"If the child were not good the river would not have given her to
us," said Adone to her; and believed it.

"Good-day, my son," said the voice of the Vicar, Don Silverio
Frascara, behind him, where Adone worked in the fields. "Where did
you find that scarecrow whom your mother has shown me just now?"

"She was in the river, most reverend, dancing along in it, as merry
as a princess."

"But she is a skeleton!"

"Almost."

"And you know nothing of her?"

"Nothing, sir."

"You were more charitable than wise."

"One cannot let a little female thing starve whilst one has bread in
the hutch. My mother is a virtuous woman. She will teach the child
virtue."

"Let us hope so," said Don Silverio. "But all, my son, do not take
kindly to that lesson."

"What will be, will be. The river brought her."

He credited the river with a more than human sagacity. He held it in