Part 6
As he called, two little girls about as tall as Molly and May came bounding to the door. They had large brown eyes and brown, curly hair, and their cheeks were as pink as roses.
Molly and May thought the little Italian girls were lovely, but Anita and Maria never had dreamed of such beautiful blue eyes and such lovely golden hair as they found under the two pretty sunbonnets.
They took the Sunbonnet Babies each by the hand and led them into their house. It was a large, stone house, and they lived on the first floor, not much above the canal.
The little guests were taken through the large hall, which was the parlor, too, out into a small courtyard beyond. Though this yard had a stone floor, it looked like a real little garden. There were long boxes of vines and blooming plants on the walls, and two or three small trees in large pots. Lying on a pillow in a shady corner was a dear little baby boy.
Anita and Maria were so proud of their baby brother they wanted to show him to Molly and May the very first thing.
"His name is Giorgio," said Maria. "He is only three months old. See, I can hold him in my arms."
"Where are his little feet?" asked Molly. "Why is he tied up so tightly?"
"Oh, we always do our babies up in long linen bands," Anita said. "It helps to keep their little legs straight. And see, Giorgio's bands are fastened with red and green ribbons. Red and green are the Italian national colors, you know."
"Doesn't he like to play and to kick with his feet? Our babies do in America," said May.
"Oh, no!" answered Anita. "He isn't big enough yet to know that he has any feet. But see, he can smile for you."
"Mother is going to give baby a bath in the canal now," said Maria. "He thinks it is lots of fun and so do we. Would you like to watch him have his bath?"
"Oh, we should love to!" exclaimed Molly and May.
So they watched Giorgio's mother unwind the yards and yards of linen bands which held his tiny legs so stiff and straight. When the little clothes were all off, the mother fastened a soft cord loosely around under the baby's arms. Then from the stone steps in front of her door, she lowered her baby very gently into the water of the canal. Up and down she dipped him, up and down, while he laughed and splashed like a real boy.
"Just see him kick!" cried May. "He does know that he has feet, Anita, and he knows how to use them, too. Isn't he having a good time?"
"And isn't he cunning?" said May.
At last the splashing and rubbing were over, and Giorgio's mother covered him with a warm shawl and carried him into her kitchen. She laid him on a high table, and wound the long linen bands around the little legs once more.
"When Giorgio is a bit stronger," she said, "I shall loosen his bands so that he can kick and play. Then it will not be long before he will be wearing little pants. Now he must go back to his pillow in the courtyard while I get our dinner. We want you little girls to have dinner with us."
"Thank you!" said Molly and May. "We should like to very much. This is a lovely kitchen. Do you keep all of your dishes on the walls?"
"Oh, no, indeed!" Maria answered, laughing. "Mother keeps only her best brass and pewter dishes on the walls. Some of them are very, very old. When Anita and I are married, mother will give them to us and we shall put them on our kitchen walls. We think they are beautiful."
"Yes, they are lovely," said May, "but what an odd stove you have. It looks like a part of the wall."
"It is built right into the wall," said Anita. "Our dinner is cooking in the two black kettles hanging over the fire. It will be ready very soon now."
There was boiled fish in one of the kettles and corn meal mush, or polenta, in the other one. The poorer people of Venice have polenta and boiled fish for dinner nearly every day. Perhaps once a week they have meat and a fresh vegetable, and sometimes macaroni with grated cheese sprinkled over it.
Molly and May liked the polenta and boiled fish very much. It was nicely cooked, and they were hungry. When they had eaten all they wanted, a basket of ripe red cherries was placed on the table. Antonio had brought the cherries home as a special treat for the Sunbonnet Babies and his own little girls. And how they did enjoy them!
After dinner Antonio took Molly and May back to their father and mother in the hotel. Anita and Maria went, too, for they liked to ride in their father's fine gondola, and they wanted to be with their little new friends as long as possible.
"I wish we had something nice to give them, so they will never forget us, May," whispered Molly, as they stepped out of the gondola.
"I know what we can do, Molly. Let's give them our sunbonnets. Mother has two more in her trunk, and we are going home soon, you know."
In another moment the two pretty sunbonnets were changed from the golden heads to the brown. Molly tied her pink bonnet over Anita's brown curls and May tied her blue bonnet over Maria's brown curls.
