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THE EVE OF THE FOURTEENTH OF MARCH.
三月十四日的前一夜
To-day has been more cheerful than yesterday. The thirteenth of March! The eve of the distribution of prizes at the Theatre Vittorio Emanuele, the greatest and most beautiful festival of the whole year! But this time the boys who are to go upon the stage and present the certificates of the prizes to the gentlemen who are to bestow them are not to be taken at haphazard. The headmaster came in this morning, at the close of school, and said:--
今天比昨天更快活，三月十三日——一年中最有趣的維多利亞·愛馬努愛列館獎品授予式的前夜！并且，這次挑選捧呈獎狀遞給官長的人員的方法很是有趣。今天將退課，校長先生到教室里來：
"Good news, boys!" Then he called, "Coraci!" the Calabrian. The Calabrian rose. "Would you like to be one of those to carry the certificates of the prizes to the authorities in the theatre to-morrow?" The Calabrian answered that he should.
“諸君！有一個很好的消息哩！”說著又叫那個格拉勒利亞少年：“可拉西！”格拉勃利亞少年起立，校長說：“你愿意明天做捧了獎狀遞給官長的職司嗎？”“愿意的。”格拉勃利亞少年回答說。
"That is well," said the head-master; "then there will also be a representative of Calabria there; and that will be a fine thing. The municipal authorities are desirous that this year the ten or twelve lads who hand the prizes should be from all parts of Italy, and selected from all the public school buildings. We have twenty buildings, with five annexes--seven thousand pupils. Among such a multitude there has been no difficulty in finding one boy for each region of Italy. Two representatives of the Islands were found in the Torquato Tasso schoolhouse, a Sardinian, and a Sicilian; the Boncompagni School furnished a little Florentine, the son of a wood-carver; there is a Roman, a native of Rome, in the Tommaseo building; several Venetians, Lombards, and natives of Romagna have been found; the Monviso School gives us a Neapolitan, the son of an officer; we furnish a Genoese and a Calabrian,--you, Coraci,--with the Piemontese: that will make twelve. Does not this strike you as nice? It will be your brothers from all quarters of Italy who will give you your prizes. Look out! the whole twelve will appear on the stage together. Receive them with hearty applause. They are only boys, but they represent the country just as though they were men. A small tricolored flag is the symbol of Italy as much as a huge banner, is it not?
“很好！”校長說。“那么，格拉勒利亞的代表者也有了，這真是再好沒有的事。今年市政所方面要想從意大利全國選出拿獎狀的十幾個少年，而且說要從小學校的學生里選出。這市中有二十個小學校和五所分校，學生共七千人。其中就是代表意大利全國十二區的孩子。托爾夸托塔索學校擔任派出的是撒丁島人和西西里島人，邦康帕尼學校擔任派出的是佛羅倫薩人，一個木雕匠的兒子；托馬塞奧學校有擔任派出的是一個土生土長的羅馬人；還派出了幾個威尼斯人，倫巴第人，和羅曼尼亞本地人；蒙維索學派擔任派出的是那不勒斯人，一個軍官的兒子；本校擔任派出的是詹諾亞人和格拉勃利亞人，你，可拉西，以及皮埃蒙特人，一共十二個人。怎樣？這是很有趣的辦法吧。給你們賞品的是意大利全國的同胞，明天你們試看！十二個人一齊上舞臺，那時要熱烈喝彩！這幾個雖則是少年，卻和大人一樣代表國家。小小的三色旗也和大三色旗一樣，同是意大利的標志哩！
