giovanni boy saw students laughing and whistling

The boy Giovanni, while hurriedly thinking about such things, was about to turn the corner of the street from which he had just come, when he saw, in front of the grocery store opposite, a black shadow and a vague white shirt mingled together, and six or seven students, whistling and laughing, each carrying a lantern of a crow's egg, coming towards him. The laughter and the whistling were all familiar to him. They were the children of his own grade.