TRAVEL ADVENTURES
The next few days were spent in traveling northward, sometimes bytrain, sometimes by automobile, and sometimes behind two small Italianhorses.
Each night the Sunbonnet Babies slept in some quaint little town neara great old church or castle built hundreds of years ago.
Some of the towns stood on steep, rocky hills and were surrounded bystrong, stone walls. There was always a village well within the walls,where the women and girls filled their graceful jugs with water everymorning.
During spring and summer the men and women in these hillside townswork on their fertile little farms in the green valleys below. In thefall the children take long trips to the woods to gather ripechestnuts to grind into flour, for the Italians are very fond ofchestnut cakes.
The most wonderful thing which Molly and May saw on this northwardjourney was the Leaning Tower at Pisa.
For seven hundred years the beautiful white marble tower has stoodthere leaning lazily over to one side. Soon after it was started, theground under it began to sink. The builders straightened it up as wellas they could, but when it was finished its top leaned to one sidenearly fourteen feet.
The Sunbonnet Babies were almost afraid to go up the winding stairsinside the Leaning Tower. But at last they bravely climbed the threehundred steps, round and round and up and up, until they reached thetop where the great bells hang.
Even though a strong railing was around the top of the tower, Mollyand May thought they would surely slip off, it leaned so far to oneside. But they soon forgot their fears.
Near by they saw the great black and white cathedral and the beautifulround baptistry where the babies of Pisa are all baptized.
Toward the west they looked across broad, green fields to the blue seaseven miles away. Two thousand years ago the sea was only two milesfrom Pisa, but the river Arno, which flows down from the mountains,brings with it a great deal of soil which it drops when it reaches thesea. In this way five miles of new land have been made between Pisaand the sea.
There was not much except the Leaning Tower in the now quiet littlecity of Pisa to interest the Sunbonnet Babies, so they followed theriver Arno up toward the mountains as far as the beautiful city ofFlorence.
It was Maytime, and there were roses everywhere--roses to sell androses to give away. For the first time in their short lives Molly andMay had all the roses they wanted.
"_Will you please let me sell your roses for you?_"]
"No wonder Florence is called the City of Flowers," said their motherone morning, as they visited the big flower market.
"Yes, everybody seems to be buying or selling flowers. Isn't itlovely?" cried Molly.
Then, before her parents knew what she was doing, Molly ran up to asmall boy who was carrying two baskets of beautiful roses on a woodenyoke across his shoulders.
"O little boy!" she said. "Will you please let me sell your roses foryou? I will give you all the money I make. I should love to sellthem!"
"And so should I!" cried May. "Father, please ask him if we may sellhis flowers for him," for the small boy could not quite understandwhat the little American girls wanted.
A few words from their father, however, brought a happy smile to theboy's face. This was enough for the Sunbonnet Babies. In a momentMolly was standing beside one of the flower baskets and May beside theother, with the radiant little Italian boy between them.
"Now," said Molly, "you hold the baskets while we sell the flowers. Wewill sell some to our own father first. Please, sir, here is a bunchof pink roses for you. They cost only one lira. I am sure you wantthem."
Of course he did want them, and many other people wanted to buy of thepretty little flower girls, too.
In a very few minutes the two baskets were empty, and the small boywas hurrying away to his father's flower stand with more money in hispocket than he had ever had before, while Molly and May foundother interesting things to do.
_They watched Filippo spin his tops_]
From a corner of the market place they heard some one calling, "Ecco!Signor Filippo will now present his troup of trained tops for thecrippled soldiers."
"Oh, let's see them!" exclaimed May. "Tops are such fun, and we oughtto help the poor Italian soldiers, too."
So they watched young Filippo, who had been a soldier in the greatwar, spin his wonderful tops.
They were military tops which Filippo had made himself. There was anAmerican soldier, an Italian soldier, a British soldier, and a Frenchsoldier. Then there was a Red Cross nurse and a jolly sailor boy. Butprettiest of all was a dainty little girl with butterfly skirts,dancing gracefully about among the stiff soldiers.
It was really wonderful, the way Filippo kept the tops spinning. Mollyand May paid him a whole lira for the fun they had in watching them.
As they were about to leave the market place they heard a clear,beautiful whistle which made them stop and listen.
"It is my blackbird, signorine," called a little boy. "See, he is herein this cage. I caught him in the field and taught him how to whistle.Now he can whistle better than any other blackbird in Florence. Wouldyou like to buy him?"
