"I have fixed all that," her husband answered. "We are to stay with your cousin Lola in the city. She will keep us through the week for a small sum, as she says she has an extra room that she will be glad to have us use.
"So get ready, wife, and look as fine as possible in your new blue skirt and the red bodice below the white blouse. Do not forget to wear the fringed kerchief on your pretty head. It is the one I gave you when you were a gay young girl."
His wife promised to make herself look as fine as possible, as she blushed more deeply than ever.
The carnival! The carnival! Is it any wonder that Tessa and her brother slept but little that night, and that when they did, they dreamed of processions and bonbons and clowns and flower-decked wagons and all sorts of strange sights?
Their father hired a donkey from one of his neighbours for Tessa and Francesca to ride on. Pietro was to carry their mother and the baby.
When at last they were ready to start, they were a merry sight. Beppo and Tessa had gathered quantities of wild flowers to use at the carnival, so that Tessa and her mother looked as though they were in the middle of travelling gardens.
"If these give out," Beppo had told his sister, "we can go over to the Coliseum and get wallflowers and some other pretty blossoms that grow in the crevices of the walls. They must be in bloom by this time. We must throw many a bouquet to Lucy and her brother."
The city looked bright and gay as the peasant and his family drew near. The streets were filled with carriages; the sidewalks were lined with people; while the houses were decked with bright-coloured carpets, mats, and all sorts of hangings.