"I am a free glass-blower's son and I have been beaten like this by the porter of the glass-house! This is the way we are treated, though we work to learn the art as our fathers worked before us." "You probably went to sleep, you little wretch," observed Giovanni.

"Get out of my way, and go home!" "Justice, sir! Justice!" moaned the boy, dropping himself on his knees.
"Nonsense! Go away!" Giovanni pushed him aside, and began to walk on.
The boy sprang up and followed him, and running beside him as Giovanni tried to get away, touched the skirt of his coat respectfully, and then kissed the back of his own hand.
"If you will listen to me, sir," he said in a low voice, "I will tell you something you wish to know." Giovanni stopped short and looked at him with curiosity.
"I will tell you of something the master did on the Sunday night before he went on his journey," continued the lad.

"I am one of the night boys in the laboratory, and I saw with my eyes while the others were asleep, for we had been told to wait till we were called." Giovanni looked about, to see whether any one was within hearing.

They were still in the covered footway above which the first story of the house was built, but were near the end, and the shutters of the lower windows were closed.
"Tell me what you saw," said Giovanni, "but do not speak loud." At this moment the other two boys came running up with noisy lamentations.

With the wisdom of their kind they had patiently watched to see whether their companion would get a hearing of the master, and judging that he had been successful at last, they came to enjoy the fruit of his efforts.
"We also have been beaten!" they wailed, but they bore no outward and visible signs of ill-treatment on them.
The elder boy turned upon them with righteous fury, and to their unspeakable surprise began to drive them away with kicks and blows.