ole car seemed to blow up in a joyful burst of sound!

"Look! Look! the Colombina!" shouted the people, and as the mechanical
dove returned along its wire to the altar, the air was filled with
shouts of "Christ is risen! Buona Pasqua! Buona Pasqua!" from a
thousand throats.

The bells of the Campanile clashed and sang overhead, waking all the
bells in Florence and in the hills for miles around, so that, with the
singing and the ringing, there was never a more joyful noise made than
was heard in the Piazza del Duomo on that Easter Saturday in Florence!

Teresina and the children, shouting like the others, had just turned
with the crowd to follow the car as it moved away from the Cathedral
doors, when suddenly Teresina gave a shriek of joy, and, dropping their
hands, rushed to the side of a cart which was standing beside the curb
in one of the streets opening into the square. It is not surprising
that she forgot the children for a moment, for there in the cart sat her
mother, holding in her arms Teresina's own baby, which she had left at
home in order to take care of the baby of the Marchesa. Moreover,
beside the cart was Teresina's husband, and in it there were also her
little brothers and sisters!

The Twins, thus suddenly loosed from Teresina's grasp, were swept along
by the crowd, and when, a few moments later, she turned to look for
them, they were no longer in sight.

Beppina clutched Beppo's arm as they were pushed along by a fat man
behind them. "We must find Teresina!" she shouted in his ear.

"We can't get back!" Beppo shouted in reply, punching the fat man in
the stomach with his elbow and pulling Beppina closer to his side; "and
besides," he went on in a lower key, "I'm glad to get away from her.
We'll have a good time by ourselves and go home when we get ready
without being followed around by a nurse like two babies."

"What will Mammina say?" gasped Beppina.

"She isn't here, so she won't say anything at all," said naughty Beppo.
Then he added with an important wag of his head; "Just you stick by me;
I'll take care of you."

Beppina had her doubts, but she considered Beppo the most remarkable boy
in the world, so she trotted obediently along with her hand in his, sure
that he was equal to any situation that might arise.

For an hour or more the two children wandered about the piazza, carried
hither and thither in the wake of the crowds. First they followed the
black-cowled Misericordia Bro