What could he or she do, even if he were liberated? It was a terrible blow. Two days after his return she gave birth to her fifth child."

"And now how is it with them?" said I.

"You shall see them to-morrow.

since this affair all is dark with them.

Of course,

He can

find no occupation here, and they all have to suffer,"

So we went to see her in her wretched house. Suffering and privation and toil had made her old before her time. Remains of beauty certainly were there. The eyes and the teeth still were beautiful. But the face was haggard and thin, and very sad, and the joyousness and spring of life and youth utterly gone. Still the old sweet smile gleamed for moments over the face, and then faded into sadness again. One of her children was ill and in bed; the others, strong, nut- brown, with large lustrous eyes, stood beside her, shy, silent, half clothed,

but with no shadow of care upon their faces. We talked a little with her; and our hostess told her to come up to the house the next day, and she would give her something to keep her children warm for the winter. I gave them a few pennies meanwhile, and then we said goodbye. She thanked us, looked at us with a strange pathetic look, and then burst into tears.

The next day she came to us, with a girl, of about six years of age; and the two rosy, sunny-haired, blue-eyed children of my hostess, with their little arms full of thick stuffs for winter clothing, stood beside their mother, and each saying, "A te," thrust them into the hands of the peasant girl, and then stood still and stared at her. She, shy and not knowing what to do, took them almost mechanically; but when her downcast eyes fell upon them, a flash of joyous light went over her face, but she said nothing. Say Grazie," said the mother,"grazie, signora; grazie, signorine.”

"Grazie,

signora," repeated the child, as if she were saying a lesson. “Hold up your head,” said Beppa; "don't look down so and stick out your stomach, but look up." The little one lifted up her head a moment, and dropped it again. What she said when she got away and found her tongue, one can easily imagine; but there she was too shy to speak. It was a pretty picture, and a characteristic scene.

The next day another little one came-by request — and alone, to have a similar gift. This little maid, with eyes black as sloes, and thick tangled hair, of about seven, was as a little mother to the four younger children, and took care of them with a patience, intelligence, and sense of responsibility which was remarkable. It is only among the poor that such precocity is found; but here in Italy, duties and responsibilities and family cares are thrown upon young children at an age when among richer classes they would be thought too young to be left

alone.

GOVERNMENT LABOUR AND WAGES.

85

Here, however, they not only have to take care of themselves, but to look after their younger brothers and sisters-and this little maid was as serious and trustworthy almost as a grown woman. She gathered the chestnuts and brushwood; knew all the mushrooms that were edible, and where the strawberries and raspberries grew, and what she could take and what she must avoid; and kept all the little ones in order and out of danger, and carried them when they were tired, and soothed them when they cried, and assisted her mother in household affairs, and was, in a word, a little

woman.

The Government is now building a road from Vallombrosa to unite it with the highroad leading from Pontassieve, and this during the summer has afforded work for the people in the vicinity. But suddenly, by order from headquarters, a stop was put to all this work a month

ago, and all the labourers were thrown out of employ, and the little wages they hoped to gain thereby to keep them comfortably through the winter are cut off, so that there is rather a dreary prospect before them. The wages paid here for a day's labour are only 1 franc, 20 centimes; but this satisfies them if it only continues, so that they can count upon it. But when they are cut off from this, their chances are poor enough. As this is the only employment given to them by Government for years (except in the case of the six forest-guards, who have a monthly pay), this sudden stoppage of work is disastrous to these poor people, who have few other means of earning a livelihood.

The Tuscan peasants, both men and women, are almost invariably dry, thin, and spare in their build-seldom becoming fat, as is the case with the Romans and Neapolitans, even among the peasantry—and not having the appearance of great vigour. But in fact they are capable of