"Now there will always be two Sunbonnet Babies in Italy," they said, laughing. "Thank you for our happy, happy day. Addio, little Italian Sunbonnet Babies! Addio!"
A Letter to the Boys and Girls
_Dear Boys and Girls:_
_The Sunbonnet Babies think Italy is the nicest country they have ever seen, excepting of course their own dear America. I wonder if you will agree with them when you read all about what they did and what they saw in that sunny, happy land._
_To be sure, in the little country of Holland they saw great green pastures where thousands of fine cows were feeding, and fields and fields of beautiful tulips, and miles and miles of canals, and tall windmills pumping water or grinding grain._
_They visited quaint little villages where the people dressed in odd, pretty costumes, and they had happy times playing with the Dutch children. But they did not see a mountain or even a high hill in all Holland, and there were no lovely, woodsy lakes like those they knew in America._
_The Overall Boys have told them about the wonderful mountains and the dark forests and the beautiful lakes which they saw in Switzerland._
_But the Sunbonnet Babies saw all these things in Italy, too, and, what is more, they saw a beautiful, beautiful city surrounded by lovely, blue water, with miles of water streets flowing through it._
_Then they visited another city which, many, many years before, had been buried by hot lava and ashes thrown out from a volcano near by. One day they walked across the crater of another volcano and saw hot, boiling sand almost at their feet._
_They took long, beautiful drives through the country and along the seashore. They explored a great cave under the Humpbacked Island, and had an exciting experience with two pirates._
_But they enjoyed best of all their many little tea parties from sunny Capri to the City in the Sea. Nearly every afternoon they sat by a small table under an orange tree, or beside the blue water, or on a city sidewalk, and had nice things to eat and drink._
_The people were always kind to them and the sky was nearly always sunny. It is a land of sunshine and flowers and fruit, like our own sunny Florida, though Italy is much more beautiful. It is hardly twice the size of Florida, but nearly one-third as many people live there as live in the whole of our great United States. It is a crowded, happy, lovely country, and Molly and May will never forget their wonderful journey through it._
_Sincerely your friend_, EULALIE OSGOOD GROVER
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE FOR ITALIAN WORDS
KEY TO DIACRITICAL MARKS
[=a] as in ale [^a] as in care [:a] as in arm [=e] as in eve [vi] as in ill [=o] as in old [.vo] as in soft [=oo] as in food [~n] as in ca[~n]on
_addio_ ([:a]d d[=e]´[.vo])
_Anacapri_ ([:a] n[:a] k[:a]´pr[=e])
_Anita mia_ ([:a] n[=e]´t[:a] m[=e]´[:a])
_buon giorno_ (bw[.vo]n j[.vo]r´n[.vo])
_Capri_ (k[:a]´pr[=e])
_Giorgio_ (j[.vo]r´j[.vo])
_grazie_ (gr[:a]d´z[vi] [=a])
_il padre_ ([=e]l p[:a]´dr[=a])
_Luisa_ (l[=oo] [=e]´s[:a])
_Maria_ (m[:a] r[=e]´[:a])
_piazza_ (p[=e] [:a]d´z[:a])
_Pietro_ (p[=e] [^a]´tr[.vo])
_Pippo_ (p[vi]p´p[.vo])
_polenta_ (p[=o] l[^a]n´t[:a])
_Pompeii_ (p[.vo]m p[^a]´[=e])
_Ponte Vecchio_ (p[.vo]n´t[=a] v[^a]k´k[vi] [.vo])
_Rialto_ (r[=e] [:a]l´t[.vo])
_Salerno_ (s[:a] l[^a]r´n[.vo])
_si signor_ (s[=e] s[=e][~n][.vo]r´)
_signora_ (s[=e] [~n][.vo]r [:a])
_signorina_ (s[=e] [~n][.vo]r [=e]´n[:a])
_signorine_ (s[=e] [~n][.vo]r [=e]´n[=a])
_Solfatara_ (s[.vo]l f[:a] t[:a]´r[:a])
_Sorrento_ (s[=o]r r[^a]n´t[.vo])
_tarantella_ (t[:a] r[:a]n t[^a]l´l[:a])
_Trevi_ (tr[=a]´v[=e])
_Tessa mia_ (t[^a]s s[:a] m[=e]´[:a])
_una lira_ ([=oo]´n[:a] l[=e]´r[:a])
_un soldo_ ([=oo]n s[=o]l´d[.vo])