foundation of ceaseless sound, contributed by the
hundreds of Sicilians who swarmed about the ancient church, infested the
narrow side streets of the village, looked down from the small balconies
and the windows of the houses, and gathered in mobs in the wine-shops and
the trattorie.

"Signorino! Signorino! Look!"

Gaspare had reached Maurice, and now stood by the little table at which
his padrone and Maddalena were sitting, and placed the tortured parcel
tenderly upon it.

"Is that the clock?"

Gaspare did not reply in words, but his brown fingers deftly removed the
string and paper and undressed his treasure.

"Ecco!" he exclaimed.

The clock was revealed, a great circle of blue and white standing upon
short, brass legs, and ticking loudly,

"Speranza mia, non piangere,
E il marinar fedele,
Vedrai tornar dall' Africa
Tra un anno queste vele----"

bawled the little boy from Naples. Gaspare seized the clock, turned a
handle, lifted his hand in a reverent gesture bespeaking attention; there
was a faint whirr, and then, sure enough, the tune of the "Tre Colori"
was tinkled blithely forth.

"Ecco!" repeated Gaspare, triumphantly.

"Mamma mia!" murmured Maddalena, almost exhausted with the magic of the
fair.

"It's wonderful!" said Maurice.

He, too, was a little tired, but not in body.

Gaspare wound the clock again, and again the tune was trilled forth,
competing sturdily with the giant noises of the fair, a little voice that
made itself audible by its clearness and precision.

"Ecco!" repeated Gaspare. "Will not the signora be happy when she sees
what I have brought her from the fair?"

He sighed from sheer delight in his possession and the thought of his
padrona's joy and wonder in it.

"Mangiamo?" he added, descending from heavenly delights to earthly
necessities.

"Yes, it is getting late," said Maurice. "The fireworks will soon be
beginning, I suppose."

"Not till ten, signorino. I have asked. There will be dancing first.
But--are we going to stay?"

Maurice hesitated, but only for a second.

"Yes," he said. "Even if we went now the signora would be in bed and
asleep long before we got home. We will stay to the end, the very end."

"Then we can say 'Good-morning' to the signora when we get home," said
Gaspare.

He was quite happy now that he had this marvellous present to take back
with him. He felt that it would make all