It was several moments before the eyes of the children became sufficiently accustomed to the dim light to really see what was being pointed out. High above their heads was a small window, close to which had been placed a wooden box.

The old man stopped a moment, listened, reached up his hand, then drew it back with an air of satisfaction, while the youngsters, fascinated, watched without in the least surmising what it was all about.

With a finger on his lips to enjoin silence, he suddenly seized Andrea and raised him to the level of the window ledge.

"There!" he cried, "don't be afraid. Put your hand into the box."

As the boy timidly obeyed, he went on, "Now tell me, what do you feel?

Speak!"

The frightened look on Andrea's face gave way, first to one of mystification, then to an expression of joy as his hand touched something warm:

"L'uccello!" [Footnote: The bird.] he cried; then, in an ecstasy of delight, "Is it mine?"

Paolo nodded, and, after putting the boy down on the floor, gently lifted Maria so that she, too, might put her fingers into the nest he had made for the fledgling he had found on the pavement the evening before.

"It's a baby pigeon," she softly murmured.

"Si! Si!" the old caretaker declared, delighted at the sensation he had caused, "I came across him all huddled up by yonder column."

"And may I really have him?" queried Andrea, finding it hard to realize that he had gained his heart's desire.

"Why not? I doubt if the old birds will even notice he has gone. You know when the mother has other eggs to take her attention, she gives the fledglings into the care of the father bird, and it isn't very long before he pushes them out to shift for themselves. There is no reason why this particular one should not belong to you: in fact, I imagine he's a bit lonesome in this strange place, though, to be sure, I did all I could to make him comfortable, with a wisp of hay and a few dried sticks, but, at best, I'm not much of a nest-maker. Come now, would you like to have a look at him?"

"Si! Si!" the children cried together. And with that Paolo, after lighting a bit of discarded candle and giving it to Andrea to hold, stretched up and took the pigeon from the nest.

In the flickering light the children bent lovingly over the little fluttering thing in the old man's hand; they had never before seen a young bird at such close range and they looked with wonder at the soft, shapeless body, the big eyes, the ugly bill, wide open in insistent demand for food.

"May I give him a crumb to eat?" asked Andrea in an odd tone.

"Si," was the ready a.s.sent; "I expect he's hungry enough, with no one to wait on him. By the way, did you ever see a baby pigeon fed?"

The children shook their heads and listened most eagerly as the old man went on:

"This is a matter in which both father and mother take a hand, and the first food is a liquid secreted in their crops and called 'pigeons' milk.'

When mealtime comes, the parents open wide their beaks, the little birds thrust in their bills, and the fun begins. I tell you it takes a great deal of effort and bobbing of heads for Baby Pigeon to get a satisfactory meal."

"How can we--ever--feed him?" Andrea anxiously interrupted, as if he felt that his charge might prove somewhat of a responsibility.

"Don't worry," was the comforting response as Paolo nodded his wise old head; "he may not be able to shift for himself, but I am willing to wager he will manage to eat whatever you offer him. You see this particular kind of infant food only lasts a few days; after that the milk gradually thickens and becomes mixed with bits of grain. Almost before he knows it, Baby Pigeon is independent of his parents and eats quite as if fully grown."

With that the old caretaker held out a piece of cracked wheat to the fledgling who devoured it greedily and opened his beak for more.

The children laughed aloud and clapped their hands in glee, continuing to feed him until Paolo declared the bird had had a royal breakfast and carefully replaced him in the nest.

Then, with Andrea on one side and Maria holding tightly to the other hand, he led them out of the shed and into the bright sunshine.

They stopped for a moment under the window for a lingering glance upward while Paolo called their attention to the dry-goods box he had placed on end for their special convenience.

"By standing on this," he explained, "you can get on a level with the nest without being dependent on me."

All the morning the children hung around the shed, delighted when there was an occasional sound from the nest above, and from time to time they clambered up to whisper soft nothings to the sharp ears of Baby Pigeon.

At noon, when eating their luncheon, they plied the old caretaker with questions some of which, it must be confessed, taxed all his ingenuity to answer satisfactorily.

"How long will it be before I can begin to train him?" interrupted Andrea, on fire with his desire at once to realize his ambition.

Paolo laughed. "One question at a time. I notice some soft down already beginning to show, so I fancy it will not be many weeks until he can boast as much in the way of fine clothes as his own father and mother. As for his training, it's quite too soon to think of that; so, my boy, you will have to possess your soul in patience for a while longer. By the way, your bird should have a name. Have you any in mind?"

"Not yet, although I've been thinking about that very thing," Andrea answered meditatively; "no name seems good enough."

"I think 'bambino' would be nice," suggested Maria; "he's such a darling baby."

"Si, but he will soon be grown up" put in Andrea; "I was wondering how Marco would do."

"Well, I don't say it wouldn't do," Paolo answered reflectively; "but it seems to me something like 'caro' or 'amato' [Footnote: Dear--beloved]

might be appropriate for such a pet."

Andrea shook his head. And, after again racking his brain in an effort to suggest a really appropriate name, the old man finally slapped his hand on his side:

"It just comes to me this instant, something I heard one of those touristas call a little curly dog by. At the time it occurred to me that it sounded more like a name for a pigeon."

"What was it?" Andrea inquired eagerly.

"Chico," Paolo answered, lingering on the first syllable, exactly as the tourista had done--"Chee-ko."

Andrea was charmed, agreeing that there was something about it that seemed to suit a saucy pigeon, and, vastly pleased, he repeated over and over, "Chico, Chico," while Maria echoed softly "Chee-ko."

CHAPTER V

THE MEANEST CAT IN VENICE

It is hard to imagine a more forlorn experience in the life of a young bird than to be suddenly pushed from the nest and find himself alone on a hard pavement. It is bad enough when it happens as the result of premeditation on the part of an unfeeling parent who has made up his mind that his offspring are quite able to shift for themselves, but, when it occurs from accident, it is nothing short of tragic.

Poor Chico, this was what had happened to him, and he had huddled, shivering, close to the column of St. Theodore and tried in vain to reason everything out in his pigeon mind. Many things had happened of late that he had not been able to understand. His mother, hitherto most attentive to his sister and himself, had suddenly ceased feeding them with the nice soft food they loved so well, at the same time refusing to cuddle them under her warm breast.

He remembered vaguely hearing her impatiently coo to his father, that _he_ would have to look out for the fledglings, her duty was to the eggs. At the time he hadn't understood what she meant by eggs, although once or twice he had caught a glimpse of two white oval things under her breast which she seemed to be dreadfully proud of.

It wouldn't have been so bad if his father had been as affectionate as usual, but, on the contrary, he had treated his sister and himself as if they were in the way, and it was easy to see Father Pigeon would have greatly preferred crowding on the nest with his mate to getting food for two greedy fledglings.

In fact, that was how the accident had happened. Chico had been so unfortunate as to get in the way, with the result that he had been pushed out and had fallen to the ground.

Poor little naked fledgling, he had shivered and huddled close to the friendly column, for, even in summer, the breeze from the Adriatic often blows fresh and cool.

He had just begun to wonder how he should get anything to eat, when suddenly a shadow had come over him, causing him to crouch low in even, greater terror, while his heart thumped horribly, but before he could utter a sound he had been seized by a big warm hand, and a voice that was not unkindly had exclaimed: