Antonio usually wore blue trousers and a white shirt, open at the neck and fastened with a large red tie. But some days he dressed all in white, with a bright red sash around his waist. Then he looked very handsome indeed.
One morning Antonio invited the Sunbonnet Babies to visit his home and see his little girls. Antonio had lived in America seven years and could speak English quite well.
"My little girls want to see you very much," he said. "I have told them all about your pretty blue eyes and your big sunbonnets. Will you come with me to-day?"
So it happened that Molly and May were soon gliding through narrow canals into a part of Venice they had not seen before.
It was morning, and they passed a milk man delivering his milk in a flat-bottomed boat.
"That is a new kind of milk cart," exclaimed Molly. "In Naples they have live milk carts, and in Holland they have dog carts, and here in Venice they have boats."
"And see! There is a man with a boat load of vegetables," said May. "He has just sold a string of onions and a cauliflower to the woman standing in the doorway. If she should step out of her door she would step right into the canal. O Antonio! Is that the only door into her house?"
"Oh, no!" said Antonio. "Nearly every house in Venice has a canal door on one side and a footpath door on the other side."
"See the woman up there on her balcony," said Molly. "She is lowering a basket by a long rope. What is she saying, Antonio?"
"She wants a cauliflower and a string of onions, too, but she thinks the man is asking too much for them. She has put a lira into her basket and she is telling the man that he must not touch it unless he is willing to give her a good cauliflower and a long string of onions for it. The other woman had to pay a lira and a half for them. We will watch and see what happens."