she were there; but in the excitement it was
possible for him to slip away at any moment, under the mistaken idea
that he could be of service.

She put her hand upon the boy's arm to detain him, if indeed he needed
to be detained, and said, "How can I make you see that it is not
possible for you to be of any use there?"

A man in naval uniform, who was just about to step into a tender and
go out to the relief-ship, heard her words and turned, looking into
Rafael's face.

He smiled suddenly and held out his hand. "We have met before, when
life was brighter," he said; and Rafael recognized with delight the
man who had listened to the serenade at the Rialto bridge with him,
that summer night in Venice.

"May I go with you?" asked the boy impetuously.

The officer looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Our ambassador
has sent me down to see what Messina needs most," he said, "and I
shall be gone but a day or two. I see no harm in taking you along; but
there must be no nonsense about doing patrol duty."

So it came about that Rafael went to Messina and saw the ruin and
destruction caused by the greatest earthquake in the history of the
world.

He was back in Naples a few days later with a face deeply saddened by
the suffering he had seen. "I could not do anything there," he told
Mrs. Sprague, who was glad to see him safely back again; "but my
friend, the naval officer, helped me to think of a way to be of
service."

"I will help you. What are you going to do?" asked Edith. She had been
busy every day, helping her mother collect food, clothing and
medicine to send to Messina in the relief-ships; but she longed to do
still more.

"I am going to make some tops," he told her. "I saw the king and queen
doing with their own hands whatever needed to be done to help the poor
people; and I can make tops and sell them. In that way I can raise a
little money for the sufferers."

That was how it came about that, one evening a week later, a pair of
picturesque peasants stood among the booths in the Circus Agonale, in
Rome, selling tops. There were booths where peddlers sold whistles of
every kind and description; but they two, Edith and Rafael, were the
only peddlers of tops.

In all the din of the crowds that passed and re-passed, nothing
attracted more attention and made more fun than the doll-tops which
Edith and her mother had dressed for Rafael. Edith blew a great blast
on her whistle, Rafael gave a piercing scre