“With time I can make friends with them all,” said the Hermit, smiling.  “One has but to love and understand and be patient.  See!”

He gave a peculiar call.  Instantly there came tumbling into the hut, until it nearly overflowed, a strange medley of creatures,—­hares, mice, birds, kittens, squirrels.  Last of all peered into the doorway a deer and her little speckled fawn.

The dog sat quite still, not moving a muscle.  He had been trained not to frighten his more timid neighbors.

“Follow the example of Brutus, my son,” said the Hermit gently.  “Make no sudden movement and do not speak.  They know my voice, and they will learn yours.  But you are still a stranger to them, and must expect them to be shy.”

The animals crowded lovingly about the Hermit, some springing upon his shoulders and knees, the birds flitting about his head.

Gigi thought he had never seen so wonderful a sight.  “Oh!” thought he, “if I could only do this, what money might I not take from a crowd on market-days!”

After talking to his pets and caressing them tenderly, the old man dismissed them to the outdoor sunshine, so that he was alone with Gigi, who could then be free to move and speak once more.

“The beloved innocents!” said the Hermit, with a sigh.  “Who could ever willfully injure one of them.  God’s creatures?—­But now, my son, tell me about yourself,” he broke off.  “Who are you?  Whence do you come?  Whither are you going?”

“I do not know,” said Gigi simply, in answer to all three questions.  And then he told his story as he had told it to Mother Margherita.

The old man listened pitifully.  “Poor little lad!” he said.  “Men have been cruel to you, also.  You have no home, no friends, no past, and no future.  What shall we do with you?”

“Oh, let me stay with you!” cried Gigi, clasping his hands.  “You are so good and wise.  Teach me!  Teach me to be good and wise, too.  Take me into your animal kingdom, and teach me to make them all my friends.  I could do such tricks with them,—­far better than tumbling.  I should grow rich!”

The old man shook his head.  “That cannot be,” he said.  “I cannot teach men to grow rich.  Nor would I see my animals made ridiculous for money.  I came here to be a hermit.  I vowed to have nothing more to do with human folk, only with the animals whom they persecute.  But I never thought that a child would seek my roof.”

Pie looked at Gigi doubtfully.  The boy returned the look, and the brown spot on his eyelid trembled piteously.  The Hermit blinked.

“Yes, you are a poor little animal, too,” he said at last.  “You are ignorant and innocent as they.  I cannot turn you away.  Perhaps I can teach you better things than tricks.  Perhaps I can make you a disciple and a Christian.  If you are teachable, I can make you wise with the knowledge of herbs and healing.  If I send back to the world which I have left one man useful, tender, strong, and good, perhaps he may be able to do more than I have done to stay the march of evil.”