love education

Chapter 13 December (3)
Garrofi was so confused that he didn't even notice that we were there. He walked to the bedside and tried his best not to cry. The old man stroked him gently and didn't know what to say.

"Thank you," the old man said, "Go back and tell your parents that everything is fine here, and let them stop worrying." Garofi still didn't move, hesitant to speak.

"What do you want to say to me? What do you want, boy?"

"I... nothing."

"Okay, then goodbye, my child, go and stop thinking about it."

Garofi walked all the way to the door, stopped, turned around, and faced the nephew who was following him - he stared at Garofe curiously.Suddenly, Garofi took out something from under his cloak, stuffed it into the boy's hand, and said to him in a panic, "This is for you." Then, he fled away like lightning.

The boy gave the thing to his uncle, and it was written: "I give you this." We looked at the things inside, and we all cried out in amazement. It was collected by Garofi. Those stamps, that famous stamp collection!What Garofi brought was the stamp album that he often talked about in which he placed a lot of hope, and this stamp album once brought him so much happiness. This is his wealth.Poor Garofi, he's paid almost half his efforts for the old man's forgiveness.

The Little Scribe (Story of the Month)
Giglio is a fifth grade boy, 12 years old, born in Florence, with black hair and fair face, the eldest son of a railway employee.His family has a large population, and there are several younger brothers and sisters below Jillio, but their income is very small, and the family's life is quite difficult.The father doesn't feel troubled by the fact that he has many children. On the contrary, he loves them very much.However, in terms of learning, he has very high requirements for Giglio, almost harsh, and he will not allow him to be lazy at all.This is because as his son, he should have graduated earlier and got a good job that would help him improve his family.

My father is already old, and the years of hard work make him look older than his actual age. In order to add more households to the family, he has to do other hard work outside of his profession.He went around working as a scribe for others, and spent a lot of time at night crawling on the desk.Recently, he wrote the name and address of the mailer for a publishing house on behalf of a publishing house. He only earns three lire for writing [-] such paper parcel slips, and the handwriting must be generous and neat.The work bored him, and he often complained to his family over dinner.

"My eyes are going to go out," he said. "This night job is killing me."

One day Giglio suddenly said: "Let me work for you, father, you know I can write like you, and I can write well." The father immediately shook his head and said: "No, my child, you You must study hard. Your study is much more important than my packing list. Even if I take up an hour with you, I will regret it. Father, thank you, but I can't do this. Don't tell me this again .”

The boy knew that it was pointless to argue with his father on this matter, and he didn't insist on doing so, but he made up his mind.He knew exactly what time his father left his studio and returned to his bedroom every night, and he heard it several times—whenever the clock struck twelve, his father would put the chair Drag back, and slowly go upstairs.

One night, after his father went to bed, he quietly put on his clothes, sneaked into the small studio, lit the kerosene lamp again, and sat in front of the writing desk.There is also a large stack of white wrapping paper and the recipient's address on the desk, which seems to be urging him to work quickly.He acted immediately, imitating his father's handwriting very finely and copying vigorously, but he was both happy and worried when he copied.As the wrapping paper piled higher and higher, he occasionally paused to rub his stiff hands to work more flexibly.He wrote 160 wrapping papers in total—one lire, and it was too late, he stopped, put the pen where he had just picked it up, put out the lights, and crept back to his bed.

At noon, his father's mood brightened, and he became humorous.He didn't notice anything. He used to do his work very mechanically. He used time to calculate everything and didn't consider anything else. how much.Sitting at the table in a good mood, he patted his son on the shoulder with one hand and said:

"Giglio, your father is much better than you imagined. Last night, I did one-third more work than usual in two hours, and my fingers are still flexible, and my eyes are fine."

Giglio didn't say anything, but he muttered to himself contentedly: "Poor dad, besides money, I can make him feel young again, well, come on!"

Encouraged by these good tidings, Giglio got up to work again when the night fell and the clock struck twelve, and he did this for several nights, without his father noticing anything. .Only one time during dinner, his father suddenly said: "I'm very surprised, how the lamp oil at home has been used up so quickly recently!" This was quite a surprise to Giglio, but fortunately, the conversation ended without any result, And the hard work of the night continued.However, Giliou's daily sleep time became insufficient, and he was tired every morning when he got up, and it was difficult to keep his eyelids open when he did his homework at night.One night, he fell asleep lying on his exercise book for the first time.

"Be brave, come on!" His father shook him awake.He clapped his hands, "Go to work!" He shook his body and continued to do his homework.But, the next night and the days that followed, the same thing happened again.To make matters worse, he always wanted to doze off when he was studying, and he woke up much later than usual, and he was always listless when studying, and looked very tired of studying.His father began to observe his son carefully, and made a deep self-reflection, and then he began to blame his son, alas, he really shouldn't have done this!

