The next few days were spent in traveling northward, sometimes by
train, sometimes by automobile, and sometimes behind two small Italian
horses.
Each night the Sunbonnet Babies slept in some quaint little town near
a great old church or castle built hundreds of years ago.
Some of the towns stood on steep, rocky hills and were surrounded by
strong, stone walls. There was always a village well within the walls,
where the women and girls filled their graceful jugs with water every
morning.
During spring and summer the men and women in these hillside towns
work on their fertile little farms in the green valleys below. In the
fall the children take long trips to the woods to gather ripe
chestnuts to grind into flour, for the Italians are very fond of
chestnut cakes.
The most wonderful thing which Molly and May saw on this northward
journey was the Leaning Tower at Pisa.
[Illustration]
For seven hundred years the beautiful white marble tower has stood
there leaning lazily over to one side. Soon after it was started, the
ground under it began to sink. The builders straightened it up as well
as they could, but when it was finished its top leaned to one side
nearly fourteen feet.
The Sunbonnet Babies were almost afraid to go up the winding stairs
inside the Leaning Tower. But at last they bravely climbed the three
hundred steps, round and round and up and up, until they reached the
top where the great bells hang.
Even though a strong railing was around the top of the tower, Molly
and May thought they would surely slip off, it leaned so far to one
side. But they soon forgot their fears.
Near by they saw the great black and white cathedral and the beautiful
round baptistry where the babies of Pisa are all baptized.
Toward the west they looked across broad, green fields to the blue sea
seven miles away. Two thousand years ago the sea was only two miles
from Pisa, but the river Arno, which flows down from the mountains,
brings with it a great deal of soil which it drops when it reaches the
sea. In this way five miles of new land have been made between Pisa
and the sea.
There was not much except the Leaning Tower in the now quiet little
city of Pisa to interest the Sunbonnet Babies, so they followed the
river Arno up toward the mountains as far as the beautiful city of
Florence.
It was Maytime, and there were roses everywhere--roses to sell and
roses to give away. For the first time in their short lives Molly and
May had all the roses they wanted.
[Illustration: "_Will you please let me sell your roses for you?_"]
"No wonder Florence is called the City of Flowers," said their mother
one morning, as they visited the big flower market.
"Yes, everybody seems to be buying or selling flowers. Isn't it
lovely?" cried Molly.
Then, before her parents knew what she was doing, Molly ran up to a
small boy who was carrying two baskets of beautiful roses on a wooden
yoke across his shoulders.
"O little boy!" she said. "Will you please let me sell your roses for
you? I will give you all the money I make. I should love to sell
them!"
"And so should I!" cried May. "Father, please ask him if we may sell
his flowers for him," for the small boy could not quite understand
what the little American girls wanted.
A few words from their father, however, brought a happy smile to the
boy's face. This was enough for the Sunbonnet Babies. In a moment
Molly was standing beside one of the flower baskets and May beside the
other, with the radiant little Italian boy between them.
"Now," said Molly, "you hold the baskets while we sell the flowers. We
will sell some to our own father first. Please, sir, here is a bunch
of pink roses for you. They cost only one lira. I am sure you want
them."
Of course he did want them, and many other people wanted to buy of the
pretty little flower girls, too.
In a very few minutes the two baskets were empty, and the small boy
was hurrying away to his father's flower stand with more money in his
pocket than he had ever had before, while Molly and May found
other interesting things to do.
[Illustration: _They watched Filippo spin his tops_]
From a corner of the market place they heard some one calling, "Ecco!
Signor Filippo will now present his troup of trained tops for the
crippled soldiers."
"Oh, let's see them!" exclaimed May. "Tops are such fun, and we ought
to help the poor Italian soldiers, too."
So they watched young Filippo, who had been a soldier in the great
war, spin his wonderful tops.
They were military tops which Filippo had made himself. There was an
American soldier, an Italian soldier, a British soldier, and a French
soldier. Then there was a Red Cross nurse and a jolly sailor boy. But
prettiest of all was a dainty little girl with butterfly skirts,
dancing gracefully about among the stiff soldiers.
It was really wonderful, the way Filippo kept the tops spinning. Molly
and May paid him a whole lira for the fun they had in watching them.
As they were about to leave the market place they heard a clear,
beautiful whistle which made them stop and listen.
[Illustration]
"It is my blackbird, signorine," called a little boy. "See, he is here
in this cage. I caught him in the field and taught him how to whistle.
Now he can whistle better than any other blackbird in Florence. Would
you like to buy him?"
