telfidardo; eighty black veils fell, a hundred medals clashed against
the staves, and that sonorous and confused uproar, which stirred the
blood of all, was like the sound of a thousand human voices saying all
together, 'Farewell, good king, gallant king, loyal king! Thou wilt live
in the heart of thy people as long as the sun shall shine over Italy.'

"After this, the banners rose heavenward once more, and King Vittorio
entered into the immortal glory of the tomb."

FRANTI EXPELLED FROM SCHOOL.

Saturday, 21st.

Only one boy was capable of laughing while Derossi was declaiming the
funeral oration of the king, and Franti laughed. I detest that fellow.
He is wicked. When a father comes to the school to reprove his son, he
enjoys it; when any one cries, he laughs. He trembles before Garrone,
and he strikes the little mason because he is small; he torments Crossi
because he has a helpless arm; he ridicules Precossi, whom every one
respects; he even jeers at Robetti, that boy in the second grade who
walks on crutches, through having saved a child. He provokes those who
are weaker than himself, and when it comes to blows, he grows ferocious
and tries to do harm. There is something beneath that low forehead, in
those turbid eyes, which he keeps nearly concealed under the visor of
his small cap of waxed cloth, which inspires a shudder. He fears no one;
he laughs in the master's face; he steals when he gets a chance; he
denies it with an impenetrable countenance; he is always engaged in a
quarrel with some one; he brings big pins to school, to prick his
neighbors with; he tears the buttons from his own jackets and from those
of others, and plays with them: his paper, books, and copy-books are all
crushed, torn, dirty; his ruler is jagged, his pens gnawed, his nails
bitten, his clothes covered with stains and rents which he has got in
his brawls. They say that his mother has fallen ill from the trouble
that he causes her, and that his father has driven him from the house
three times; his mother comes every now and then to make inquiries, and
she always goes away in tears. He hates school, he hates his
companions, he hates the teacher. The master sometimes pretends not to
see his rascalities, and he behaves all the worse. He tried to get a
hold on him by kind treatment, and the boy ridiculed him for it. He said
terrible things to him, and the boy covered his face with his hands, as
though he were crying; but he was laugh