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

THE SON OF THE REGIMENT. 73
But he never opened his
mouth, and kept his eyes fastened
on the ground, so obstinate and immovable that it was really
provoking.
I made another attempt
: I took his chin between
my forefinger and thumb, and, raising his head gently, asked :
" What will your mother say when she sees that you do not
return ?
;>
He raised his eyes and looked at me, no longer with that
astonished, almost stupid expression that
he had worn before,
but with brows knitted and his mouth open, as if
only
at this
point he had begun to understand our words, and were waiting
for us to interrogate him and make him tell what he had not
had the courage to say.
"
Why did you run away from home ?"
He was silent a moment after that question, and then burst
out crying, and between his sobs he murmured :
" "
They beat me !
" " Oh, poor boy
! we all exclaimed, putting our hands on his
head and shoulders, and patting his cheeks and chin.
"
who is it that beats you ?
"My
" And
mother."
" Your mother ? we all asked at once, with astonishment
"
How 's that ? "
"But she is not my own mother." Here the poor boy,
after being urged, told us that his father had been dead for
some time ;
that he had no one left but his step-mother, who
only loved her own children and could not bear him and that
;
as he had been suffering for some time, he had run
away from
home with us. He had not finished speaking, when we began
to pet and comfort him. " You shall come with us, good boy ;
don't worry about any thing. You will have as
many fathers