Military life in Italy : sketches - Societa italiana di storia militare

86 MILITARY LIFE.
he tried to show us that he was good for something, or that, if
for nothing else, good-will was not lacking on his part. He
was even assailed and worried by the fear
that he should seem
to us importunate. From time to time, while eating with us,
seated on the ground around a tablecloth stretched on the
grass, becoming suddenly aware that he was being watched,
he was ashamed to eat, turned scarlet, dropped his eyes, took
small mouthfuls, and if we did not fill his glass he would not
dare do it, remaining with his mouth quite dry during the entire
meal. Sometimes, in the tent, while we were dropping
asleep, he would suddenly be ashamed that he occupied so
much space, and would sit up and spread the straw here and
there toward our places, reserving only a small portion for himself,
then lie down all curled up in a bunch against the linen of
the tent, at the risk of catching some severe cold on account
of the draught. Not one of his acts escaped me, not one of
his thoughts either, and I always tried to dispel his shame,
either by addressing him gaily: "Well, Carluccio?" or by
pinching his cheeks in a way that signifies : " Have no fear, I
am protecting you," and he instantly became reassured. Oh,
what a tender pity his delicate sense of shame aroused within
"
me ! Poor Carluccio," I thought, when, the light still burning
in the tent, I saw him quietly sleeping, all wrapped up in
my cloak, and his face half-hidden under a soldier's cap ;
"poor Carluccio ! why have you no longer a mother? You.
thought yourself alone on earth, and did not imagine that any
one could care for you ! No, Carluccio, for boys without
father and mother there are the soldiers ; they have only a
piece of bread in their pockets ;
but as an offset they have
plenty of affection in their hearts, and dispense both freely to