portmanteau, and the girl the basket. As they entered the garden,
Stineli called out too loud, in her delight, "Oh, the beautiful,
beautiful flowers!"

Silvio heard these unfortunate words, and pulled himself up in an
instant, crying out, at the top of his lungs,--

"Here comes Rico with his Stineli!"

His poor mother thought that he had an attack of fever. She thrust her
things back into the chest which she was arranging,--every thing in
again, pell-mell,--and ran quickly to the bedside.

At that moment Rico walked boldly into the room, and the good woman
almost fell over backward in her surprise and delight; for until that
very instant she had secretly been a prey to the darkest fears, always
believing that Rico's adventure would cost him his life.

A maiden came behind Rico, with a friendly face that won Mrs. Menotti's
heart in a twinkling, for she was a very impressionable woman.

First of all, however, she shook Rico's hands almost off in her
welcoming grasp; and in the meantime Stineli had gone over to the
bedside and placed her arm about the thin shoulders of the child, and
smiled into his face as if they were old and dear friends, while Silvio
in return put his arm about her neck, and drew her face down to his.

Straightway Stineli placed a present for the child before him. She
had put it conveniently in her pocket, so that she could place her
hand on it at once. It was a toy that had been Peterli's favorite