Near the banks of the river Arno, in an upper room of the beautiful old
palace of the Grifoni family, Beppina, the twelve-year-old daughter of
the Marchese, lay peacefully sleeping. In his own room across the hall
from hers, Beppo, her twin brother, slept also, though it was already
early dawn of Easter Saturday in the city of Florence, and both children
had meant to be up before the sun, that no hour of the precious holiday
should be lost in sleep.
It was the jingle of donkey bells and the sound of laughing voices in
the street below her windows that at last roused Beppina. Though it was
not yet light, the peasants were already pouring into the city from
outlying villages and farms, bringing their families in donkey-carts or
wagons drawn by sleek oxen, to enjoy the wonderful events which were to
take place in the city on that holy day.
Beppina opened her great dark eyes and sat up in bed to listen. "I'm
awake before Beppo," she whispered joyfully to herself. "I told him I
should be first. I wonder what time it is!"
As if in answer to her question a distant clock struck five. "Five
o'clock!" murmured Beppina, and, struggling to her knees in her great
carved bed, she dipped a dainty finger in the vase of holy water which
hung on the wall near by, and crossed herself devoutly. Then, folding
her hands, she murmured an Ave Maria before the image of the Virgin
which stood on the little table beside her bed. This duty done, she
slid to the floor, thrust her little white feet into a pair of blue felt
slippers, and her arms into the sleeves of a gay wrapper, then ran
across the room to the eastern windows.
As she pushed open the shutters, a gleam of sunshine flashed across the
room, lighting the dim frescoes on the high ceiling, and paling the
light of the little lamp which burned before the image of the Madonna.
A wandering breeze, fresh from the distant hills, blew in, making the
flame dance and flicker and flaunting a corner of the white counterpane
gayly in the air.
Beppina leaned her arms on the wide stone window-sill, and looked out
over Florence. The sun had just risen above the blue crest of the
Apennines, its level rays tipping the Campanile and the great dome of
the Cathedral with light, and turning eastern window-panes into flaming
beacons. The glowing colour of the sky was reflected in the waters of
the Arno, which flowed beneath its many bridges like a stream of molten
gold. Pigeons wheeled and circled above the roofs, and the air was
filled with gentle croonings and the whir of wings.
For a moment Beppina stood drinking in the freshness of the lovely
spring morning, then, stepping softly to the door of her room, she
opened it cautiously and peered into the dark corridor. She listened;
there was not a sound in the house except the gurgle of a distant snore.
"Ah, that Teresina!" murmured Beppina to herself. "She sleeps like a
kettle boiling! First the lid rattles, then there is a whistle like the
steam. Why does she not put corks in her nose at night and shut the
noise up inside of her?"
She slipped silently into the hall and listened at the door of Beppo's
room. She heard no sound, and was just on the point of turning the
knob, when the door flew open of itself and a boy with great dark eyes
like her own burst into the corridor and bumped directly into her.
Beppina backed hastily against the wall, and though the breath was
nearly knocked out of her, remembered to offer him her Easter greetings.
"Buona Pasqua, Beppo mio," she gasped. "I was just going to wake you."
"To wake me!" Beppo shouted derisively. "That's a good joke. I'm up
first, just as I said I should be! See, I am all dressed, and you--you
have not even begun!"
Beppina laid her finger on her lips. "Hush, Beppo!" she whispered.
"Don't roar so. It's only five o'clock, and every one else in the house
is asleep. Not even the maids have stirred, and as for Teresina--listen
to her! She sleeps like the dead, though less quietly, yet she rouses
at once if the baby stirs, and if we should wake the baby at this hour,
she would be angry at us all day long."
They listened for a moment to the appalling sounds which rolled forth
from the room where Teresina, the nurse, slept. Then Beppo said: "If
the baby can sleep through that noise, she can sleep through anything.
It sounds like a thunder-storm in the mountains."
At that moment a wicked idea popped into his head. "I know what I'm
going to do," he whispered, grinning with delight. "I'm going to creep
into her room like a cat and drop something into her mouth. She sleeps
with it open, and I have a piece of soap just the right size!"
