over and touched his face.
_Povera mamma!_ it was cold as ice, and stiff. Then she put her hand on
his heart, but it was still. She jumped up quickly, but, in her fright
and grief, she could not find the matches. At last she did so, and then
she saw that he was dead. Little Teresa slept between them, and he had
her hand in his, clasped so tightly that it was many minutes before La
Mamma could set it free. She did so without waking the child, and then
she put her into bed with Flavia and Fausta, and woke Marc Antonio and
sent him for the doctor. When he was gone she lighted the fire and did
what she could to warm Babbo and bring the life back, though her heart
told her, as did the doctor when he came, that all was over. By and by
the children woke and cried, and La Mamma wondered that she could find
words to quiet them, and yet she did. When everything was over and the
house quiet, the poor soul felt her heart die in her breast, and would
have been glad to lie down and die too; but no, she could not. She had
to take out the purse and count the money again, and then she found that
after buying a reserved grave for Babbo at the Campo Santo at Trespiano
she would have just enough to pay the rent for the next six months. You
know, signora, that if a reserved grave is not bought at Trespiano the
bodies are put into the _fossa comune_, and that is the end. The graves
are not marked. La Mamma could not bear the thought of that, and so she
bought a reserved grave. Then came the funeral; and she called the
children together and told them that if they each wanted to carry a
taper for Babbo they would have to go without their supper that night.
They were very hungry, every one, for, what with the trouble, and the
care, and the sorrow of that last day, La Mamma had not been able to
cook the dinner, and they had had nothing all day but a piece of bread.
Ah, they were hungry! They had cried until they were tired out, and they
were as empty as organ-tubes. Marc Antonio has told me many a time about
it. "God forgive me," says he, "but when La Mamma said that, I felt the
hunger grip me like a tiger, and the devil tempted me, and I said to
myself, 'Babbo's gone to the world over there, and what good will a
taper do him? He was never the one to want us to go to bed hungry as
well as with a sore heart.'" But even while he thought the wicked
thoughts the love for Babbo came into his heart again. He burst out
crying and sobbing, and cried out,