BLOOD OF ROMAGNA.

洛马格那的血

(_Monthly Story._)

（每月例话）

That evening the house of Ferruccio was more silent than was its wont. The father, who kept a little haberdasher's shop, had gone to Forli to make some purchases, and his wife had accompanied him, with Luigina, a baby, whom she was taking to a doctor, that he might operate on a diseased eye; and they were not to return until the following morning. It was almost midnight. The woman who came to do the work by day had gone away at nightfall. In the house there was only the grandmother with the paralyzed legs, and Ferruccio, a lad of thirteen. It was a small house of but one story, situated on the highway, at a gunshot's distance from a village not far from Forli, a town of Romagna; and there was near it only an uninhabited house, ruined two months previously by fire, on which the sign of an inn was still to be seen. Behind the tiny house was a small garden surrounded by a hedge, upon which a rustic gate opened; the door of the shop, which also served as the house door, opened on the highway. All around spread the solitary campagna, vast cultivated fields, planted with mulberry-trees.

那夜，费鲁乔的家里特别冷静。父亲经营着杂货铺，到市上配货去了，母亲因为幼儿有眼病，也随了父亲到市里去请医生，都非明天不能回来。时候已经夜半，日间帮忙的女佣早于天黑时回家了，屋中只剩下脚有残疾的老祖母和十三岁的费鲁乔。他的家离洛马格那街没有多少路，是沿着大路的平属。附近只有一所空房，那所房子在一个月前遭了火灾，还剩着客栈的招牌。费鲁乔家的后面有一小天井，周围围着篱笆，有木门可以出入。店门朝着大路，也就是家的出入口。周围都是寂静的田野，这里那里都是桑树。

It was nearly midnight; it was raining and blowing. Ferruccio and his grandmother, who was still up, were in the dining-room, between which and the garden there was a small, closet-like room, encumbered with old furniture. Ferruccio had only returned home at eleven o'clock, after an absence of many hours, and his grandmother had watched for him with eyes wide open, filled with anxiety, nailed to the large arm-chair, upon which she was accustomed to pass the entire day, and often the whole night as well, since a difficulty of breathing did not allow her to lie down in bed.

夜渐渐深了，天忽下雨，又发起风来。费鲁乔和祖母还在厨房里没有睡觉。厨房和天井之间有一小小的堆物间，堆着旧家具。费鲁乔到外游耍，到了十一点钟光景才回来。祖母担忧不睡，等他回来，只是在大安乐椅上一动不动地坐着。他祖母常是这样过日的，有时竟这样坐到天明，因为她呼吸迫促，躺不倒的缘故。

It was raining, and the wind beat the rain against the window-panes: the night was very dark. Ferruccio had returned weary, muddy, with his jacket torn, and the livid mark of a stone on his forehead. He had engaged in a stone fight with his comrades; they had come to blows, as usual; and in addition he had gambled, and lost all his soldi, and left his cap in a ditch.

雨不绝地下着，风吹雨点打着窗门，夜色暗得没一些光。费鲁乔疲劳极了回来，身上满沾了泥，衣服破碎了好几处，额上负着伤痕。这是他和朋友投石打架了的缘故。他今夜又和人吵闹过，并且赌博把钱输光了，连帽子都落在沟里了。