"Beppo!" gasped Beppina. "Don't you dare! Teresina would then refuse
to take us to the piazza, and you know very well there is no one else to
go with us, for the governess had a headache last night and went to bed
looking as yellow as saffron."
"Oh, but just think how funny Teresina would look, choking and
sputtering like a volcano pouring forth fire, smoke, and lava," chuckled
Beppo, who was studying geography and liked it much better than Beppina
did.
"If you do it you'll just have to spend Easter Saturday in the house and
miss all the fun," warned Beppina. "Mammina would not let us go with
any of the other servants."
"I don't see why she won't let us go alone," said Beppo crossly. "I
hate to go out on the street with Teresina all dressed up in her ruff
and streamers so people will know she's a baby nurse. I'm big enough to
go by myself!"
Beppina looked despairingly at her brother. "Oh, dear!" she said, "I
wish Mammina had taken us with her to the villa instead of leaving us to
go later with Teresina and the governess, when she has everything ready
for us. I wouldn't mind missing Easter Saturday here if only we could
be up at the villa."
"Or if only our dear Babbo had not had to go away to Rome," added Beppo
gloomily. "He would have taken us with him to see all the Easter
sights, and no thanks to Teresina either!"
"But they did go, both of them," sighed Beppina. "So it's Teresina or
stay at home for us, and I'm sure I don't want to stay at home!"
Beppo thrust his hands into his pockets, hunched up his shoulders, and
looked so gloomy and obstinate that Beppina saw something must be done
at once. "Oh, pazienza, Beppo mio!" she said, giving him a little
shake. "It might be worse surely. Come, let's go down to the garden
and feed the pigeons. You get the crumbs while I dress."
"Hurry, then," said Beppo, brightening a little, as Beppina flung him a
butterfly kiss and ran back to her room. She threw on her clothes in
two minutes, fastened her long black hair with a hair-pin, and appeared
again in the corridor just as Beppo returned from the kitchen with a pan
of crumbs in his hand.
The two children then quietly opened the door which led from the Grifoni
apartment into the public hall of the old palace and crept silently down
the long, dark stone stairs to the ground floor, where Pietro, the
porter, lived with his wife and six children. Pietro opened the door of
his own apartment and stepped into the public hall just as the two dark
figures came stealthily down the last flight. Beppo was certainly in a
mood for mischief that morning, for when he saw Pietro he crept softly
up behind him as he was buttoning the last button of his livery, and
suddenly shouted "Boom!" right in his ear!
Pietro thought it was one of his own children who had played this saucy
trick. "Santa Maria!" he cried, wheeling about with his hands out to
catch and punish the offender. "Come here, thou thorn in the eye!"
Then, as he saw the children of the Marchese grinning at him out of the
shadows, his hand went up in a salute instead. "Buona Pasqua, Donna
Beppina!" he cried, "and you too, Don Beppo! Why are you about at this
hour in the morning scaring honest people out of their wits?"
"Buona Pasqua, Pietro," laughed the Twins. "We are going out in the
garden, and we want you to open the door for us."
No one but the gardener and the members of the Grifoni family ever went
into the garden, which lay at the back of the palace, for the tenants
who occupied other portions of the ancient building were not allowed to
use it, and the Marchese Grifoni lived in Florence only during the
winter months. The rest of the year--and the children thought much the
best part of it--was spent in their beautiful vine-covered villa in the
hills near Padua.
Pietro selected a key from the jingling bunch which he carried at his
belt, and opened the old carved door. It was a charming sight which
greeted their eyes as the door swung back on its rusty hinges. The
garden was small, with a high wall all about it, over which ivy spread a
mantle of green. In the middle of the space a fountain splashed and
bubbled, and the garden borders were gay with yellow daffodils, blue
chicory, and white Florentine lilies. There were other delights also in
the Grifoni garden, for in the fountain lived Garibaldi, a turtle of
great age and dignity, and in the chinks of the walls were lizards which
liked nothing better than to be tickled with straws as they lay basking
in the sunshine.
The moment the children appeared, a cloud of pigeons swept down from the
neighbouring roofs and begged for food. Beppina held a piece of bread
between her lips, and a fat pigeon with glistening purple feathers on
his breast instantly lit upon her shoulder. He was followed by another
and another, until she flung up her arms and sent them all skyward in a
whirl of wings, only to return again a moment later to peck the morsel
from her lips.
