brow, and mutely led him to believe that "papa" was really near him.
For the rest of the night and during the whole of the next day Master Andrea never quitted the child.
"He must be feverish," he cried, as he saw the little form toss and throw the clothes off his bed. "Oh, heavens! what if he were to die here amid the waves!"
This apprehension seemed to give him a strange discouragement. His heart beat anxiously, and he suffered acutely.
"No!" he cried, "I shall not let him be moved. I wish him to live and recover. I will save him!"
Wrapping the child up, he took him on his knee and nestled him to his breast as a tender mother would have done. A new sensation had come over him. That day he forgot the world, he forgot himself, and at night forgot to light the lamp!
In the morning the unusual noise of oars, announcing the approach of a boat, broke upon his abstraction. He stood up, sorely agitated. Might they not be coming to claim the child and take him away! A thousand voices seemed to be whispering within him—Do not let him be taken away! he belongs to you—he is your treasure-trove!
Hence, when he descended to meet his visitors he received them with the gruff reception already described. And scarcely had he freed himself of his unwelcome guests than he ran back hurriedly, as though he had escaped some danger.
The child slept soundly. On beholding that little, fair curly head pressing the pillow of his bed, Master Andrea experienced a sudden feeling of intense joy, and he smiled, perhaps for the first time in his life!
"He took Carletto on his knee and told him stories."
A few days later, the child, whom we shall call Carletto, had quite recovered, and formed a striking contrast, with his fair winsome face of a three-year-old infant, to the sombre, black-bearded man whom he so charmingly persisted in calling "Papa."
There had commenced a new life for Master Andrea. He ran up and down stairs with the nimble little trotter to show him how he lit the lamp, and cleaned it, and put it out. He took Carletto on his knee and told him stories. He went almost without food in order that his pet should have the best of his allowance. Yet all this afforded him a new pleasure. And what of his anxiety to keep him concealed at any sacrifice? Ah! had the sailors who every Sunday morning brought his weekly provisions, and who landed on the rock of Isolotto, so much as suspected the existence of a child? But this fact Master Andrea was resolved upon keeping a secret, and thus he preferred to suffer hunger rather than ask for an increase of provisions, lest the sailors should demand the reason why.
For many months all went well. Master Andrea fasted without any ill effects, and from being selfish and moody he became chatty and merry.
Only once a week was he inexorably severe with Carletto. On Sunday mornings he used to lock him up in the highest stage of the turret and refuse to release him until the boat from Roccamarina was well on its return. During the rest of the week Carletto was his tyrant, his idol, his
