Heart (de Amicis)/Gymnastics
GYMNASTICS
Wednesday, 5th.
As the weather stays fine, they have made us pass from indoor gymnastics to gymnastics with apparatus in the garden.
Garrone was in the principal's office yesterday when Nelli's mother, that blonde woman dressed in black, came in to get her son excused from the new exercises. Every word cost her an effort; and as she spoke, she held one hand on her son's head.
“He is not able to do it,” she said to the principal. But Nelli seemed hurt at this exclusion from the apparatus, at having this added humiliation imposed upon him.
“You will see, mamma,” he said, “that I shall do like the rest.”
His mother gazed at him in silence, with an air of pity and affection. Then she remarked, in a hesitating way, “I fear lest his companions—”
What she meant to say was, “lest they should make sport of him.” But Nelli replied:—
“They will not do anything to me—and then, there is Garrone. It is enough for him to be present, to prevent their laughing.”
So he was allowed to come. The teacher with the wound on his neck, who was with Garibaldi, led us at once to the vertical bars, which are very high, and we had to climb to the very top, and stand upright on the cross plank. Derossi and Coretti went up like monkeys; even little Precossi mounted briskly, in spite of the fact that he was hindered by that jacket which extends to his knees; and in order to make him laugh while he was climbing, all the boys repeated his constant expression, “Excuse me! excuse me!” Stardi puffed, turned as red as a turkey-cock, and set his teeth until he looked like a mad dog; but he would have reached the top at the expense of bursting, and he actually did get there; and so did Nobis, who, when he reached the summit, assumed the attitude of an emperor. But Votini slipped back twice, notwithstanding his fine new suit with blue stripes, which had been made expressly for gymnastics.
In order to climb the more easily, all the boys had daubed their hands with resin, which they call colophony, and as a matter of course it is that trader of a Garoffi who provided every one with it, selling it at a soldo the paper hornful, and turning a pretty penny.
Then it was Garrone's turn, and up he went, chewing away at his bread as though it were nothing out of the common; and I believe that he would have been capable of carrying one of us up on his shoulders, for he is as muscular and strong as a young bull.
After Garrone came Nelli. No sooner did the boys see him grasp the bars with those long, thin hands of his, than many of them began to laugh and to sing; but Garrone crossed his great arms on his breast, and darted round a glance which was so expressive, which so clearly said that he did not mind dealing out half a dozen punches, even in the master's presence, that they all ceased laughing on the instant. Nelli began to climb. He tried hard, poor little fellow; his face grew purple, he breathed with difficulty, and the perspiration poured from his brow. The master said, “Come down!” But he would not. He strove and persisted. I expected every moment to see him fall headlong, half dead. Poor Nelli! I thought, what if I had been like him, and my mother had seen me! How she would have suffered, poor mother! And as I thought of that I felt so tenderly towards Nelli that I could have given anything to help him climb those bars, or boost him from below without being seen.
Meanwhile Garrone, Derossi, and Coretti were saying: “Up with you, Nelli, up with you!” “Try—one effort more—courage!” And Nelli made one more violent effort, utering a groan as he did so, and found himself within two spans of the plank.
“Bravo!” shouted the others. “Courage—one dash more!” and behold! Nelli was clinging to the plank.
All clapped their hands. “Bravo!” said the teacher. “But that will do now. Come down.”
But Nelli wished to go to the top like the rest, and after a little exertion he succeeded in getting his elbows on the plank, then his knees, then his feet; at last he stood upright, panting and smiling, and gazed at us.
We began to clap again, and then he looked into the street. I turned in that direction, and through the plants which cover the iron railing of the garden I caught sight of his mother, passing along the sidewalk without daring to look. Nelli came down, and we all made much of him. He was excited and rosy, his eyes sparkled, and he no longer seemed like the same boy.
At the close of school, when his mother came to meet him, and inquired with some anxiety, as she embraced him, “Well, my poor son, how did it go? how did it go?” all his comrades replied, “He did well he—climbed like the rest of us—he's strong, you know—he's active—he does exactly like the others.”
And the joy of that woman was a sight to see. She tried to thank us, and could not; she shook hands with three or four, patted Garrone, and carried off her son; and we watched them for a while, walking fast, talking and gesticulating, both perfectly happy, as though no one were looking at them.