John of the Woods | Page 5

if they catch me this time, they will kill me because I ran away. Will you help me?"
"Why, what can I do?" asked the woman uneasily, looking up and down the road. "If they should come now! You belong to them. I shall get myself into trouble."
Gigi's face fell. "Very well," he said. "Good-by. You were kind to me to-day, and I thought--perhaps--" He turned away, with his lips quivering.
"Stay!" cried the woman. "Where is the silver piece which I gave you? You can at least buy food and a night's lodging with that."
"They took it from me," said Gigi. "I had to give it up because there was so little money in the tambourine,--only coppers. They said people would not pay because I fell; and so they would beat me again."
"They took it from you! The thieves!" cried the woman angrily. "Nay, then I will indeed help you to escape. Climb in here, boy, among my youngsters. We have still an hour's ride down the road, and you shall go so far at least."
Gigi climbed into the cart and nestled down among the children. The woman clucked to the oxen, and forthwith they moved on down the highroad. The shadows were beginning to darken, and the birds had ceased to sing.
"Hiew! Hiew! Come up! Come up!" the woman urged on the great white oxen. "It is growing late, and the good man will wonder why we are so long returning from market. This has been our holiday," she explained to Gigi. "And to think that the Tumblers should have happened to come to the market this very day! The children will never forget!"
Beppo had been staring at Gigi with fascinated eyes. "How did you learn?" he asked suddenly. "Could I do it too?"
Gigi laughed. For the first time that day his face lost its sadness, and the brown spot on his eyelid, falling into one of the little creases, gave him a very mischievous look. He seemed to wink. Immediately the whole cartful of peasants began to laugh with him, they knew not why. They could not help it. This was what happened whenever Gigi laughed, as he seldom did.
But soon Gigi grew grave once more. "Why do you want to learn?" he asked. "It does not make me happy. For oh! they are so cruel!"
"Do they beat you much?" asked Paolo sympathetically. Gigi nodded his head with a sigh. "Very much," he said. "I am always black and blue."
"Am I too big to learn?" demanded Giovanni, the oldest boy, who was perhaps twelve and heavier than Gigi. "When did you begin?"
Gigi grew thoughtful. "Ever since I remember, I have tumbled," he said. "Ever since I was a baby, before I could even turn a somersault, they tossed me back and forth between them and made me kiss my hand to the people who stood about."
"And did they beat you then?" asked Beppo, doubling up his fists.
Gigi sighed again. "They always beat me," he said simply. "Whatever I did, they beat me when they were ugly. And that was always."
"Do you belong to them?" asked the woman suddenly. "They are Gypsies, black men. But you are fair like the people of the North. Where did they get you, Gigi?"
Gigi shook his head. "I do not know," he said. "I have belonged to them always, I think."
"Hark!" said Mother Margherita suddenly. "What's that?"
There was a faint noise far off on the road behind them. Gigi trembled. "They are coming for me!" he said. "What shall I do?"
"No, no," said the woman. "I do not fear that. It is too soon, surely. But it is growing dark here in the valley. This is a lonely spot, and there are many wicked men about besides your masters, Gigi."
"Thieves and villains!" whispered Giovanni. "Oh, mother, hide the bag of silver that you got at market!"
"Sh! Sh!" warned the mother sharply. "Do not speak of it! Hiew, hiew! Go on! go on!" And she urged the oxen faster.
But the great beasts would not hasten their pace for her. The noise came nearer. They could hear that it was the trotting of hoofs.
"There is only one animal," said Gigi, whose ears were keen. "I can hear his four feet patter. I think it is the donkey!"
"I can see him now!" cried Paolo. "It is a little man on a donkey. He is bending forward and beating it hard."
Gigi strained his eyes to see. "It is Tonio!" he whispered fearfully. "I know it! Oh, the Hunchback will kill me when he finds me! And he will take your silver, too!"
"Sh! Sh!" commanded the mother. "He shall not find you. Here, take this bag, Gigi. It will be safer with you. And here, creep under my skirts and keep close. He will never guess where you are!"
Mother