There was no reply from Luigi, and soon the children heard their returning footfalls on the stone flagging.
“Pretend you’re asleep,” whispered Beppo. “We mustn’t let them think we overheard.” They instantly lay down in the straw again, and when Carlotta came to the back of the van a moment later, she was obliged to call twice before she could arouse them!
While Carlotta, looking very glum, was cooking the everlasting polenta, the children crept fearsomely into the ruined tower to take a last look at poor old Ugolone. There he lay on the flag-stones, a shapeless lump of fur, and a little later Luigi skinned him, hung the pelt on the back of the van, and, leaving the bones to whiten where they lay, set forth once more upon the road. From this time on things grew harder and harder for the unhappy children.
Carlotta was caressing and smooth in her manner to them when they were in the villages, calling them “my children,” “carissimi,” which means “dearest,” and other tender names, but when they were by themselves she grew more and more harsh, while Luigi was sullen, and scarcely spoke to them at all.
It was Carlotta who made them dance until they were ready to drop with fatigue, and sing when their hearts were breaking. Everywhere the people thought them charming, and it was true, as Carlotta had said, that they brought in more money than Ugolone.
They were now passing through one of the most lovely regions in the world, but its beauty failed to comfort them or reconcile them to their lot. The rocky ramparts and blue horizon of the mountains were but prison walls to them, from which they longed to escape. One night, as they lay shivering in the straw, with Carlotta and Luigi snoring at the other end of the van, Beppo cautiously nudged his sister.
“It sounds like Teresina,” he whispered. “Don’t you remember how she snored that day we left home?”
“Don’t,” begged Beppina. “It makes me homesick.”
“I never thought I could wish to hear Teresina snore,” Beppo answered, “but now it would be music in my ears.” They were silent a few minutes, and then Beppina—timid Beppina—put her lips close to Beppo’s ear and whispered, “Let’s get out and run away.”