e bristles had folded down on their backs,
they rose up again, and the hair of their heads became rigid as quills.
Over the brow of a little hill, through the peach-trees (which bowed
their spiry heads to her as she walked), came quietly a tall white Lady
in a dark cloak. Hey! powers of earth and air, but this was not to be
doubted! Evenly forward she came, without a footfall, without a rustle
or the crackling of a twig, without so much as kneeing her skirt--stood
before them so nearly that they saw the pale oval of her face, and said
in a voice like a muffled bell, "I am hungry, my friends; have you any
meat?" She had a face like the moon, and great round eyes; within her
cloak, on the bosom of her white dress, she held a man-child. He, they
passed their sacred word, lifted in his mother's arms and turned
open-handed towards them. Luca, Biagio, and Astorre, goat-herds all and
honest lads, fell on their faces with one accord; with one voice they
cried, "Madonna, Madonna, Madonna! pray for us sinners!"

But again the Lady spoke in her gentle tones. "I am very hungry, and my
child is hungry. Have you nothing to give me?" So then Luca kicked the
prone Biagio, and Biagio's heel nicked Astorre on the shin. But it was
Luca, as became the eldest, who got up first, all the same; and as soon
as he was on his feet the others followed him. Luca took his cap off,
Biagio saw the act and followed it. Astorre, who dared not lift his
eyes, and was so busy making crosses on himself that he had no hands to
spare, kept his on till Luca nudged Biagio, and Biagio cuffed him
soundly, saying, "Uncover, cow-face."

Then Luca on his knees made an offering of cheese and black bread to
the Lady. They saw the gleam of her white hand as she stretched it out
to take the victual. That hand shone like agate in the dark. They saw
her eat, sitting very straight and noble upon a tussock of bents.
Astorre whispered to Biagio, Biagio consulted with Luca for a few
anxious moments, and communicated again with Astorre. Astorre jumped up
and scuttled away into the dark. Presently he came back, bearing
something in his two hands. The three shock-heads inspected his burden;
there was much whispering, some contention, almost a scuffle. The truth
was, that Biagio wanted to take the thing from Astorre, and that Luca
would not allow it. Luca was the eldest and wanted to take it himself.
Astorre was in tears. "_Cristo amore!_" he blubbered, "you will spill
the milk