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Nelli, too, poor little hunchback! was looking at the soldiers yesterday, but with an air as though he were thinking, "I can never be a soldier!" He is good, and he studies; but he is so puny and wan, and he breathes with difficulty. He always wears a long apron of shining black cloth. His mother is a little blond woman who dresses in black, and always comes to get him at the end of school, so that he may not come out in the confusion with the others, and she caresses him. At first many of the boys ridiculed him, and thumped him on the back with their bags, because he is so unfortunate as to be a hunchback; but he never offered any resistance, and never said anything to his mother, in order not to give her the pain of knowing that her son was the laughing-stock of his companions: they derided him, and he held his peace and wept, with his head laid against the bench.
内利，那个可怜的小驼背，昨天也在看士兵行军，但是看上去仿佛在想着：“我是不可能当兵的！”他人不错，成绩也好，但是身体弱小、面色苍白，连呼吸都很困难。他总是穿着一条反光的黑布做成的围裙。他母亲是个身材娇小的金发女人，穿着黑色衣服，总是在放学的时候来接他，这样他出来时就不会把别人认错成母亲了。她会拥抱自己的儿子。起初，很多男孩嘲笑他，用书包狠狠地打他的背，因为他不幸是驼背；但是他从不抵抗，也从不对母亲提起这些，不想让母亲知道自己的儿子是同学中的笑柄，而使她难过。他们取笑他，他不动怒，只是头靠着长凳默默哭泣。
But one morning Garrone jumped up and said, "The first person who touches Nelli will get such a box on the ear from me that he will spin round three times!"
但是一天早上卡隆跳起来说道：“下一个碰内利的人，我会朝他耳朵挥上一拳，让他转上三个圈！”
Franti paid no attention to him; the box on the ear was delivered: the fellow spun round three times, and from that time forth no one ever touched Nelli again. The master placed Garrone near him, on the same bench. They have become friends. Nelli has grown very fond of Garrone. As soon as he enters the schoolroom he looks to see if Garrone is there. He never goes away without saying, "Good by, Garrone," and Garrone does the same with him.
弗兰蒂没理会他，耳朵上当真尝到了一记拳头，转了三个圈。从此以后再也没人敢碰内利一下了。老师安排卡隆挨着他坐，让他们坐在一条长凳上。他们成为了朋友。内利越来越喜爱卡隆。他一进教室就去看卡隆是否已经到了。放学的时候，他没有一次不说“再见，卡隆”的，卡隆对他也是一样。
When Nelli drops a pen or a book under the bench, Garrone stoops quickly, to prevent his stooping and tiring himself, and hands him his book or his pen, and then he helps him to put his things in his bag and to twist himself into his coat. For this Nelli loves him, and gazes at him constantly; and when the master praises Garrone he is pleased, as though he had been praised himself. Nelli must at last have told his mother all about the ridicule of the early days, and what they made him suffer; and about the comrade who defended him, and how he had grown fond of the latter; for this is what happened this morning. The master had sent me to carry to the director, half an hour before the close of school, a programme of the lesson, and I entered the office at the same moment with a small blond woman dressed in black, the mother of Nelli, who said, "Signor Director, is there in the class with my son a boy named Garrone?"
当内利掉了一支笔或一本书在长凳底下的时候，为了怕他弯腰会累，卡隆会迅速弯腰下去捡起来给他，还帮他把东西收进书包，为他穿好外套。因为这些，内利很爱他，常常凝视着他。当老师表扬卡隆时内利就很开心，就像自己在受表扬一样。内利最终还是把早前受嘲弄和欺负的一切事情告诉了母亲，还说了有位同学站出来保护他，他又如何喜爱上这位同学的事情。于是今天早晨发生了这样的事情。放学前半小时，老师叫我拿课程表去给校长。我走进办公室的时候，恰巧遇到一位穿着黑衣的小个子金发女人，就是内利的母亲，也正进去。她说：“校长先生，我儿子班上有个名叫卡隆的男孩吗？”
"Yes," replied the head-master.
“是的。”校长回答。
"Will you have the goodness to let him come here for a moment, as I have a word to say to him?"
“您能不能行行好，叫他过来一会儿？我有话对他说。”
The head-master called the beadle and sent him to the school, and after a minute Garrone appeared on the threshold, with his big, close-cropped head, in perfect amazement. No sooner did she catch sight of him than the woman flew to meet him, threw her arms on his shoulders, and kissed him a great many times on the head, saying:—
校长叫来仪仗官，派他去教室里。过了一会儿，卡隆那留着短平头的大脑袋出现在办公室门口，一副很吃惊的模样。那女人一见到他，就飞跑过去，双臂抱着他的肩膀，在他头上吻了好多次，说道：
"You are Garrone, the friend of my little son, the protector of my poor child; it is you, my dear, brave boy; it is you!" Then she searched hastily in all her pockets, and in her purse, and finding nothing, she detached a chain from her neck, with a small cross, and put it on Garrone's neck, underneath his necktie, and said to him:—
“你就是卡隆，我儿子的好友，我可怜的孩子的保护者。就是你，我亲爱的、勇敢的孩子，就是你啊！”接着她在口袋和钱包里匆匆翻找，一时找不出东西，于是取下脖子上挂着的一条小十字架项链，系在卡隆的脖子上，压在领带的下面，并对他说：
"Take it! wear it in memory of me, my dear boy; in memory of Nelli's mother, who thanks and blesses you."
“拿去吧！好好戴着，当作我送你的纪念，我亲爱的孩子；当作感谢你、为你祈祷的内利的母亲的纪念。”