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THE INFANT ASYLUM.
幼兒院
Tuesday, 4th.
周二，四日
After breakfast yesterday my mother took me, as she had promised, to the Infant Asylum in the Corso Valdocco, in order to recommend to the directress a little sister of Precossi. I had never seen an asylum. How much amused I was! There were two hundred of them, boy-babies and girlbabies, and so small that the children in our lower primary schools are men in comparison.
昨日早餐后，母親依約帶了我到幼兒院去，因?yàn)橐褲妬砜晌鞯拿米訃谕薪o院長的緣故。我還未曾到過幼兒院，那情形真是有趣。小孩共約二百人，男女都有。都是很小很小的孩子。和他們相比，國民小學(xué)的學(xué)生也成了大人了。
We arrived just as they were entering the refectory in two files, where there were two very long tables, with a great many round holes, and in each hole a black bowl filled with rice and beans, and a tin spoon beside it. On entering, some grew confused and remained on the floor until the mistresses ran and picked them up. Many halted in front of a bowl, thinking it was their proper place, and had already swallowed a spoonful, when a mistress arrived and said, "Go on!" and then they advanced three or four paces and got down another spoonful, and then advanced again, until they reached their own places, after having fraudulently disposed of half a portion. At last, by dint of pushing and crying, "Make haste! make haste!" they were all got into order, and the prayer was begun. But all those on the inner line, who had to turn their backs on the bowls for the prayer, twisted their heads round so that they could keep an eye on them, lest some one might meddle; and then they said their prayer thus, with hands clasped and their eyes on the ceiling, but with their hearts on their food. Then they set to eating. Ah, what a charming sight it was! One ate with two spoons, another with his hands; many picked up the beans one by one, and thrust them into their pockets; others wrapped them tightly in their little aprons, and pounded them to reduce them to a paste. There were even some who did not eat, because they were watching the flies flying, and others coughed and sprinkled a shower of rice all around them. It resembled a poultry-yard. But it was charming. The two rows of babies formed a pretty sight, with their hair all tied on the tops of their heads with red, green, and blue ribbons. One teacher asked a row of eight children, "Where does rice grow?" The whole eight opened their mouths wide, filled as they were with the pottage, and replied in concert, in a sing-song, "It grows in the water." Then the teacher gave the order, "Hands up!" and it was pretty to see all those little arms fly up, which a few months ago were all in swaddling-clothes, and all those little hands flourishing, which looked like so many white and pink butterflies.
我們?nèi)サ臅r候，小孩們正排成了二列進(jìn)食堂去。食堂里擺著兩列長秦，桌上樓有許多小孔，孔上放著盛了飯和豆的黑色小盤，錫制的瓢擺在旁邊。他們進(jìn)去的時候，有忙亂了弄不清方向的，先生們過去帶領(lǐng)他們。其中有的走到一個位置旁，就以為是自己的座位，停住了就用瓢去取食物。先生走來說：“再過去！”走了四步五步，又取一瓢食，先生再來叫他往前走，等到了他自己的座位，他已經(jīng)吃了半個人的食物了。先生們用盡了力。整頓他們，開始祈禱，祈禱的時候，頭不許對著食物。他們心為食物所吸引，總轉(zhuǎn)過頭來看后面。大家合著手，眼向著屋頂，心不在焉地述畢祈禱的話，才開始就食。啊！那種可愛的模樣。真是少有！有拿了兩個瓢吃的，有用手吃的，還有將豆一粒一粒地裝人口袋里去的，用小圍裙將豆包了捏得漿糊樣的。有的看著蒼蠅飛，有的因?yàn)榕赃叺暮⒆涌人园咽澄飮娫谧郎希挂豢诓怀浴Ｊ抑泻孟袷丘B(yǎng)著雞和鳥的園庭，真是可愛。小小的孩子都用了紅的綠的青的絲帶結(jié)著發(fā)，排成二列坐著，真好看哩！一位先生向著一列坐著的八個小孩問：“米是從哪里來的！”八個人一邊嚼著食物，一邊齊聲說：“從水里來的。”向他們說“舉手！”許多小小的白手一齊舉起來，閃閃地好像白蝴蝶。
