Chapter XIV: The Fairy Godfather

Lucia turned and looked up quickly. She was startled and not a little embarrassed at having her confidence overheard.

Through the door that led from the ward the American was pushing a bed on wheels. Lucia had seen that same bed many times before. It had belonged to the old Mother Superior of the convent, and many a bright morning she had seen it out in the garden as she sat at her desk in the schoolroom above.

She looked at the white pillow half expecting to see the old wrinkled face of Mother Cecelia, but instead Captain Riccardi looked up at her and smiled.

"See, I've found you at last," he said, as Lathrop pushed the bed beside Lucia's chair. "I was beginning to think that you were just a dream child, and that I had imagined about the milk."

Lucia laughed gayly.

"No, Captain, that was not a dream, or I hope it wasn't, for if the milk was not real then I dreamed about the pennies, and the sick soldiers never got them."

"Sick soldiers! Did you give away the money?"

"Oh yes, sir, how could I keep it? I did not know you were a Captain, I thought--"

"You thought I was just a poor soldier, eh?"

"Well, yes, if you will excuse me for saying so, I did, but anyway I would not have kept the money."

"Why not?"

"How can you ask? Why because, to accept pay for something--and such a little thing as a pail of milk--"

"Two pails."

"No, just one, they were only half-full, but no matter. I wanted to give away the milk, not sell it, and so I put the pennies in the box at church."

"And all the time I thought you were perhaps buying pretty ribbons with it."

Captain Riccardi shook his head. "But I might have known better."

"Ribbons!" Lucia scorned the idea. "What do I need with such foolishness, with a war going on just under my nose! I had other things to think about, I can tell you, and other ways to spend my pennies."

The Captain looked at her gravely. Then he took her hand and patted it gently.

"You are a brave and true little Italian," he said, "and I can never hope to pay you for what you have done. You will have to look for your reward in your own heart. It ought to be a very happy and contented heart, I should think."

Lucia's cheeks flushed with pride.

"Oh, it is, Captain Riccardi," she said, "it is indeed, and I am quite content. If you heard what I said just now about the dream, you must not think that I don't want to go back to the cottage--I do, and I want so much to see my Beppino and Nana again--only--"

"Tell me about that 'only' Lucia," the Captain said gently. "That is what I want to hear, and then perhaps I will have something to tell you."

"Oh, it is nothing but silliness," Lucia protested, "how can it matter?"

"Never mind, tell me," the Captain insisted.

"But you will laugh. What do big men know of fairy stories!"

"Lots, sometimes--I believe in fairies."

Lucia looked into the smiling eyes incredulously, "You, a soldier!"

"Of course, haven't I told you that I thought you were a fairy when I first saw you, and by the Saints, I did too. Do you know, I first discovered you way down in the valley. You were with your goats. I looked at you through my glass, and your pretty flowered dress, and the kerchief you wore over your hair, made me think of the little girls at home."

"Ah, then you come from the south, too?" Lucia laughed. "I knew it."

"How do you?" the Captain demanded.

Lucia shook her head sadly.

"No, my mother came from Napoli. When I was a little girl she used to tell me all about the sunshine and the flowers, and the blue water in the bay, and old grandfather Vesuvius always frowning and puffing in the distance. Oh, I tell you I feel sometimes as if I had been there, but, of course, that is silly," she broke off, laughing, "for I have never been away from Cellino."

"Would you like to go away to the south and live there?" Captain Riccardi asked slowly.

"Oh, yes, of course. I dream sometimes that I am a princess and that a wicked fairy has turned me into a goat-herder and forced me to live here where it is so very cold sometimes, and then I wish hard for a good fairy to come and set me free, and take me on a magic carpet away to a garden full of flowers. There," she smiled shyly, "that is what I was thinking of out loud when you came a minute ago."

The Captain did not laugh, except with his eyes. His voice was very grave as he asked.

"Wouldn't a prince or a fairy godfather do just as well?"

"Oh, yes, even better," Lucia replied seriously.

"Well then, what would you say if I told you that I am a fairy godfather, and that I can spirit you to a garden even nicer than this, where it is always summer?"

"I would surely say you were telling me fairy tales," Lucia replied frankly.

The Captain laughed delightedly.

"But I'm not, Lucia," he said seriously. "I'm telling you the truth. Down in the south I have a big house set in the very heart of a beautiful garden, and I live there all by myself."

"Oh!" Lucia's big eyes were full of genuine sympathy.

"A long time ago, I used to have a little sister like you, but she died, and since then I have been ever and ever so lonely. How would you like to come and be my sister? I'd take awfully good care of you, and Garibaldi."

For an instant Lucia's eyes danced with happiness, but it was only for an instant, then her face fell.

"Oh, I would like that Captain, so very much," she said, "but I could not leave Beppino and Nana."

Captain Riccardi looked at her in silence for a moment, then he said slowly, "Of course, you couldn't. I forgot them for the moment. But of course I meant to include them in the invitation. I am very fond of Beppino already. We had quite a chat that day in the cave."

"Oh, but you don't mean it!" Lucia jumped up excitedly. "To live with you and Nana and Beppi and Garibaldi in a garden,--oh! but of course, it is not so, and I shall presently wake up."

"Wake up in the little white cottage and milk the goats and trudge to town with the heavy pails?" the Captain said.

Lucia nodded soberly.

"Not it I can help it, you won't," he added with decision. "You'll never do another stroke of hard work again."

"But are there no goats in your garden to milk, and no work to do?" Lucia looked bewildered.

"Yes, but there's a lot of people to do it,--so many in fact, that all you will have to do is to pick flowers and tell Beppi and me fairy stories. Will you come?"

"Oh!" Lucia stamped her foot. "If this is only a dream!" she exclaimed half angrily, "I shall surely die of misery when I wake up."

"It's no dream, little sister, it's true, and it won't be long before you realize it. This leg is going to take a long time in healing, but as soon as it is better we will go home, then when I am well enough to go back to fight, you will stay in the garden and keep it looking beautiful for me until I return."

For a full moment Lucia stared into the Captain's eyes, while the wonderful truth dawned on her, then her emotion being far beyond words, she threw her arms around him and kissed him heartily.