قراءة كتاب The Italian Twins
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shall camp beside the road for the night,” she said, “and you shall have something hot for your supper, and sleep in the van as cozy as birds in a nest. That is surely much better than the jail! And to-morrow—oh, la bella vita! just think, you shall grind the organ and play with Carina all day long, and there will be no lessons!”
There was no response to this alluring prospect. The children, homesick, weary, terror-stricken, clung to each other in the darkness, and shrank as far as possible from the woman, whom they now saw to be not their friend, but their jailer.
On and on through the deepening darkness lumbered the yellow van, until it seemed to the unhappy children that it must be nearly morning. At last, however, the team turned from the highroad and stopped beside a little stream. The woman sprang out, and while her husband unharnessed the donkeys and tied Ugolone to a tree for the night, she built a fire, and hung a kettle over it. She put the monkey in Beppina’s arms, and sent Beppo for water from the stream, and to gather sticks for the fire. Soon a kettleful of steaming mush was ready, and the woman, whose name was Carlotta, called Luigi, her husband, and, giving the children each a tin dish, bade them eat their supper. Even if it had been her favourite food, Beppina could not have swallowed a mouthful that night, but Beppo, though he too was homesick, could still eat, even though nothing better than polenta was offered him. He sat down with Carlotta and Luigi before the fire on the ground, while Beppina stayed in the back of the van, hugging the monkey to her lonely heart and striving to keep back the tears.
The flickering flames lit up the trunks of the trees, making them stand out like sentinels against the velvet darkness of the woods beyond, and sending dancing shadows of the bear and the donkeys far across the murmuring stream. The moon looked down through the tree-tops and the nightingales sang plaintively in the shadows.
After supper, while Luigi sat smoking his pipe by the fire, Carlotta threw a heap of straw into one corner of the van, and said to the children: “Come hither, my poverelli! Here is a soft bed for you! Lie down and sleep!”
Too tired to do anything else, if, indeed, there had been anything else in the world for them to do, the children obeyed, and, clasped in each other’s arms, soon fell asleep, worn-out with sorrow and fatigue.
Chapter Three.
In the Mountains.
They were awakened next morning by the chattering of the monkey, and, looking out from their corner, they could not for a moment remember where they were, or how they came to be there. The sun was shining brightly, the birds were singing, and Carlotta was up and stirring something in a pot over the fire. Luigi had gone with the donkeys to give them a drink, and Ugolone was standing on his hind legs beside his tree, grunting impatiently for his breakfast.
Beppina gazed at the strange scene for one blank moment, then, as memory came back, she buried her head in the straw and sobbed. Beppo tried to comfort her.
“Don’t cry, Beppinella,” he whispered. “To-day we shall find some way of returning to Florence. I feel sure of it! It might be worse. Pazienza! We must make the best of it.”
Just then, Carlotta, hearing the muffled sobs and the murmur of his voice, appeared at the end of the van.
“Come out, little lost ones,” she called to them. “The sun shines, and we shall have a fine day in the mountains. See, here is Carina waiting to greet you!” She tossed the monkey toward them as she spoke, and disappeared around the end of the van. Soon she returned, carrying in her hand a green blouse and a gay striped skirt.
“Here,” she said to Beppina, “I will lend these to you. Then you can save your pretty clothes so they will be clean to wear when you return to your Mammina.” She spoke so confidently of their return that Beppina thought perhaps the woman meant to take them back that very day. She reluctantly put on the queer blouse and the striped skirt, while Beppo arrayed himself in a pair of velveteen trousers which were as much too long for him as the skirt was for Beppina. Carlotta had brought these also, and she gave him a red sash to bind around his waist as well. When they were equipped in these garments the two children gazed at each other in dismay.
“You don’t look like Beppo at all. You look just like a bandit,” said Beppina.
“And you—you look like a gypsy girl!” gasped Beppo.
“Even Mammina wouldn’t know us if she were to see us now,” Beppina whispered, despairingly.
“That’s just why that woman did it!” gasped Beppo, with sudden illumination. “She doesn’t care a bit about saving our clothes! She wants to disguise us, so people will think we belong to them!”
“Oh, dear!” shuddered Beppina. “Let’s change back again.”
They seized their clothes, but just then they saw Carlotta’s glittering black eyes gazing in at them from the end of the van. It was as if she knew their very thoughts.
“Avanti, avanti!” she called. “Is it that you are lazy? Come! We must be on the road!”
Not daring to linger or protest, the two strange little figures came tumbling out of the straw at once, and, after washing in the brook, sat down on a fallen log to eat their breakfast. Carina perched beside them on the log, and, when she had finished her own portion, leaped on Ugolone’s back, and, leaning down, snatched away some of his breakfast from under his nose. In vain poor old Ugolone growled and slapped at her with his clumsy paws. He was always too slow to catch her.
The children were so absorbed in watching this drama that they did not notice what Carlotta was doing meanwhile, but later, when they looked for their own clothes again, they had mysteriously disappeared, and were not seen again.
When they had finished breakfast, Carlotta called to Beppina, “Come here, poverina! Your hair is full of straw. I will fix it for you.” Beppina obeyed, and the woman coaxed her tangled locks into place, combing them with her fingers, and at last succeeded in plaiting them into a number of tight braids which she wound about her head. “There,” said she when this was done, “now you will no longer need your hat.”
“But,” said Beppina, “I want my hat! Only peasants go bare-headed.” The woman gave a short laugh, and her teeth gleamed so white between her lips that Beppina thought of the wolf who tried to pass himself off for Red Riding Hood’s grandmother.
“Do as you are told,” said Carlotta. She smiled as she said it, but there was such a fierce look in her face that Beppina made the sign against the Evil Eye, with her hand behind her, and submitted silently as Carlotta tied a red kerchief over the braids. These preparations completed, the caravan moved on, with Luigi as usual in the driver’s seat, Carlotta leading the bear, and the Twins, carrying the monkey, bringing up the rear.
On and on they travelled, but in which direction the children could only guess. There were many turns in the road, which wound constantly upward, and with every mile the country grew more wild. Through openings between the hills they caught fleeting glimpses of quaint villages clinging to the mountain-sides, and of ancient castles commanding beautiful views across fertile valleys. At one time they saw the roofs of a great stone monastery, hidden away among olive trees. They heard the music of its bells and caught faint echoes of the 
chanting of the monks. It was then that they remembered that it was Easter Sunday.
“If we were at home, we should now be hunting Easter
