makes me ashamed of myself. Do you, little
girl, try and do better than I have. Well, young man, what do you say
to my proposition? Will you come with us to America?"

"Senor! Oh, senor! How can I ever----"

"Well, then, that settles it," interrupted Mr. Cabot, cutting him
short. "I will arrange everything. But there is just one condition to
be made, my youthful Venetian patriot. If by chance we see any of those
old mirrors made by the early Frenchmen who stole your art from Murano
you are not to smash them. Remember!"

Giusippe laughed.

CHAPTER V

GIUSIPPE ENCOUNTERS AN OLD FRIEND

It was scarcely a reality to Jean, to Hannah, or to Giusippe himself
when Uncle Bob actually set forth for France with the young Venetian as
a member of the party. Yet every one was pleased: Hannah because she
would not now need her foreign dictionaries; Jean because it was jolly
to have a companion her own age; and Giusippe because he felt that at
last he had friends who were to guide for him the future which had
loomed so darkly and so vaguely before him. Not a full week of the trip
to Paris had passed before Mr. Cabot declared that how he had
previously got on without that boy he did not understand. Giusippe had
such a wonderful way of making himself useful; not only did he see what
needed to be done, but he was quick to do it.

"His enthusiasm alone is worth the money I am paying for his railroad
fares and hotel bills!" ejaculated Uncle Bob to Hannah.

There certainly never was such a boy to take in everything around him,
and to remember what he saw. With mind alert for all that was to be
learned he tagged along at Mr. Cabot's heels drinking in and storing
away every scrap of history and of beauty which came across his path.
And in Paris he found much of both. The Invalides with the tomb of
Napoleon; Notre Dame with its odd gargoyles; the Arc de Triomphe; the
Bois; and the Champs-Elysees shaded by pink horse-chestnut trees--all
these sights were new and marvelous to the Italian lad. But it was
Versailles with its gardens that charmed him and Jean most.

The travelers arrived there on a Sunday, when the fountains were
playing, flowers blooming everywhere, and a gay crowd of sightseers
thronging the walks. It was like fairy-land. The great Neptune fountain
sent into the air a sheet of spray which was quickly caught up by the
sunlight and transformed into a misty rainbow. Within the palace, amid
old tapestries of battles