The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906.
Edmondo De Amicis (18461908)Pride
F
“He is so absurdly stuck up that I take no notice of him.”
One day Coretti said to him, when he was sneering at his catskin cap:
“Go to Derossi, and ask him to teach you manners.”
One day he complained to the master about the Calabrian, who had kicked him on the leg. The master asked the Calabrian if he had done it on purpose. The reply being a frank “No, sir,” the teacher said to Nobis:
“You are too quick-tempered.”
To which Nobis answered, in his haughty fashion:
“I shall tell my father about this.”
Now it was for the teacher to get angry:
“If you do, your father will merely point out to you that you are in the wrong, as he has done before. Besides, it is for no one but the master to judge and punish in school.” And he added, speaking less severely, “Come, Nobis, try to behave better. Be more civil to your school-fellows. We have working-men’s sons and gentlemen’s sons here, sons of rich parents and sons of poor parents, and they all love one another and treat each other properly, as they should. Why don’t you behave like the rest? It would be so easy for you to make the other boys care for you, and you would be all the happier for it yourself. Well, have you nothing to answer?”
Nobis, who had been listening with his usual haughty expression, replied coldly:
“No, sir.”
“Sit down,” said the master. “I am sorry for you. You seem to have very little heart.”
And when Nobis sat down, the little mason on the front bench turned round and made such an absurd rabbit’s face at him that the whole class burst out laughing. The teacher saw it, and scolded the boy, but he was obliged to put his hand up to his mouth to hide a smile. Nobis laughed, too, but in a very disagreeable way.