"Giglio," he said to his son one morning, "you really worry me, you are so far from what you used to be, and I don't like you the way you are now, you can figure it out, family People's hopes are pinned on you, and I am very dissatisfied with you now, do you understand what I mean?" In fact, this is the first time that Giglio has received such severe criticism, and this harsh reproach makes He is in great pain.

"Yes," he said to himself, "that's right, I can't go on like this, it's time to tell you about it." But that very evening, at dinner with the family, his My father said happily, "Did you know? This month, I earned 32 lire more than last month just by writing addresses on those wrapping papers!" A paper bag of candy came, which he bought back specially. He wanted to celebrate this extraordinary income with the children, and the children applauded happily.

At this time, Giliou once again had confidence and courage, and he swore secretly in his heart: "No, dear father, I cannot let you know the truth. I will definitely study hard during the day, but at night I will still do it for you." Continue to fight with other members of the family."

His father added: "I have earned an extra 32 lire! I am very satisfied, but my child," he pointed at Giglio, "makes me very worried." Giglio just kept silent. Listening to his father's scolding, he tried his best to force back the tears that were about to burst out of his eyes.Of course, he was very happy in his heart, and he still put most of his energy into night work. Sadly, his physical strength was difficult to recover day by day, which made everything even more difficult to cope with.In this way, he persisted for two months, but his father kept scolding his son, and every time he looked at his son, he was more angry than before.One day, he ran to the teacher to inquire about his son's condition.The teacher said to him:

"Yes, he can handle his homework very well, he is not bad, because he is a bright boy, but his desire to study is not as strong as before, he is always lethargic, yawning, and Always distracted, his composition is not as good as before, he finished it in a hurry, and his handwriting is not neat, alas, this kid can actually do better, really, far better than now." That day At night, the father took his son aside and said to him some cruel words that Giglio had never heard before, "Giglio, you know how I work hard to make money Spending my own life for this family, but you can't share my burden at all, you don't have the slightest understanding for me, and you can't understand the situation of your brothers and your mother!"

"Oh, my God, don't say that, Father!" cried the son, crying, and at last he was about to open his mouth to confess everything to his father, but his father interrupted him, saying, "You know the situation in our family, You know we work hard for our family, some self-sacrifice is necessary, and you know that I myself am working double now. This month I was supposed to receive a bonus of a hundred lire from the railway company, but, I just found out this morning that I won't get a penny!"

After learning about the situation, Giglio suppressed the words that had already come to his lips, and said to himself firmly in his heart: "No, father, I can't tell you anything, in order to help you share the burden, I must keep this secret , I will use other ways to make up for the grief I have caused you, I will study hard at school to make greater progress, and the most important thing is to help you share the burden at home and help you relieve some pressure so that they don't torture you so much." So the boy continued his efforts.

In this way, another two months passed, and he still worked hard at night and studied hard with his weak body during the day. As a son, he had to bear the burden of supporting the family and endure the chilling accusations from his father.But the most difficult thing for him to accept was that his father became more and more indifferent to him, and he called him less and less often, as if he was a cowardly son, and people had nothing on him anymore. Count on it.

His father seldom looked at him anymore, and he didn't even bother to look at him. Giglio noticed this, and he was in great pain because of it. When his father turned his back to him, he would silently blow a kiss to his father. He said sadly Stretch your cheeks forward, with the responsibility to the father and the tenderness of the son, and give the father's back a sweet kiss.

The double torment brought by sadness and fatigue made him thinner and paler, and he had to continue to sacrifice his studies, but he knew very well that such a day would come sooner or later. It is going to end, and every night he has to say to himself: "I will never get up tonight." However, whenever the twelve o'clock bell strikes again, when he should firmly fulfill his mission again. When he made a promise, he felt guilty again.It seemed to him that if he stayed in bed, he would be failing his duty and robbing his father and family of a lire.

This sense of responsibility made him get up and continue the copying work.He expects that maybe one night his father will wake up and find out the truth; or, he will discover all this by accident, like he will check the wrapping paper again, and then it will all end naturally, and he won't have to do it again. Mental struggle without having to muster up the courage again to do things you don't want to do.But the expectation was not realized for a long time, so he continued his work day by day.

At dinner one night, Giglio's father said a decisive word.That night, Giglio's mother looked at him, and felt that he seemed weaker and sicker than ever, and she said to him:
"Giglio, you must be sick." Then she turned her head to look at his father, and said anxiously:

"Giglio must be sick. Look at how bad his face is. My dear, what do you think?" His father just glanced at him briefly, and then said:

"It was because of his laziness that he got seriously ill. He was not like this before. He used to be a good boy who loved learning and knew how to keep warm. Now he is suffering on his own."

"But he's sick," cried his mother.

(End of this chapter)