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MAY.
五月
CHILDREN WITH THE RICKETS.
畸形兒
Friday, 5th.
五日，星期五
TO-DAY I took a vacation, because I was not well, and my mother took me to the Institution for Children with the Rickets, whither she went to recommend a child belonging to our porter; but she did not allow me to go into the school. You did not understand, Enrico, why I did not permit you to enter? In order not to place before the eyes of those unfortunates, there in the midst of the school, as though on exhibition, a healthy, robust boy: they have already but too many opportunities for making melancholy comparisons.
今天不大舒適，在學校請了假，母親領我到畸形兒學院去。母親是為門房的兒子請求入院。到了那里，母親叫我留在外面，不讓我入內。安利柯！我為什么不叫你進學院去？你怕還沒有知道吧？因為把你這樣質健的小孩帶進去，給不幸的殘廢的他們看，是不好的。即使不是這樣，他們已經時時痛感自己的不幸哩！
What a sad thing! Tears rushed from my heart when I entered. There were sixty of them, boys and girls. Poor tortured bones! Poor hands, poor little shrivelled and distorted feet! Poor little deformed bodies! I instantly perceived many charming faces, with eyes full of intelligence and affection. There was one little child's face with a pointed nose and a sharp chin, which seemed to belong toan old woman; but it wore a smile of celestial sweetness. Some, viewed from the front, are handsome, and appear to be without defects: but when they turn round--they cast a weight upon your soul.
那真是可憐啊！身入其境，眼淚就忍不住涌出來；男女小孩約有六十人，有的骨骼不正，有的手足歪斜，有的皮膚皺裂，身體扭轉不展。其中也有許多相貌伶俐，眉目可愛的。有一個孩子，鼻子高高的，臉的下部分已像老人似的又尖又長了，可是還帶著可愛的微笑呢！有的孩子從前面看去很端正，不像是有殘疾，一叫他背過身來，就覺得非常可憐。
The doctor was there, visiting them. He set them 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!
醫生恰好在這里，叫他們一個一個站在椅上，曳上了衣服，檢查他們的膨大的肚子或是臃腫的關節。他們時常這樣脫去了衣服給人看，已經慣了，一點也不覺得難為情， 可是在身體初發見殘疾的時候是多少難過啊！病漸漸厲害，人對于他們的愛就漸漸減退，有的整整幾小時地被棄置在屋角，吃粗劣的食物，有的還要被嘲弄，有的也許白受了幾個月的無益的繃帶和療治的苦痛！
