PIETRO.
The statue of the princess had long since passed away, and the thoughts
of the pleasant scenes around it had melted into the cheerful memories
of the past. In the cottage there were ever the photographs of the
beautiful white figure and of the family group, and under them an
almost perfect likeness of Nono.
The real Nono was far away in the land of his forefathers. He was
sorely missed in the home where he had been so tenderly cared for.
Blackie was, as usual, wearing deep mourning, though he showed no
emotional signs of feeling the absence of his master. Blackie, like
many a precocious two-legged creature, had not developed into the
wonder that was expected. Example and daily association had made him
more and more like his fellows; and Nono had not been long away from
the golden house before Jan began to talk about the little black pig as
the pork of the future.
Karin had supposed that the parting with Nono would be like the parting
with her other boys--a separation only lightened by letters coming
rarely, merely to tell that the absentees were well and doing famously.
With Nono it was quite otherwise. The letters from him came weekly,
almost as regularly as Sunday itself. And such letters as they were,
written so clearly, and containing such a particular account of his
doings, and, what Karin prized more, warm expressions of grateful
affection for the dear friends "at home," as he still called the golden
house, though it was plain that the once houseless little Italian had
now two homes.
Nono wrote that the artist's wife treated him as if he were her own
son, and was teaching him carefully everything that would help him to
understand all that was about him. Object lessons they seemed to be,
with wonderful Rome for the great "kindergarten." He was learning
Italian too, and that he thought charming. As for his work in the
studio, it was only a pleasure, excepting that he was impatient for the
time when he could make beautiful things himself. When he had walked
in the streets at first, he had thought all the boys might at least
have been his cousins, and some of them made him feel as if he were
looking in the glass. Now and then he would meet a man that he felt
sure must be his father, but he did not often dare to speak to such
strangers. He had hoped and believed he should find his father in
Italy, but now he was sure it would be harder to know him there than in
Sweden. He had almost given up thinking about it lately, he had so
much to do and so much to see, and everybody was so kind to him.
Karin did not feel that Nono was drifting away from her, though he
wrote so openly and affectionately of his new friends. His thankful
remembrance of all the love and care he had had at the cottage was
expressed in every letter, and a deeper gratitude for the kind
instruction that had taught him from his childhood to love his heavenly
Father, and to try to obey his holy laws.
Alma missed Nono, it was true, for she had really grown fond of the
little friendly boy while he had been an inmate at Ekero; but she had a
new deep content in the pleasure she was learning to find in the
society of her brother. Together they were struggling heavenward, and
were daily a help and joy to each other.
Alma was walking on the veranda one morning in early summer, when she
saw what she thought two tramps approaching. She had no liking for
such wanderers, and turned to go into the house. At that moment she
caught sight of the worn face of the older man, and stood still. He
looked so gentle, and yet so weary and weak, as he clung to the arm of
his younger companion. They were not dressed like Italians, nor like
any style of persons in particular, for their costume was evidently
made up of cast-off garments that had seen better days. Their faces,
though, were dark and thin, and there was a southern fire in the eyes
of the younger man as he said at once in tolerable Swedish, "Pietro
here is tired. He cannot get any further, miss. I told him he could
not hold out for this trip, but come he would, and I had to let him.
Perhaps he could sit down somewhere a few moments and get a glass of
milk or something like that."
"He looks very tired," said Alma. "Go that way to the kitchen, and I
will see that you have something to eat."
The colonel, hearing voices, came out at the moment. He saw at once
that the men were Italians, and addressed them in their own language.
The eyes of the one who had spoken flashed with pleasure, and a light
came into the face of his companion, who now said in Italian, "I have
been very ill. It is too cold for me up here. No summer, no summer!
The north killed my wife long ago, and I suppose it has killed me. I
knew this man when I was here before. I only met him again yesterday.
He knows where the house is I want to find. I left my boy there, a
baby, and I want to know if he is alive. It was Francesca's baby, and
she loved it before she went wrong," and he touched his forehead
significantly.
The colonel looked meaningly at Alma, whose eyes were wide with intense
interest, for she had understood enough to follow the conversation.
The colonel took the hand of the old man kindly, and said,--
"You must rest here a little, and then we will talk together."
When Pietro was refreshed by rest and food the colonel sat down beside
him, and told him all about the happy life Nono had had at the cottage,
and how he had made the snow statue of the princess, and was now far
away in Italy, learning to be perhaps a great sculptor himself.
The tears rolled slowly down the old man's cheeks as he listened. "It
is good to hear, Enricho," he murmured, addressing his companion; "but
I am too late, as you see."
"Can't we keep him here, and take care of him? He is our Nono's
father, of course, papa," said Alma, much moved.
Alma had truly received into the inner chamber of her heart the
heavenly Guest, and she was eager to share all with his humbler
brethren.
"Where shall we put him?" said the colonel thoughtfully.
"In the little room in the wing, where the painters slept last summer,"
answered Alma promptly. "I will see that it is all nice for him. He
looks so sick and tired. I am sure Marie will do her best for him, she
was so fond of Nono. And, dear papa, we can use my money for him. I
have ever so much still left in my little cottage. Let me, please,
papa!"
The colonel gazed lovingly at Alma as he said,--
"Now you look so like your dear mother. It is just what she would have
said. Certainly we will keep him here."
Enricho was only too glad to leave Pietro in the pleasant quarters that
were prepared for him before evening. When the weary old man lay down
in his comfortable bed, with everything neat and clean about him, he
felt as if he were in some strange, blissful dream. He was not to see
his boy; but how lovingly they had spoken of him!
Karin cried like a child when she heard that Nono's poor father had
appeared; the very man she had dreaded to think of, who might come at
any time to carry off the boy who was as dear to her as her own
children. How she wished she could speak the poor father's language,
and tell him what Nono had been to her! Later, she did try to make him
understand it all, not only by broken Swedish words and signs, but with
Frans sometimes as a translator. Mr. Frans had been studying Italian
with his father, and was glad himself to talk about Nono.
Pietro, broken down by hardship and illness, and thin and worn, seemed
older than he really was. Pelle and Pietro were soon good friends. It
was a precious time for Frans when he translated the conversation
between these two veterans from life's battles--the one defeated,
wounded, near his death; the other humble, yet triumphant, victorious,
and soon to be summoned to the court of his King for a more than
abundant reward.
"I am not fit to be the father of a boy like Nono," said Pietro one
day--"not fit to be his father."
Pietro's old superstitious confidence in the religion of his country
had passed into a dull unbelief in all that was sacred. He had a
disease which Pelle found he could not reach.
Then the colonel came and sat day by day in Pietro's room, and talked
to the poor Italian out of the fulness of his heart as he had never
talked to a human being before. There, in that small room, the colonel
won a victory greater than the triumphs of war. There he won a soul
for the heavenly King! The colonel, by nature so self-controlled, so
reticent, was moved to warmth and tender tears as Pietro grasped his
hand and thanked him for opening the way for his soul to the real
knowledge of God and holiness and peace.
It was the first human being that the colonel had led in the way of
life, and Pietro was a precious treasure to him.
Alma insisted upon being responsible for every expense that was
incurred for Pietro. She could do nothing more for him but remember
him in her prayers. The fair, slight girl, with the kindly look in her
dear blue eyes, seemed to him a thing quite apart from his life,
something he could not understand--that could not understand him.
The time would come when Alma, now walking tremblingly herself in the
way of life, would be strong to help the weak and struggling, and lead
the wanderers gently home.