"Well, yes, if you will excuse me for saying so, I did, but anyway I would not have kept the money."
"Why not?"
"How can you ask? Why because, to accept pay for something—and such a little thing as a pail of milk—"
"Two pails."
"No, just one, they were only half-full, but no matter. I wanted to give away the milk, not sell it, and so I put the pennies in the box at church."
"And all the time I thought you were perhaps buying pretty ribbons with it."
Captain Riccardi shook his head. "But I might have known better."
"Ribbons!" Lucia scorned the idea. "What do I need with such foolishness, with a war going on just under my nose! I had other things to think about, I can tell you, and other ways to spend my pennies."
The Captain looked at her gravely. Then he took her hand and patted it gently.
"You are a brave and true little Italian," he said, "and I can never hope to pay you for what you have done. You will have to look for your reward in your own heart. It ought to be a very happy and contented heart, I should think."