"Why, yes, of course we should! But we cannot take care of a bird
while we are traveling. He will be happier with you. We will give you
some pennies to buy food for him." So they dropped two big
Italian pennies into the little boy's hat, while he bowed very
politely.
[Illustration]
One whole lovely afternoon was spent in motoring over the hills beyond
the city of Florence. They saw groves of olive trees that were
hundreds and hundreds of years old, and large vineyards where purple
grapes were growing.
On a hilly road beyond a small village they passed two women who were
bringing down from the woods great bundles of fagots on the backs of
small donkeys. They would burn these fagots in their fireplace stoves
at home, for wood and coal are hard to get in Italy.
Best of all the things the Sunbonnet Babies saw on this happy drive
was a rollicking brook. It came tumbling down over big stones and
under white birch trees close by the roadside. Beyond the brook
was a trim little wheat field, bright with scarlet poppies.
[Illustration: _Beyond the brook was a wheat field bright with
poppies_]
"It looks just like a brook I know in New England," said their mother.
"Let us walk a little way and find out where it comes from."
"Oh, yes! Let's walk!" cried Molly and May and their father.
So they left their car and began following the brook under the
shade of the tall trees. The children picked handfuls of scarlet
poppies and beautiful blue cornflowers. They listened to the happy
nightingales and mocking birds singing in the trees above them, and
they watched handsome great dragon flies dart along close above the
cool, splashing water.
[Illustration]
On and on they walked, until at last they came to a beautiful, quiet
spot shut in by trees and bushes, with only the brook flowing through
it.
"What a splendid place for a picnic!" cried May. "How I wish we had
something to eat!"
"I have some small cakes of sweet chocolate," said her mother.
"Perhaps a good fairy will come along and change them into strawberry
sandwiches for us. Let us sit down on the grass and see."
So they all sat down by the the brook and their mother divided the
little round cakes of chocolate among them. They each had three.
[Illustration: _"Sh-h! I believe the fairy is coming!"_]
"Sh-h! I believe the fairy is coming," whispered May. "I hear
footsteps!"
At that moment the bushes were pushed gently aside and a little,
barefooted old woman peeped smilingly through at them. A small,
brown-eyed girl was with her. She was barefooted, too, and they each
wore a wreath of grape leaves around their flying hair. The little
girl had a bunch of fresh grape leaves in her hand, and the little old
woman carried a small basket of luscious wild strawberries.
[Illustration: _The child laughed and darted into the little group_]
The child laughed and darted into the little group, laying a large
grape leaf on the lap of each of the strangers. The little old woman
followed close behind her, shaking strawberries from her basket onto
each green leaf. Then the little girl quickly laid another leaf on top
of the strawberries.
They were about to slip away into the bushes again when May called,
"Wait, wait, good fairies! Thank you for your strawberries, and please
let us give you our sweet chocolate."
The small basket was passed quickly around again and the tiny
tinsel-covered cakes were all dropped into it. Then the two little
people, with smiling lips and shining eyes, slipped away into the tall
bushes.
"Oh! oh!" whispered Molly. "Were they really, truly fairies?"
"Of course they were," answered May.
"Well," said her mother, "they brought us strawberry sandwiches,
anyway, and no one but fairies could have known how much we wanted
them."
"That is so," said Molly. "Let's call it our Fairy Tea Party. I never,
never tasted such sweet strawberries!"
The drive back to the Flower City was a quiet one. Molly and May had
so much to think about. But when the next morning came they were eager
for the new day's experience.
"What shall we do to-day, father?" asked Molly at the breakfast table.
"Well, how would you like to go shopping on an old, old bridge which
crosses the river Arno?" asked her father.
[Illustration: _The Ponte Vecchio, where the Sunbonnet Babies went
shopping_]
"Shopping on a bridge!" exclaimed both little girls. "What can we buy
on a bridge?"
"Oh, all the pretty jewelry you want," answered their father. "It is a
two-story bridge. It is called Ponte Vecchio. On each side of the
lower story is a row of small shops, most of which sell
jewelry--pretty neck chains and pins and rings. The second story is
part of a long, covered passage connecting two famous old palaces. The
passage is more than a third of a mile long. It was built for the
wedding of a prince in one of the families. The palaces are now
filled with beautiful paintings and sculpture. We must go to see them
soon."
And so several days were happily filled with shopping and driving and
seeing beautiful pictures and wonderful old churches.
They found a tall bell tower in Florence even more graceful and lovely
than the Leaning Tower at Pisa. It is called a "Lily in Stone," it is
so very beautiful. The tower has stood there beside the great
cathedral for nearly six hundred years, and it is as fresh and
beautiful now as when it was first built.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: The City in the Sea]
[Illustration]