she said, "every Italian should serve his king. There is need of
every one. Our country is very poor."

Rafael looked disturbed. "It is not the country that is poor," he
answered. "Our good priest says that the country is rich, with all its
vineyards, and orchards, and wheat-fields. It is only the people who
are poor."

"What wilt thou do about it, caro mio?" asked his mother, with a
laugh.

"I shall earn some money," replied Rafael. "My boat has shown me
how."

[Illustration: CHILDREN FEEDING PIGEONS IN THE PIAZZA OF ST. MARK, VENICE.
Notice the three flag-poles, and the bronze horses over the central
doorway of the Cathedral.]

CHAPTER III

RAFAEL'S TRAINED TOPS

It was early in the afternoon of the next day. The tide was low in the
canals of Venice. Hundreds of green crabs could be seen clinging
lazily to the stone walls of the houses, wherever there was a place
still cool and wet from the salt sea-water.

At the base of the two great columns in the Piazzetta, groups of
Venetian beggars were soundly sleeping. The gondoliers call these
beggars "crab-catchers," because they cling about the mooring-steps of
the canals to beg centimes from the passengers in the gondolas.

The Venetian pigeons were also sleeping. Their way of begging is more
pleasing than that of the crab-catchers, but they are beggars for all
that. They never wait for the sound of the bell which the good priest
rings every day when it is time for them to be fed, but fly down to
the pavement whenever they catch sight of a person with a bit of
grain. They flutter down by twos and threes, and beg with their best
coos for something to eat.

But now they had all disappeared from the pavement, and might be
seen, dozing with their heads under their wings, up among the eaves of
the fine palaces and beautiful public buildings which surround the
Square of St. Mark.

The children, who love to feed the pigeons, had disappeared, too, and
all Venice seemed to be taking its afternoon nap.

An American lady and her daughter, paying no heed to the heat of the
sun, turned the corner of the Doge's palace and entered the Piazzetta,
meaning to cross to the farther end of the large square, where
wood-carvings are for sale in one of the shops.

"Mother," said the girl suddenly, "I wish we knew of something to see
besides the buildings in this square. We have been here four days, and
have bought a lovely carved cherub, or a souvenir spoon of Venice, f