Page:De Amicis - Heart, translation Hapgood, 1922.djvu/245

Rh inside their sleeves, and they were utterly unconscious of it.

They ran and chased each other with apples and rolls in their teeth, like dogs. I saw three of them digging out a hard-boiled egg with a straw, thinking to discover treasures, and they spilled half of it on the ground, and then picked the crumbs up again one by one with great patience, as though they had been pearls. And those who had anything unusual were surrounded by eight or ten others, who stood staring at the baskets with bent heads, as you would look at the moon in a well. There were twenty round a mite of a fellow who had a paper horn of sugar, and they were going through all sorts of ceremonies with him for the privilege of dipping their bread in it, and he gave it to some, while, after many prayers, he only let others put a finger in.

In the meantime, my mother had come into the garden and was petting now one and now another. Many hung about her, and even on her back, begging for a kiss, with faces upturned as though to a third story, and with mouths that opened and shut like birds asking for food. One offered her the quarter of an orange which had been bitten, another a small crust of bread. One little girl gave her a leaf; another showed her, with all seriousness, the tip of her forefinger, a minute examination of which revealed a microscopic swelling, which had been caused by touching the flame of a candle on the day before. They placed before her eyes, as great marvels, very tiny insects, which I cannot understand their being able to see and catch, the halves of corks, shirtbuttons, and