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Tuttu repeated a prayer he had been taught, and then continued rapidly, "Thank you, too, very much, for making me and Tutti good; and please let us go on putting beans into the fiasco till it can't hold any more and then we'll find something else...." He paused to meditate. "Make grandmother pleased with us, and bless the cats." Here Tuttu could think of nothing else, and nudged Tutti.
"You go on, Tutti." "I think Tuttu's said everything," commenced Tutti in a whisper. "But please keep us out of the pond, and make us grow so that we can be artillery; and take us home safe, for the road's rather long, and we've never been there alone, and there's oxen about." "You shouldn't say that, Tutti," said Tuttu, reprovingly. "Oxen won't hurt you, and you shouldn't be a coward."
Their grandmother was still sleeping, but they left word with the gardener's boy that they had gone into Siena "on business." This sounded well, Tuttu thought, and would disarm suspicion. The walk along the dusty high road was long and tiring, and they were glad when they arrived safely in the Piazza, where the market people had already begun to collect, for it was market day.
Tuttu carried his precious earnings tied up with intricate knots in the handkerchief, and stowed away in the largest of his pockets. He walked with conscious pride, knowing that he was a person of "property," and entering the pottery shop at the corner of the Piazza, began to cunningly tap the scaldinos, and peer into them; while Tutti stood by, lost in admiration at his brother's acuteness.
Tutti walked in charge of Bianca, while Tuttu devoted all his attention to the scaldino in its red handkerchief, and a large green cotton umbrella he had brought from home in case the day should turn out to be rainy. This umbrella seemed to be endowed with life, so extraordinary was its power of wriggling itself under the legs of the passers by.
Maddalena's reflections were suddenly interrupted at this point by the appearance of her grandchildren from the back of the yew hedge by which she was sitting Tuttu on all fours, neighing like a horse, with Tutti on his back, blowing a clay whistle. "We're only doing 'cavalry, grandmother," gasped Tuttu, with a scarlet face, attempting to prance in a military manner.
Years afterwards, Tutti, coming home on leave for he had clung to his childish idea of being a soldier found the broken fiasco in the corner where his grandmother had hidden it; and taking out the beans that had been lying there so long, he carried them to a little grave with a small white cross at the head of it. "Dear Tuttu!
On their eighth birthday, Tuttu and Tutti assured their grandmother that they really intended to reform. They promised faithfully to give up tree climbing, fishing in the pond, and many other favourite sports, and commenced to dig in the piece of kitchen garden under their grandmother's direction.
"You've got a little money left, haven't you, Tuttu?" enquired Tutti, who was always practical; "Couldn't we buy some cakes. I really feel very hungry." "Certainly not," said Tuttu, firmly, "I shall put it inside the scaldino for grandmother. That'll be the second surprise. Don't you see, Tutti?" "But it's only two half-pennies," argued Tutti.
Tuttu awoke from a restless sleep as they entered, and smiled with a faint reflection of his old happy laugh. "That's right, Tutti. You have been good, haven't you?" "Yes," quavered Tutti, lifting his terrified, tear-stained face to his brother. "Put your bean in then, Tutti, and give me mine. It's getting so late, it's almost night-time."
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