a treasure here, my friend! The child is a wonder. This voice must be trained—we will see—we will see."
Touching an electric bell, she summoned a messenger and hastily wrote a line which she gave him. During the boy's absence she questioned the strange pair in whom she felt so absorbing an interest, and gathered what there was to tell of their daily life. Their neighbors were kind, and the women exercised a sort of motherly care over the little girl; but the very best there was to know seemed bad enough, and the singer shuddered as she imagined the dreariness of such poverty as their's.
In answer to the call a young man stood before her.
"Beppo," she said, "your fortune is made; look at that old man." She spoke in Italian, [pg 87] and the face of the artist, for such he was, lit up with enthusiasm, as he marked the striking head and face of the person indicated. "Your model for the Beggar of San Carlo," continued the lady.
[pg 87]
Beppo Cellini, at the bidding of his countrywoman, at once made terms with the old man to sit to him for his great Academy picture.
The little girl, whose voice now commands thousands of dollars on the operatic stage, was placed under training at the joint expense of her benefactress and two other artist friends.
The old man, Signor Beppo's model, is at rest now, but he still lives in the "Beggar of San Carlo." And the Signora Cavada, among all the good deeds of her charitable career, has never known a truer thrill of happiness than she experienced on her American Christmas Day.
[pg 88]
[pg 88]
Turning the Tables
A PRACTICAL STORY
There was great commotion in the kitchen of a large seaside hotel not many miles from Long Branch. A commotion in fact, that struck dismay to the heart of the proprietor, who, upon visiting the store-room near by, was caught and detained, an invisible listener to the uproar.
"I 'clar ter gracious!" screamed the fat, colored cook, "I aint a-gwine ter stan' it no longer! Po' white trash a-layin' up in bed all mornin,' an' den it's eggs! Eggs biled, eggs scrabbled, an' homilies (omelettes) tell yer
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