John of the Woods | Page 4

Cecco was so
swift and lithe, like a cat! He would run after Gigi and capture him. The
Giant was so big and cruel! He would kill Gigi when he was brought
back. The boy shuddered at the thought.
Gigi pulled around him the old flapping cloak which he wore while
traveling, to conceal his gaudy tumbler's costume. If he only had that
silver piece perhaps he could do something, he thought. Much could be
done with a silver piece. It was long since the band had seen one. They
would be having a fine lark at the inn, eating and drinking! They would
not be back for a long time.
Gigi looked up and around the marketplace. There was no one visible.
The crowd had melted as if by magic. Every one was at supper,--every
one but Gigi. What a chance to escape, if he were ever to try! The color
leaped into the boy's pale cheeks. Why not? Now or never!
He rose to his feet, pulling his cloak closer about him, and looked
stealthily up and down. The donkey lifted his head and eyed him
wistfully, as if to say, "Oh, take me away, too!" But Gigi paid no
attention to him. He was not cruel, but he had never learned to be kind.
Without a pang, without a farewell to the beast who had been his
companion and fellow-sufferer for so many long months, he turned his
back on the fountain and stole down one of the darkest little side
streets.
He ran on down, constantly down, for the village was on the side of a
hill, and the market-place was at its top. Around sharp curves he turned,
dived under dark archways and through dirty alleys, down flights of
steps, until he was out of breath and too dizzy to go further. He had
come out on the highroad, it seemed. The little brown cottages were
farther apart here. It was more like the country, which Gigi loved. He
turned into an enclosure and hid behind a stack of straw, panting.
[Illustration: Gigi runs away.]
He wondered if by this time they had discovered his flight, and he
shivered to think of what Tonio and Cecco were saying if it were so. He
looked up and down the road. There was something familiar about it.
Yes, it was surely the road up which they had toiled that very afternoon,
coming from the country and a far-off village. They had been planning
to go on from here down the other side of the hill to the next village,

Gigi knew. But now would they retrace their steps to look for him?
Just then he spied a black speck moving down the road toward him.
Gigi's heart sank. Could they be after him already? He crouched closer
behind the straw-stack, trembling. They must not find him!
Nearer and nearer came the speck. At last Gigi saw that it was a cart
drawn by a team of white oxen, which accounted for the slowness of
the pace. He sighed with relief. This at least he need not fear. As it
came nearer, Gigi saw that in the cart were a woman and three little
boys of about his own age. And presently, as he watched the lumbering
team curiously, he recognized the very woman who had given him the
silver piece an hour before. These, too, were the little boys who had
faced him in the crowd. A sudden hope sprang into Gigi's heart.
Perhaps she would help him to escape. Perhaps she would at least give
him a lift on his way. He decided to risk it.

IV
THE OX-CART
Gigi waited until the cart was nearly opposite, and he could hear the
voices of the woman and the children talking and laughing together.
Then he crept out from behind the stack and stepped to the side of the
road.
The great, lumbering oxen eyed him curiously, but did not pause. The
children stopped talking, and one of them pointed Gigi out to his
mother.
"Look, Mama! A little boy!"
"Hello!" cried the woman in her hearty, kind voice, stopping the team.
"What are you doing here, little lad?"
She did not recognize Gigi at once in his long traveling cloak. But
suddenly he threw back the folds of it and showed the green tights
underneath.
"Do you remember?" he said. "You told me to run away. Well, I have
done it!"
"It is, the little tumbler! The tumbler, Mama!" cried the boys in one
breath, clapping their hands with pleasure.
But the woman stared blankly. "My faith!" she said at last. "You lost no
time in taking the hint. How did you get here so soon? We were
homeward bound when you had scarcely finished tumbling.