And Natale?
Well, Natale is learning, better and better, how to turn his capitomboli over the dusty circus carpet, and he still feels Il Duca’s pulse with sorrowful apprehension to the tune of the “Dead March in Saul”—by night among the oil lamps.
By day, he trudges along hot white roads, under the marvelous blue of Italy’s sky, with Niero and Bianco for company. Or, he lies on the ground at Nonna’s side under some spreading tree in the camping-out times, sometimes spelling out words in a dog-eared primer, oftener gazing past the tree tops at the cloud-ships sailing overhead, while Nonna tells of Antonio’s wonderful childhood.
By and by, when Natale grows too large to do the dying-horse act, and little Tito, or Gigi takes his place, he will be dashing with the horses around the ring. And then, in the still further and sweeter by and by, when Antonio’s agile legs will perhaps have begun to stiffen again, and the straight back to bend forward a little as he walks, who but Natale will be the shining star of the Circo Equestre, like another bespangled, pink-clad Antonio, with crisp brown curls and laughing eyes, and the nimblest, straightest legs in all Italy?
The story of a little patriotic Cuban girl
LITTLE CUBA LIBRE
By JANIE PRICHARD DUGGAN
Illustrated. 282 pages. 12mo. $1.35 net.
In all the big city of Havana there was no more patriotic little girl than Amada Trueno, daughter of one of the city gardeners. With all her heart she hated the Spaniards who ruled her beloved island of Cuba. “Little Cuba Libre” they called her when she stamped her foot and called the Spaniards enemies and tyrants. When she went to her cousin’s house in the country, although she played on friendly terms with the children of a Spanish planter, still her hatred of the oppressors slumbered. How the Cubans finally revolted, and how little Amada herself took part in that revolution, even to the extent of bearing arms, is told in this charming story. “Little Cuba Libre” contains faithful pictures of Cuban life and Cuban people, and while written especially for young readers, its fine qualities should also appeal to older ones. Besides being an interesting story of Cuban girlhood it is a depiction of the very spirit of patriotism.