Karin pressed the little stranger to her mother's heart, and thanked God that he was left to her care.
So the little Italian came to the golden house—the black eyes among the blue.
CHAPTER II.
KARIN'S FLOCK.
There was a family group in the big room at the golden house. The mother sat in the centre, with the brown baby on her knee. The heads of the six fair-haired children were bent down over the new treasure like a cluster of rough-hewn angels in the Bethlehem scene, as carved out by some reverent artist of old. With a puzzled, half-pleased glance the stalwart father looked down upon them all, like a benignant giant.
"Is he really our own little baby now?" said one of the children.
"What shall we call him?" asked another.
"We'll name him, of course, after the bear," said the oldest boy, who liked to take the lead in the family. "I heard the man call him Pionono, and he said the bear knew his name."
"We won't call him after that horrid bear!" exclaimed Karin.