ght 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
godfa