As she was playing in this way with the pigeons, she chanced to glance
up at the windows of the porter's rooms which overlooked the garden.
There, gazing wistfully out at them, were six pairs of eyes, belonging
to Pietro's six children. Beppina waved her hand at them. "Come out!"
she cried gayly, and, wild with delight at such an unheard-of privilege,
the six came scrambling into the garden at once. There the eight
children played with the pigeons in the sunshine, until in an unlucky
moment Pietro's youngest baby fell into the fountain and was rescued,
screaming with fright, by Beppina, who got her own dress quite wet in
the process.
It was at this very moment, as luck would have it, that Teresina
appeared in the doorway, her ruffled cap bristling and her hands upheld
in horror at finding the children of the Marchese Grifoni playing in the
sacred palace garden with the dirty little children of the porter's
family.
"I have been looking everywhere for you," she said with freezing
dignity. "The priest will soon be here to bless the house, and you,
Signorina, are not half dressed, and besides, you are as wet as if you
had been swimming in the fountain! What would the Signora say if she
could see you now?" She glared at the six children of Pietro as she
spoke, and they instantly scuttled back into their own quarters like
mice who had seen the cat. Then she thumped majestically upstairs.
The children prepared to follow, but all the brightness had gone out of
the morning, and they went slowly and sullenly. Though Teresina had a
good heart, she had a sharp tongue, and the Twins had some reason for
not loving her. It was now six months since she had first appeared
before them, carrying a little red, wrinkled baby on a pillow, and had
told them that it was their little new sister, and that now the Signora,
their mother, would love the baby much better than she loved them, and
she had laughed when she said it! Yes, believe it or not, she had
laughed!
"Teresina is always spoiling things," said Beppo, kicking his feet
against each step as he began to climb the stairs.
"Che, che!" said Beppina, which is Italian for "tut, tut."
"After all, it is quite true that we must be ready for the priest. What
would Mammina say if she knew we were wet and dirty when he came?"
Beppo's face broke suddenly into a beaming smile. "I know what I'll
do!" he cried, and disappeared into the garden again. In a moment he
came back, carrying some water from the fountain in an old flower-pot,
and went bounding upstairs two steps at a time, slopping it all the way.
Beppina followed breathlessly, and reached the top step just in time to
see that bad boy give a vigorous pull at the bell.
There was a scrambling sound within before the door was thrown open by
Teresina, who, supposing it to be the priest, had instantly called the
other servants and flopped down upon her knees to receive his blessing,
and the sprinkling of holy water which always accompanied it. Behind
Teresina knelt Maria, the cook, and Antonia, the house-maid, with their
hands clasped and their heads reverently bent, and it was only when they
had all received a generous dose of water which was not at all holy that
they raised their heads and saw the grinning face of Beppo and the empty
flower-pot in his hand. Teresina started wrathfully to her feet, and if
the real priest had not been heard coming up the stairs at that moment
things might have gone badly with Beppo. As it was, the real priest
followed the bogus one so quickly that there was just time for the
children to slip to their knees before Padre Ugo, who was short, fat,
and breathless, entered, followed by an acolyte carrying the vessel of
holy water.
Padre Ugo was in a tremendous hurry, for he had many other places to
visit that morning. He fairly ran through the rooms, sprinkling each
with a dash of holy water, mumbling a prayer and raising his hand in
blessing, then racing on to the next, with all the household trailing
behind him like the tail of a kite. He blessed the kitchen and
pantries, he even blessed the cat which was washing her face by the
kitchen range. Not being a religious cat, she put up her tail and fled
into the coal-hole, where she stayed until the priest had gone.
The only room in the whole house to be missed was the one occupied by
the governess. That poor lady had locked herself in with her headache,
and she was a Protestant besides, so that room had to go unblessed the
whole year through.
When Padre Ugo had gone, Teresina was obliged to give her whole
attention to the baby, and it was not until she and the Twins were ready
for the street that at last she said stiffly to Beppo, "To-morrow
morning, Don Beppo, you will find that the hares have left no Easter
eggs in the garden for such a naughty boy as you."