By supper-time they had covered ten miles, and when night overtook them, they were in open farming country, surrounded by olive orchards, vineyards, and cornfields. In a field beside the road they came upon a straw-stack, and, hiding themselves on the farther side of it, they ate the bread and ham which they had bought on the way, and then, pulling the straw down over them for covering, slept peacefully until morning.
Chapter Ten.
Home Again.
The next day and the next passed in much the same way. They danced and sang in the villages to earn their bread, and then passed out again to the highway, where there were sign-posts to guide them, or they could ask directions from fellow travellers. One night they passed in an olive orchard, under a spreading tree. Another was spent under the protection of a wayside shrine.
When he awoke in the morning, Beppo found his sister kneeling before the shrine. She turned a beaming face upon him as he opened his eyes.
“Oh, Beppo mio,” she said, “I haven’t forgotten once, and this is the ninth day! I’ve made my novena! I’m almost sure the blessed Saint Anthony means to get us to Padua this very day. If he does, I think I shall die of joy.”
“What would be the good of that?” Beppo inquired, practically. Then he added, “Anyway, I think it’ll be very mean if he doesn’t, after all the praying you’ve done, and all my thinking too.”
They ate a hasty bite of bread beside the shrine, then trudged on, and, before the morning was over, actually found themselves passing through the beautiful gardens which surround the city of Padua. They entered it from the east by the Porta di’ Pontecorbo, walked a short distance along a wide street, crossed a canal, and, turning to the left, saw rising before them from a great open piazza the huge church of Saint Anthony of Padua, crowned by its six domes and many spires. It was as if they had known every inch of the way, so directly had they come.