depths into which the skylarks were at that moment diving rapturously.
On the upper eyelid of the boy's left eye was a brown spot as big as an
apple-seed. And this gave him a strange expression which was hard to
forget. When he was grave, as now, it made him seem about to cry. If
he should smile, the spot would give the mischievous look of a wink.
But Gigi so seldom smiled in those days that few perhaps had noted
this. On his left cheek was a dark spot also. But this was only a
bruise. Bruises Gigi always had. But they were not always in the same
place.

"Oh, the sweet Cherub!" said a motherly voice in the crowd. "I wonder
if they are good to him. They look like cut-throats and murderers, but
he is like the image of the little Saint John in church. Wolves, with
a lamb in their clutches! Save us all! Suppose it were my Beppo!"

At these words of his mother's, Beppo giggled, and the boy looked at
him gravely. The Hunchback with the drum had heard, too, and darted a
furious glance into the crowd where the woman stood. Then, giving a
loud double beat on the drum, he signaled for the tumbling to begin.

The three kicked off the sandals which protected their feet, stepped
upon the carpet, and saluted the spectators. The Giant stretched
himself flat, and, seizing Gigi in his strong arms, tossed him up in
the air as one would toss a rubber ball. Up, down, then back and forth
between the elder tumblers, flew the little green figure, when he
touched ground always landing upon his toe-tips, and finishing each
trick with a somersault, easy and graceful. The boy seemed made of
thistledown, so light he was, so easily he rebounded from what he
touched. The children in the circle about him stared open-mouthed and
admiring. Oh! they wished, if only they could do those things! They