, "It's a good sign to meet oxen in the road."
But alas, a moment later they met a priest, mumbling his prayers as he
walked. It was a glance of despair that Beppina gave her brother then,
for it is very bad luck to meet a priest in the road, as every Tuscan
child can tell you.

Nevertheless, all these signs, bad and good, indicated that they were
approaching a town, and a few moments later they came to a stream where
women were washing clothes, and the van rumbled across a bridge and into
the open square of a small mountain village. In an instant there was
great excitement in the town, and all the inhabitants swarmed about the
van.

Luigi climbed down from the driver's seat, with Carina on his shoulder,
and loosed the bear's rope, while Carlotta brought out the organ, and
gave the tambourine to the monkey.

"Balla! Balla!" cried Luigi, and Ugolone rising to his hind legs
wearily began his clumsy dance. The children, meanwhile, shrank back
out of sight in the van.

"She will make us dance like the bear, I know she will," moaned Beppina,
"and I cannot remember the steps!" She crossed herself frantically, and
said a prayer to the Virgin, but it was of no avail, for soon Carlotta's
wheedling tones reached their hiding-place.

"Avanti, carissimi," she called, and, not daring to disobey or even to
linger, the children leaped from the back of the van into the centre of
a crowd of round-eyed villagers. The children of the Marchese Grifoni
dancing in company with a monkey and a bear for the entertainment of an
audience of peasants! The humiliation of it was almost more than they
could endure, but the Twins did their best, and the moment the
performance was over dived into the back of the van, and hid themselves
again, while Carina leaped about among the crowd, gathering the soldi in
her tambourine.

Their stay in the village was short, for the people were poor.

"It is a town of pigs," said Carlotta angrily, as she counted the money,
and to the great relief of the children she gave the order to move on
into the hills beyond the village.

They stopped at one more village during the afternoon, and here things
went better. The children remembered their steps, and there were more
soldi in the tambourine, even though Ugolone sat firmly down upon his
haunches and refused to budge. In vain Luigi tugged at his rope and
shouted "Balla! Balla!" It was as if Ugolone, seeing the children
dance, had concluded that his d