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Some stepped up to the teachers to ask explanations, with their open copy-books in their hands. I caught sight of that young and well-dressed master "the little lawyer," who had three or four workingmen clustered round his table, and was making corrections with his pen; and also the lame one, who was laughing with a dyer who had brought him a copy-book all adorned with red and blue dyes. My master, who had recovered, and who will return to school to-morrow, was there also. The doors of the schoolroom were open. I was amazed, when the lessons began, to see how attentive they all were, and how they kept their eyes fixed on their work. Yet the greater part of them, so the head-master said, for fear of being late, had not even been home to eat a mouthful of supper, and they were hungry.
有的翻開了筆記簿到先生那里去請求說明，我見那個平常叫做“小律師”的容美眼的先生，正被四五個勞動者圍牢了用筆批改著什么。有一個染店里的人把筆記簿用赤色、青色的顏料裝飾了起來，引得那跋足的先生笑了。我的先生病已愈了，明日就可依舊授課，晚上也在校里。教室的門是開著的，由外面可以望見一切。上課以后，他們眼睛都不離書本那種熱心真使我佩服。據(jù)校任說，他們?yōu)榱瞬贿t到，大概都沒有正式吃晚餐，有的甚至空了肚子來的。
But the younger ones, after half an hour of school, were falling off the benches with sleep; one even went fast asleep with his head on the bench, and the master waked him up by poking his ear with a pen. But the grown-up men did nothing of the sort; they kept awake, and listened, with their mouths wide open, to the lesson, without even winking; and it made a deep impression on me to see all those bearded men on our benches. We also ascended to the story floor above, and I ran to the door of my schoolroom and saw in my seat a man with a big mustache and a bandaged hand, who might have injured himself while at work about some machine; but he was trying to write, though very, very slowly.
可是年紀小的過了半小時光景，就要伏在桌上打噸，有一個竟將頭靠在椅上睡去了。先生用筆桿觸動他的耳朵，使他醒來。大人都不打瞌睡，只是目不轉(zhuǎn)睛地張了口注意功課。見了那些有了胡須的人坐在我們的小椅子上用功，真使我感動。我們又上樓去到了我這一級的教室門口，見我的座位上坐著一位胡須很多的手上縛著繃帶的人，手大概是在工場中被機器軋傷了，正在慢慢地寫著字呢。
But what pleased me most was to behold in the seat of the little mason, on the very same bench and in the very same corner, his father, the mason, as huge as a giant, who sat there all coiled up into a narrow space, with his chin on his fists and his eyes on his book, so absorbed that he hardly breathed. And there was no chance about it, for it was he himself who said to the head-master the first evening he came to the school:--
最有趣的是“小石匠”的高大的父親，他就坐在對“小石匠”的座位上，把椅子擠得滿滿的，手托著頭，一心地在那里看書。這不是偶然的。據(jù)說，他第一夜到學校里來就和校長商量：
"Signor Director, do me the favor to place me in the seat of 'my hare's face.'" For he always calls his son so.
“校長先生！請讓我坐在我們‘兔子頭’的位子上吧！”他無論何時都稱兒子為“兔子頭”。
My father kept me there until the end, and in the street we saw many women with children in their arms, waiting for their husbands; and at the entrance a change was effected: the husbands took the children in their arms, and the women made them surrender their books and copy-books; and in this wise they proceeded to their homes. For several minutes the street was filled with people and with noise. Then all grew silent, and all we could see was the tall and weary form of the headmaster disappearing in the distance.
父親一直陪我看到課畢。走到街上，見婦人們都抱了兒女等著丈夫從夜學校出來。在學校門口，丈夫從妻子手里抱過兒女，把書冊筆記簿交給妻子手里，大家一齊回家。一時街上滿是人聲，過了一會即漸漸靜去。最后只見校長的高長瘦削的身影在前面消失了。
