rning, then, stepping softly to the door of her room, she
opened it cautiously and peered into the dark corridor. She listened;
there was not a sound in the house except the gurgle of a distant snore.

"Ah, that Teresina!" murmured Beppina to herself. "She sleeps like a
kettle boiling! First the lid rattles, then there is a whistle like the
steam. Why does she not put corks in her nose at night and shut the
noise up inside of her?"

She slipped silently into the hall and listened at the door of Beppo's
room. She heard no sound, and was just on the point of turning the
knob, when the door flew open of itself and a boy with great dark eyes
like her own burst into the corridor and bumped directly into her.
Beppina backed hastily against the wall, and though the breath was
nearly knocked out of her, remembered to offer him her Easter greetings.

"Buona Pasqua, Beppo mio," she gasped. "I was just going to wake you."

"To wake me!" Beppo shouted derisively. "That's a good joke. I'm up
first, just as I said I should be! See, I am all dressed, and you--you
have not even begun!"

Beppina laid her finger on her lips. "Hush, Beppo!" she whispered.
"Don't roar so. It's only five o'clock, and every one else in the house
is asleep. Not even the maids have stirred, and as for Teresina--listen
to her! She sleeps like the dead, though less quietly, yet she rouses
at once if the baby stirs, and if we should wake the baby at this hour,
she would be angry at us all day long."

They listened for a moment to the appalling sounds which rolled forth
from the room where Teresina, the nurse, slept. Then Beppo said: "If
the baby can sleep through that noise, she can sleep through anything.
It sounds like a thunder-storm in the mountains."

At that moment a wicked idea popped into his head. "I know what I'm
going to do," he whispered, grinning with delight. "I'm going to creep
into her room like a cat and drop something into her mouth. She sleeps
with it open, and I have a piece of soap just the right size!"

"Beppo!" gasped Beppina. "Don't you dare! Teresina would then refuse
to take us to the piazza, and you know very well there is no one else to
go with us, for the governess had a headache last night and went to bed
looking as yellow as saffron."

"Oh, but just think how funny Teresina would look, choking and
sputtering like a volcano pouring forth fire, smoke, and lava," chuckled
Beppo, who was studying geography a