No supper for you, Gigi. Do you
watch the donkey here while we go to the inn and spend the silver
piece. Then, when we are camped outside the town,--then we will attend
to you!"

III

THE RUNAWAY

It was but a step to the inn around the corner. Off went the three
gypsies, leaving Gigi with the donkey beside the fountain. The poor
animal stood with hanging head and flopping ears. He too was weary and
heart-broken by a hard life and many beatings. His back was piled with
the heavy roll of carpet and all the poor belongings of the band,
including the tent for the night's lodging. For on these warm spring
nights they slept in the open, usually outside the walls of some town.
They were never welcome visitors, but vagrants and outcasts.

Gigi sat on the fountain-step with his aching head between his hands.
He was very hungry, and his heart ached even more than his head or his
empty stomach. He was so tired of their cruelties and their hard ways
with him, which had been ever since he could remember. The kind word
which the good woman had spoken to him had unnerved him, too. She had
advised him to run away. Run away! He had thought of that before.
But how could he do it? Tonio the Hunchback was so wicked and sharp!
He would know just where to find a runaway. Cecco was so swift and
lithe, like a cat! He would run after Gigi and capture him. The Giant
was so big and cruel! He would kill Gigi when he was brought back.
The boy shuddered at the thought.

Gigi pulled around him the old flapping cloak which he wore while
traveling, to conceal his gaudy tumbler's costume. If he only had that
silver piece perhaps he could do something, he thought. Much could be
done with a silver piece. It was long since the band had seen one.
They would be having a fine lark at the inn, eating and drinking! They
would not be back for a long time.

Gigi looked up and around the marketplace. There was no one visible.
The crowd had melted as if by magic. Every one was at supper,--every
one but Gigi. What a chance to escape, if he were ever to try! The
color leaped into the boy's pale cheeks. Why not? Now or never!

He rose to his feet, pulling his cloak closer about him, and looked
stealthily up and down. The donkey lifted his head and eyed him
wistfully, as if to say, "Oh, take me away, too!" But Gigi paid no
attention to him. He was not cruel, but he had never learned to be
kind. Without a pang, without a f