先生

Thursday, 10th.

星期四，10日。

The son of the charcoal-man had been a pupil of that schoolmistress Delcati who had come to see my brother when he was ill, and who had made us laugh by telling us how, two years ago, the mother of this boy had brought to her house a big apronful of charcoal, out of gratitude for her having given the medal to her son; and the poor woman had persisted, and had not been willing to carry the coal home again, and had wept when she was obliged to go away with her apron quite full. And she told us, also, of another good woman, who had brought her a very heavy bunch of flowers, inside of which there was a little hoard of soldi. We had been greatly diverted in listening to her, and so my brother had swallowed his medicine, which he had not been willing to do before.

弟弟病了，他的女教师代尔卡谛先生来探望。原来，卖炭者的儿子，从前是这位先生教过的。先生讲出可笑的故事来，引得我们都笑。两年前，卖炭家小孩的母亲因为儿子得了赏牌，用很大的围身裙满包了炭，拿到先生那里，当做谢礼。先生无论怎样推谢，她终不答应，等拿了回家去的时候，居然大哭了。先生又说，还有一个女人，曾把金钱装入花束中送去过。先生的话使我们听了有趣发笑。弟弟先还无论怎样不肯吃药，这时也好好地吃了。

How much patience is necessary with those boys of the lower first, all toothless, like old men, who cannot pronounce their r's and s's; and one coughs, and another has the nosebleed, and another loses his shoes under the bench, and another bellows because he has pricked himself with his pen, and another one cries because he has bought copy-book No. 2 instead of No. 1. Fifty in a class, who know nothing, with those flabby little hands, and all of them must be taught to write; they carry in their pockets bits of licorice, buttons, phial corks, pounded brick,--all sorts of little things, and the teacher has to search them; but they conceal these objects even in their shoes. And they are not attentive: a fly enters through the window, and throws them all into confusion; and in summer they bring grass into school, and horn-bugs, which fly round in circles or fall into the inkstand, and then streak the copy-books all over with ink.

教导一年级的小孩，多少费力啊！有的牙齿未全，像个老人，发音发不好；有的要咳嗽；有的淌鼻血；有的因为靴子在椅子下面，哭着说“没有了”；有的因钢笔尖头触痛了手叫了起来；有的把习字帖的第一册和第二册掉错了，吵个不休。要教会五十个手没有准的小孩写字，真是一件不容易的事。他们的袋里藏着什么甘草、纽扣、瓶塞、碎瓦片等等的东西，先生要去搜他们的时候，他们甚至会藏到鞋子里去。先生的话，他们是毫不听的。有时窗口里飞进一个苍蝇来，他们就大吵。夏天呢，把草拿进来，有的捉了甲虫往里面放；甲虫在室中东西飞旋，有时落入墨水瓶中，墨水溅污了习字帖。