And because of the appeal of this beauty--real or supposed--I was very
ready with my protection, since I felt that protection must carry with it
certain rights of ownership which must be very sweet and were certainly
desired.

Holding her, therefore, within the shelter of my arms, where in her
heedless innocence she had flung herself, and by very instinct stroking
with one hand her little brown head to soothe her fears, I became truculent
for the first time in my new-found manhood, and boldly challenged her
pursuer.

"What is this, Rinolfo?" I demanded. "Why do you plague her?"

"She broke up my snares," he answered sullenly, and let the birds go free."

"What snares? What birds?" quoth I.

"He is a cruel beast," she shrilled. "And he will lie to you, Madonnino."

"If he does I'll break the bones of his body," I promised in a tone
entirely new to me. And then to him--"The truth now, poltroon!" I
admonished him.

At last I got the story out of them: how Rinolfo had scattered grain in a
little clearing in the garden, and all about it had set twigs that were
heavily smeared with viscum; that he set this trap almost daily, and daily
took a great number of birds whose necks he wrung and had them cooked for
him with rice by his silly mother; that it was a sin in any case to take
little birds by such cowardly means, but that since amongst these birds