The great, lumbering oxen eyed him curiously, but did not pause.  The children stopped talking, and one of them pointed Gigi out to his mother.

“Look, Mama!  A little boy!”

“Hello!” cried the woman in her hearty, kind voice, stopping the team.  “What are you doing here, little lad?”

She did not recognize Gigi at once in his long traveling cloak.  But suddenly he threw back the folds of it and showed the green tights underneath.

“Do you remember?” he said.  “You told me to run away.  Well, I have done it!”

“It is, the little tumbler!  The tumbler, Mama!” cried the boys in one breath, clapping their hands with pleasure.

But the woman stared blankly.  “My faith!” she said at last.  “You lost no time in taking the hint.  How did you get here so soon?  We were homeward bound when you had scarcely finished tumbling.  Now here you are before us, on foot!”

“I ran,” said Gigi simply.  “I came not by the highway, which is long and winding, but down steep streets like stairs, which brought me here very quickly.”

“See the bruise on his cheek, mother!” cried Beppo, the littlest boy, pointing.  The good woman saw it, and her eyes flashed.

“Oh!  Oh!” she clucked.  “The wicked men!  Did they do that to you?”

“Yes.  And they will do more if they catch me now,” said Gigi.  “I know.  They have beaten me many times till I could not move.  But if they catch me this time, they will kill me because I ran away.  Will you help me?”

“Why, what can I do?” asked the woman uneasily, looking up and down the road.  “If they should come now!  You belong to them.  I shall get myself into trouble.”

Gigi’s face fell.  “Very well,” he said.  “Good-by.  You were kind to me to-day, and I thought—­perhaps—­” He turned away, with his lips quivering.

“Stay!” cried the woman.  “Where is the silver piece which I gave you?  You can at least buy food and a night’s lodging with that.”

“They took it from me,” said Gigi.  “I had to give it up because there was so little money in the tambourine,—­only coppers.  They said people would not pay because I fell; and so they would beat me again.”

“They took it from you!  The thieves!” cried the woman angrily.  “Nay, then I will indeed help you to escape.  Climb in here, boy, among my youngsters.  We have still an hour’s ride down the road, and you shall go so far at least.”

Gigi climbed into the cart and nestled down among the children.  The woman clucked to the oxen, and forthwith they moved on down the highroad.  The shadows were beginning to darken, and the birds had ceased to sing.

“Hiew!  Hiew!  Come up!  Come up!” the woman urged on the great white oxen.  “It is growing late, and the good man will wonder why we are so long returning from market.  This has been our holiday,” she explained to Gigi.  “And to think that the Tumblers should have happened to come to the market this very day!  The children will never forget!”