e of
the oldest of all the old bridges across the Arno, and then on through
narrow streets on the other side of the river, and it was nearly noon
when at last they reached the Piazza del Duomo.

The square was a wonderful sight on that beautiful spring morning.
There in front of them rose the great Cathedral, with its mighty dome,
and beside it stood the bell-tower, which Beppina had watched from her
window in the dawn. Here also in the square was the old Baptistery, _il
bel San Giovanni_, where Beppo and Beppina, and all the other children
in Florence had been baptised when they were babies.

From all the side streets entering the piazza there poured streams of
people, until it seemed as if everybody in the world must be there. In
that great crowd there were peasants leading donkeys, with bells
jingling from their scarlet trappings; there were carts filled with
black-eyed babies and women whose only head-covering was their own sleek
black braids; there were farmers and peddlers, noblemen and beggars,
great ladies and gypsies, bare-footed monks and tourists, black-hooded
Brothers of the Misericordia, and organ-grinders, fruit-sellers,
flower-sellers, old people and young, rich and poor, every one eager for
the great Easter spectacle to begin.

Teresina found a place for the children and herself on the edge of the
crowd, and almost at once there appeared right before their eyes a great
black car drawn by four splendid white oxen all garlanded with flowers.
This strange black car stopped directly in front of the Cathedral; then
from the open door of the Baptistery came a solemn procession, headed by
the Archbishop bearing a brazier filled with sacred fire. The
procession disappeared within the Cathedral doors, and there was a
moment of breathless silence both within the church and without, as the
Archbishop lighted the candles on the high altar from the holy fire.

The instant the candles flamed, the choir burst forth in a great
swelling chorus. "Glory to God in the highest," they sang, and the
bells in the Campanile began to ring as if they had suddenly gone mad.

Then the wonderful thing happened for which every one had been waiting.
Out of the door of the Cathedral, high above the heads of the people,
there flashed a white dove! It sped along a wire to the great black
car, and the instant it touched it there was a terrific bang, then
another, and another, as hissing rockets tore their way into the sky.
The wh