"Why, yes, of course we should! But we cannot take care of a birdwhile we are traveling. He will be happier with you. We will give yousome pennies to buy food for him." So they dropped two bigItalian pennies into the little boy's hat, while he bowed verypolitely.
One whole lovely afternoon was spent in motoring over the hills beyondthe city of Florence. They saw groves of olive trees that werehundreds and hundreds of years old, and large vineyards where purplegrapes were growing.
On a hilly road beyond a small village they passed two women who werebringing down from the woods great bundles of fagots on the backs ofsmall donkeys. They would burn these fagots in their fireplace stovesat home, for wood and coal are hard to get in Italy.
Best of all the things the Sunbonnet Babies saw on this happy drivewas a rollicking brook. It came tumbling down over big stones andunder white birch trees close by the roadside. Beyond the brookwas a trim little wheat field, bright with scarlet poppies.
_Beyond the brook was a wheat field bright withpoppies_]
"It looks just like a brook I know in New England," said their mother."Let us walk a little way and find out where it comes from."
"Oh, yes! Let's walk!" cried Molly and May and their father.
So they left their car and began following the brook under theshade of the tall trees. The children picked handfuls of scarletpoppies and beautiful blue cornflowers. They listened to the happynightingales and mocking birds singing in the trees above them, andthey watched handsome great dragon flies dart along close above thecool, splashing water.
On and on they walked, until at last they came to a beautiful, quietspot shut in by trees and bushes, with only the brook flowing throughit.
"What a splendid place for a picnic!" cried May. "How I wish we hadsomething to eat!"
"I have some small cakes of sweet chocolate," said her mother."Perhaps a good fairy will come along and change them into strawberrysandwiches for us. Let us sit down on the grass and see."
So they all sat down by the the brook and their mother divided thelittle round cakes of chocolate among them. They each had three.
_"Sh-h! I believe the fairy is coming!"_]
"Sh-h! I believe the fairy is coming," whispered May. "I hearfootsteps!"
At that moment the bushes were pushed gently aside and a little,barefooted old woman peeped smilingly through at them. A small,brown-eyed girl was with her. She was barefooted, too, and they eachwore a wreath of grape leaves around their flying hair. The littlegirl had a bunch of fresh grape leaves in her hand, and the little oldwoman carried a small basket of luscious wild strawberries.
_The child laughed and darted into the little group_]
The child laughed and darted into the little group, laying a largegrape leaf on the lap of each of the strangers. The little old womanfollowed close behind her, shaking strawberries from
her basket ontoeach green leaf. Then the little girl quickly laid another leaf on topof the strawberries.
They were about to slip away into the bushes again when May called,"Wait, wait, good fairies! Thank you for your strawberries, and pleaselet us give you our sweet chocolate."
The small basket was passed quickly around again and the tinytinsel-covered cakes were all dropped into it. Then the two littlepeople, with smiling lips and shining eyes, slipped away into the tallbushes.
"Oh! oh!" whispered Molly. "Were they really, truly fairies?"
"Of course they were," answered May.
"Well," said her mother, "they brought us strawberry sandwiches,anyway, and no one but fairies could have known how much we wantedthem."
"That is so," said Molly. "Let's call it our Fairy Tea Party. I never,never tasted such sweet strawberries!"
The drive back to the Flower City was a quiet one. Molly and May hadso much to think about. But when the next morning came they were eagerfor the new day's experience.
"What shall we do to-day, father?" asked Molly at the breakfast table.
"Well, how would you like to go shopping on an old, old bridge whichcrosses the river Arno?" asked her father.
_The Ponte Vecchio, where the Sunbonnet Babies wentshopping_]
"Shopping on a bridge!" exclaimed both little girls. "What can we buyon a bridge?"
"Oh, all the pretty jewelry you want," answered their father. "It is atwo-story bridge. It is called Ponte Vecchio. On each side of thelower story is a row of small shops, most of which selljewelry--pretty neck chains and pins and rings. The second story ispart of a long, covered passage connecting two famous old palaces. Thepassage is more than a third of a mile long. It was built for thewedding of a prince in one of the families. The palaces are nowfilled with beautiful paintings and sculpture. We must go to see themsoon."
And so several days were happily filled with shopping and driving andseeing beautiful pictures and wonderful old churches.
They found a tall bell tower in Florence even more graceful and lovelythan the Leaning Tower at Pisa. It is called a "Lily in Stone," it isso very beautiful. The tower has stood there beside the greatcathedral for nearly six hundred years, and it is as fresh andbeautiful now as when it was first built.
The City in the Sea]