and looked at him for a moment and then went away like the rest.
Hunger and thirst overpowered the child, and he became quite faint and
ill. At last he crept into a corner behind the marble monuments and went
to sleep. Towards evening he was awakened by a pull at his sleeve. He
started up, and the same old citizen stood before him.

"Are you ill? Where do you live? Have you been here all day?" were some
of the questions asked by the old man. After hearing his answers, the
old man took him to a small house in a back street close by. They
entered a glovemaker's shop, where a woman sat sewing busily. A little
white poodle, so closely shaved that his pink skin could plainly be
seen, frisked about the room and gamboled over the boy.

"Innocent souls are soon intimate," said the woman, as she caressed both
the boy and the dog.

These good people gave the child food and drink, and said he should stay
with them all night, and that the next day the old man, who was called
Giuseppe, would go and speak to his mother. A simple little bed was
prepared for him, but to him who had so often slept on the hard stones
it was a royal couch, and he slept sweetly and dreamed of the splendid
pictures, and of the Metal Pig. Giuseppe went out the next morning, and
the poor child was not glad to see him go, for he knew that the old man
had gone to his mother, and that perhaps he would have to return. He
wept at the thought, and then played with the lively little dog and
kissed it, while the old woman looked kindly at him to encourage him.

What news did Giuseppe bring back? At first the boy could not find out,
for the old man talked to his wife, and she nodded and stroked the boy's
cheek. Then she said, "He is a good lad, he shall stay with us. He may
become a clever glovemaker, like you. Look what delicate fingers he has.
Madonna intended him for a glovemaker."

So the boy stayed with them, and the woman herself taught him to sew. He
ate well, and slept well, and became very merry. But at last he began to
tease Bellissima, as the little dog was called. This made the woman
angry, and she scolded him and threatened him, which made him unhappy,
and he went and sat in his own room, full of sad thoughts. This chamber
looked out upon the street, in which hung skins to dry, and there were
thick iron bars across his window. That night he lay awake, thinking of
the Metal Pig. Indeed, it was always in his thoughts. Suddenly he
fancied he heard feet o