poured it into her pails, and started back
with them. It had been all her tired arm could do to lift the empty
ones, but now each step made sharp pains go up to her shoulders. She
staggered along with them, fighting hard against the dizziness in her
head, but when she was half-way down the ward everything began to swim
before her. She swayed, lost her balance, and would have fallen had
not a strong arm caught her. The pails fell to the floor, the water
splashing over the tops.

Through the singing in her ears she heard an angry voice.

"Poor youngster, whoever sent her out for water? Seems to me she's
earned a rest. Here, sister, help me, will you?"

Then Maria's soft voice came to her.

"Lucia dear, don't look like that!" she cried excitedly. "Here, senor,
put her on the bed, so."

She felt herself being lifted ever so gently, and then the soothing
comfort of a mattress and a pillow stole over her and she fell sound
asleep.

She did not wake up until late in the afternoon. The sun was setting
and the long ward was in deep shadow. She opened her eyes for a minute
and then closed them again. She was too blissfully comfortable to make
any effort.

She was conscious first of all of a strange quiet. The guns seemed to
have very nearly stopped, there was only a faint rumble in the
distance, and an occasional sputter from the guns near by.

The enemy had retreated beyond, far into the hills, and for the time
being Cellino was safe. Lucia guessed as much and smiled to herself.

People tiptoed about the room near her, and she could hear their voices
indistinctly. She did not try to hear what they said, she was too
tired to think. She snuggled closer in the soft pillows and sighed
contentedly, but before long a voice near her separated itself from the
rest, and she heard:

"We will go to my beautiful Napoli, you and I, and I will show you the
water, blue as the sky, and we will be very happy, and by and by you
will forget this terrible war, as a baby forgets a bad dream."

Lucia opened one eye and moved her head so that she could see the
speaker. He was Roderigo, of course, and he was holding Maria's hand
and talking very earnestly.

Lucia eavesdropped shamelessly. She was curious to hear what her
cousin would say.

"But surely you will not fight again!" Maria's voice was pleading.
"You are so sick, they will not send you back again."

"But I must go back, my wound is not a bad one and I will b