Question

The narrator realises why Nicola and Jacopo work so hard. Yet he does not go in to meet their sister nor does he speak to them about what he learns from the nurse. Working in groups, discuss the following aspects of the story and share your views with the class.
a) The love, devotion and the family values Nicola and Jacopo display.
b) Their pride in themselves and their family
c) The trust they place in the narrator
d) The reason the narrator does not disclose to them that he knows their secret.

Answer 1

a) The love, devotion and the family values Nicola and Jacopo display.

Nicola and Jacopo embody brotherly love, devotion and family values. They are two small boys whose actions represent those human emotions which are rare to be found in the children of their age group. They worked hard day and night for earning money. They readily took up any job which could bring money for them in a fair way. They did not spend their hard-earned money on them. Rather they saved it for the medical treatment of their sister, Lucia who was suffering from tuberculosis of the spine.

(b) Their pride in themselves and their family.
Answer:
Nicola and Jacopo fell on evil days due to war. In such conditions the boys of their age are very likely to become pickpockets, cheats, drug addicts and burglars but Nicola and Jacopo were never seen doing any unfair and fraudulent job. They worked hard for money and earned it with their labour and industry. Nor did they ever beg. It was simply because they were proud of their cultured family which lived with dignity and honour before war Their father was a famous singer of his times. The war deprived them of all comforts and pleasures but they still retained the happy memories of those golden days. They did not tell about the disease of their sister to the writer, though the writer was so kind because they did not want any one to show pity to them. They had a great sense of self-respect and pride.

(c) The trust they place in the narrator.
Answer:
The narrator developed a soft corner in his heart for Nicola and Jacopo gradually as he met them every now and then, doing one job or the other. Their behaviour also impressed the writer. The boys also developed a fancy for him. But we find that Nicola did not trust him as much as Jacopo did. When the writer offered to do something for them, Nicola made a silent refusal by shaking his head. But Jacopo, the younger boy, at once requested him to give a lift to them in his car to Poleta, 30 kilometres from Verona, where they went every Sunday on hired bicycles. Nicola looked angrily at his brother and told the writer that they would not like to trouble him. He did not want that they should go to Poleta because his sister, Lucia, was recovering there from tuberculosis.

He did not want the writer to know about this because neither he wanted to have any financial help from any one nor to become an object of pity.

(d) The reason the narrator does not disclose to them that he knows their secret.
Answer:
The writer is an intelligent man. He has come to know by a discussion about the plans earlier with Nicola that the boys did not want to share their secret plans with him. His visit to Poleta, where Lucia, their sister, was hospitalised, made their secret plans very clear for which they were saving their hard-earned money. He knows fully well that their feelings will be deeply hurt if he discloses to them that he knows their secret.