"Aren't you tired of carrying that heavy stick?" she said.

It wasn't a stick, and he wasn't a bit tired of carrying it.

"But aren't you tired yourself?" she said, and he admitted that

perhaps it was so.

So she picked him up, and carried him in her arms, while he carried the

mace, and for some minutes both were satisfied. But presently some one

in the Via Tritone cried out, "Helloa! here comes the Blessed Bambino,"

whereupon his worshipful dignity was again wounded, and he wriggled to

the ground.

It began to thunder and there were some flashes of lightning, whereupon

Joseph shuddered and crept closer to the girl's side.

"Are you afraid of lightning, Joseph?" she asked.

He wasn't. He often saw it at home when he went to bed. His mother held

his hand and he covered up his head in the clothes, and then he liked

it.

The girl took the wee, fat hand again, and the little feet toddled on.

After vain efforts to snatch a kiss, which were defeated by a proper

withdrawal of the manly head in the cocked hat, the girl with the

feathers and the doll's face left him in the Via due Macelli under a

bright electric lamp that hung over the door of a café-chantant.

Joseph knew then that he was not far from Donna Roma's, and he began to

think of what he would do when he got there. If the big porter at the

door tried to stop him he would say, "I'm a little Roman boy," and the

man would have to let him go up. Then he would take charge of the

hall, and when he had not to open the door he would play with the dog,

and sometimes with Donna Roma.

With sound practical sense he thought of his wages. Would it be a penny

a week or twopence? He thought it would be twopence. Men didn't work for

nothing nowadays. He had heard his father say so.

Then he remembered his mother, and his lip began to drop. But it rose

again when he told himself that of course she would come every night to

put him to bed as usual. "Good-night, mamma! See you in the morning," he

would say, and when he opened his eyes it would be to-morrow.

He was feeling sleepy now, and do what he would he could hardly keep his

eyes from closing. But he was in the Piazza di Spagna by this time, and

his little feet in their top-boots began to patter up the snowy steps.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024