ourage!' that gesture
which was an honest promise of protection, of affection, of indulgence,
I have never forgotten; it has remained forever engraved on my heart;
and it is that memory which induced me to set out from Turin. And here I
am, after the lapse of four and forty years, for the purpose of saying
to you, 'Thanks, dear teacher.'"

The master did not reply; he stroked my hair with his hand, and his hand
trembled, and glided from my hair to my forehead, from my forehead to my
shoulder.

In the meanwhile, my father was surveying those bare walls, that
wretched bed, the morsel of bread and the little phial of oil which lay
on the window-sill, and he seemed desirous of saying, "Poor master!
after sixty years of teaching, is this all thy recompense?"

But the good old man was content, and began once more to talk with
vivacity of our family, of the other teachers of that day, and of my
father's schoolmates; some of them he remembered, and some of them he
did not; and each told the other news of this one or of that one. When
my father interrupted the conversation, to beg the old man to come down
into the town and lunch with us, he replied effusively, "I thank you, I
thank you," but he seemed undecided. My father took him by both hands,
and besought him afresh. "But how shall I manage to eat," said the
master, "with these poor hands which shake in this way? It is a penance
for others also."

"We will help you, master," said my father. And then he accepted, as he
shook his head and smiled.

"This is a beautiful day," he said, as he closed the outer door, "a
beautiful day, dear Signor Bottini! I assure you that I shall remember
it as long as I live."

My father gave one arm to the master, and the latter took me by the
hand, and we descended the lane. We met two little barefooted girls
leading some cows, and a boy who passed us on a run, with a huge load of
straw on his shoulders. The master told us that they were scholars of
the second grade; that in the morning they led the cattle to pasture,
and worked in the fields barefoot; and in the afternoon they put on
their shoes and went to school. It was nearly mid-day. We encountered no
one else. In a few minutes we reached the inn, seated ourselves at a
large table, with the master between us, and began our breakfast at
once. The inn was as silent as a convent. The master was very merry, and
his excitement augmented his palsy: he could hardly eat. But my father
cut up