m upright on their benches and pulled up their little
garments, to feel their little swollen stomachs and enlarged
joints; but they felt not the least shame, poor creatures! it was
evident that they were children who were used to being undressed,
examined, turned round on all sides. And to think that they are now
in the best stage of their malady, when they hardly suffer at all
any more! But who can say what they suffered during the first
stage, while their bodies were undergoing the process of
deformation, when with the increase of their infirmity, they saw
affection decrease around them, poor children! saw themselves left
alone for hour after hour in a corner of the room or the courtyard,
badly nourished, and at times scoffed at, or tormented for months
by bandages and by useless orthopedic apparatus! Now, however,
thanks to care and good food and gymnastic exercises, many are
improving. Their schoolmistress makes them practise gymnastics. It
was a pitiful sight to see them, at a certain command, extend all
those bandaged legs under the benches, squeezed as they were
between splints, knotty and deformed; legs which should have been
covered with kisses! Some could not rise from the bench, and
remained there, with their heads resting on their arms, caressing
their crutches with their hands; others, on making the thrust with
their arms, felt their breath fail them, and fell back on their
seats, all pale; but they smiled to conceal their panting. Ah,
Enrico! you other children do not prize your good health, and it
seems to you so small a thing to be well! I thought of the strong
and thriving lads, whom their mothers carry about in triumph, proud
of their beauty; and I could have clasped all those poor little
heads, I could have pressed them to my heart, in despair; I could
have said, had I been alone, "I will never stir from here again; I
wish to consecrate my life to you, to serve you, to be a mother to
you all, to my last day." And in the meantime, they sang; sang in
peculiar, thin, sweet, sad voices, which penetrated the soul; and
when their teacher praised them, they looked happy; and as she
passed among the benches, they kissed her hands and wrists; for
they are very grateful for what is done for them, and very
affectionate. And these little angel