"How can you ask? Why because, to accept pay for something--and such a
little thing as a pail of milk--"

"Two pails."

"No, just one, they were only half-full, but no matter. I wanted to
give away the milk, not sell it, and so I put the pennies in the box at
church."

"And all the time I thought you were perhaps buying pretty ribbons with
it."

Captain Riccardi shook his head. "But I might have known better."

"Ribbons!" Lucia scorned the idea. "What do I need with such
foolishness, with a war going on just under my nose! I had other
things to think about, I can tell you, and other ways to spend my
pennies."

The Captain looked at her gravely. Then he took her hand and patted it
gently.

"You are a brave and true little Italian," he said, "and I can never
hope to pay you for what you have done. You will have to look for your
reward in your own heart. It ought to be a very happy and contented
heart, I should think."

Lucia's cheeks flushed with pride.

"Oh, it is, Captain Riccardi," she said, "it is indeed, and I am quite