finding her standing at the door with a smile on her wrinkled face, welcoming them to supper on their return, the fire was always out and their mother lay on her couch, no less glad to see them, to be sure, but no longer able to amuse them or minister to their comfort.  Then the taxes were increased and hard times came.  By twos and threes the men of the village packed their bundles, bade good-by to their friends and families, and left the town, some to seek work in other parts of Italy, but most of them to take the big iron steamships for America, where work was easy and money plentiful.  Sadly the boys watched their comrades depart.  They would have liked to go, too, to seek their fortunes in this new land of promise, but they could not leave their mother.  The following year some of the men who had gone away to America returned in fine clothes and with full purses to tell of the wonderful country beyond the seas, where one could always earn his ten lire every day and do as he liked.  “Viva la liberta!” they cried, pounding the tables in the cafe.  “Come, comrades!  We have plenty of money.  Drink to the great country of America!”

Vito and Antonio listened with envy.  One evening the elder brother asked Antonio to come to walk with him.  When they had gone a little way he said suddenly: 

“Toni, I think I shall go to this America.  We need more money to make our mother comfortable.  If we wait until she is dead the money will be of no use.  You can stay here, and when I have made a place for you and her, you shall bring her on the ship to the new country.”

Vito was five years older than Antonio, and his word had always been law to the younger brother, so although he was sick at heart at the thought of being left behind, he said nothing against the project, but tried to make it easy for Vito with their mother.  The old woman could not bear the thought of her firstborn leaving her, and declared, with the tears running down her face, that she should never see him again, but at last she yielded to their persuasions and gave Vito her blessing.  It would be only a little while before she and Toni would join him, and they would be happy ever after.

Then Toni was left alone with his mother.  Every day he arose at the first streak of dawn, prepared breakfast, cleaned the house, saw that his mother was comfortable and then started off for the fields.  A month went by, two months, three, a year, but no word came from Vito.  Toni assured the poor old woman that they would certainly hear from him the next week or the next, but cruel fear had taken possession of him.  Something had happened to his brother!  The years swept on.  Their mother became more and more helpless.  Antonio was obliged to hire a woman to care for her as nurse for a small sum, but it was just enough to leave only a pittance for them to live on.  Toni grew thin and haggard.  Where could Vito be?  Was he alive or dead?  Next to his love for Nicoletta Lupero it became the great passion of his life to learn what had become of Vito.