aw rising
before them from a great open piazza the huge church of Saint Anthony of
Padua, crowned by its six domes and many spires. It was as if they had
known every inch of the way, so directly had they come.

The bells of the church were pealing joyfully, and the square was full
of people, all going toward the church, for it was the festa of Saint
Anthony, though the children did not know it.

Passers-by glanced curiously at the two queer, forlorn little figures,
but no one spoke to them, and they stood for a moment uncertain what to
do, or in what direction to go, when suddenly Beppina gave a shriek of
joy, and, springing forward, threw her arms about a tall, stern-looking
woman in a nurse's ruff and streamers who was hurrying toward the church
carrying an immense loaf of bread in her hand.

"Teresina!" screamed Beppina.

The woman looked at the child in blank astonishment, but it was not
until she saw Beppo that the light of recognition dawned in her face.
Then, dropping the bread and falling upon her knees, she engulfed both
ragged, dirty children in a wide embrace.

"Oh, thanks be to God, the blessed Virgin, and Saint Anthony, you are
found again!" she cried, her eyes streaming tears and her tongue prayers
of thanksgiving at the same time. "I was just on my way to offer this
bread at the shrine of the blessed Saint, and pray, as I have prayed
daily since you were lost, that you might be found again! And here
before I have even been to the church at all, the blessed Saint has
heard my prayers, and you rise up before me as if out of the ground. It
is a miracle! Ah, Madonna mia! what tears the Signora has wept for you!
And the Signore your father, he has not slept for seeking you! Come,
come--do not delay! We must send word to the villa at once that they
may come running to meet you even as his father met the prodigal son."

Her tongue ran so fast that the children had no chance to ask questions.
A crowd now gathered about them, and when Teresina had explained the
cause of the excitement and joy, sympathetic bystanders rushed to send
word to the villa, seven miles away, and to spread the good news that
the children of the Marchese Grifoni, for whom the police had been
searching every town in Italy for two months, had now appeared in Padua.

"It is not for nothing that Saint Anthony is the patron saint of all who
suffer loss," said the pious ones, and many a candle was gratefully
offered on his shrine th