"Stay with him, Stineli; never mind me," said Rico, with the same finality with which he had said, "There is no use to think of it," after his interview with the teacher, when he had found out the price of a violin.
Stineli whispered to Silvio, "Be a brave little boy, dearie, and don't cry for me; then I will tell you ever so many stories to-morrow." As usual he obeyed her.
When Rico and Stineli came to the garden gate he said: "Go back, Stineli; you belong there and I belong to the street. I am only a poor, homeless orphan, so just let me go and don't worry."
"No, no, you shall not leave me while you feel in this way. Where can we go to talk a little while?"
"To the bridge," answered Rico, eagerly.
They walked on in silence, and after reaching their favorite place on the bridge, stood listening to the splash of the waves below them until Rico said, "Really, Stineli, if it were not for you, I wouldn't stay here any longer. I would go ever so far away, it would make little difference where, since there is no one that cares for me and I shall always have to live in hotels, and sleep in storerooms, and play for dances where people act as if they were crazy. Since I have seen you living with these good people, I have wished that my mother had thrown me into the lake before she died, so that I need not have come to be what I am."
"O Rico, how dare you think such wicked thoughts, much less express them! It must be that you have been neglecting the Lord's Prayer or you would not be so unhappy," said Stineli.
"It is true," said Rico; "I have not said it, and I am sure I have forgotten it altogether by this time."
"But how dare you live so?" asked Stineli. "Just think how grandmother would worry about you if she knew that! You must remember how she said to us, 'The one that forgets to pray will have a hard time.' You must learn the prayer again. Let us sit down here and I will teach it to you."