and gold and red
caps and sashes of the three boys who stood on the beach, looking out at
the home-coming fleet of feluccas and fishing-smacks.

"If only I were a man!" exclaimed one of the boys. "No more Latin
lessons with the Padre. I could sail and fish all day like brother
Carlo. And sometimes I'd visit strange lands, like Africa, and have the
sort of adventures father tells of."

"I'll be a sailor too, Cesare," agreed the tallest of the three, nodding
his head. "Only poor Giuseppe here will have to stay ashore and be a
priest." He turned a sympathetic face toward Giuseppe, who stood with
his arms folded, his black eyes looking hungrily out to sea.

"Aye, he'll be teaching other boys just as the Padre teaches us," said
Cesare.

This prophecy was more than the third boy could stand. He turned quickly
toward his friends. "I'll have adventures, too," he exclaimed. "I'll not
stay here in Nice all my life; I'll go to Genoa and to Rome, and perhaps
I'll fight the Turks. I want to do things, too." His deep eyes shone
with excitement and his face glowed. "Look you, Cesare and Raffaelle,
why shouldn't we turn sailors now?"

Both boys laughed; they were used to the mad ideas of young Giuseppe
Garibaldi. He, however, was not laughing. "Why not? I've been out to sea
a hundred times with father. He lets me handle his boat sometimes,
though he does say that I'm to enter the Church. Your brother, Cesare,
has a boat that he never uses. Why shouldn't we sail in her to Genoa?"

Giuseppe was a born leader. The other boys looked doubtfully at each
other, then back at him. The gleam in his eyes held them.

"Let's sail to-morrow at dawn! You, Cesare, furnish the boat, I'll bring
bread and sausage from home, and Raffaelle shall get a jug of water.
Your brother's boat is sound, Cesare? We'll sail along the shore to
Genoa!"

"Some one will catch sight of us and stop us," objected Raffaelle.

"Nay, we'll wait till the other boats are out. They'll all be off before
dawn and we'll have the beach to ourselves."

"I've a compass my uncle gave me on my name day," said Cesare. "I'll
bring that."

"And I'll bring some fishing lines," put in Raffaelle, unwilling to be
outdone.

So almost before they knew it the other two boys had agreed to
Giuseppe's plan, just as the boys of Nice usually unconsciously followed
his lead.

* * * * *

The Mediterranean was all silver and blue when the three boys met ne