u are right, Jan," she answered sorrowfully. "I suppose I must do
as you say. I did so want him to be really my own, just like my little
Gustaf."

"_Your_ little Gustaf, _our_ little Gustaf, is in a good place, and I
hope Nono will be there too sometime," said Jan.

"Not Nono in heaven yet!" said Karin, pressing the dark baby to her
breast. "I cannot spare him, and I don't believe God will take him."

"Now you are foolish, Karin. That was not what I meant," said Jan
tenderly. "You bring him up right, and he will come sometime where
Gustaf is, and that's what we ought to want most for him." Jan paused
a moment, and then went on: "Somehow those words of the baptism took
hold of me to-day as they never did before, not even when my owny tony
children were baptized. I mean to be the right kind of a godfather to
him if I can."

Jan kept his resolution. He could sometimes be rough and hasty with
his own boys when he was tired or particularly worried; towards Nono he
was always kind, and just, and wise. Somehow there had entered into
his honest heart the meaning of the words, "I was a stranger, and ye
took me in." What was done for Nono was, in a way, done for the Master.

Karin did not reason much about her feelings for the black-eyed boy who
was growing up in the cottage. She gave him a mother's love in full
abundance. If little Nono had no sunny Italian skies above him, he had
the sunshine of a happy home, and real affection in the golden house.

From the very first Nono heard the truth as to how he came to be living
in the cold north. Before he could speak, the story of the bear and
the Italians had been again and again told in his presence. Of course,
every one who saw the black-eyed, brown-skinned child inquired how he
came among the frowzy white heads of his foster-brothers. The picture
of the whole scene grew by degrees so perfect in Nono's mind, that he
really believed he had been a witness of as well as a prominent
partaker in the performance. It was only by severe reproof and
reproach on the part of the other children that he was made to
understand that he had been only a baby "so long" (the Swedish boys
held their hands very near together on such occasions), while they had
had the honour of seeing the very whole, and remembered it as perfectly
as if it had happened yesterday, as probably some of them did.

So Nono had to take a humble place as a mere listener when the
oft-repeated story was to