“Peppo, would it not be a beautiful sacrifice for you to give up going to-night?”

“O Father,” stammered the child with tears in his eyes, “no, I don’t want to.  I will make a sacrifice, but not to-night.  I want to see the fire-works and the puppet show.  And Willy will be at the puppet show, I want to find him, too.  He will go if he can, for he knows that every New Year’s night we boys go.  Please, Father, do not keep me.  I will willingly live on rice and water for a month rather than stay home to-night.”

“Poor child, you do not know what is for your best good,” answered Father Somazzo.  “I wanted you to look upon this as a sacrifice which you were willing to make, but since you will not, I command you to remain at home, for a reason which I cannot tell you.  Come, Peppo, into the class-room.  You may take my big picture-book with all the pictures of European cities and churches, ladies and gentlemen in fine clothes and battles and ships.  The time will pass quickly.  Come and win the reward of obedience.”

“I don’t want to, I won’t go!” cried the boy, crying at the top of his lungs and stamping his feet on the floor.

“What?  What?  Such a thing as this from you?  That is no way to behave.  If you do not come with me willingly, you shall not have the pretty picture-book.”

With these words Father Somazzo led the weeping child into the class-room, while he went to get the promised book.  Totu, the servant, who was standing near the door at the time, was a witness of the scene.  His plan was to seize the boy at the puppet show, when the attention of all the by-standers was on the stage, fasten him to himself by a cunningly contrived chain and belt, so that he could not possibly escape in the crowd, and deliver him over to his uncle.  When he saw that the boy was detained against his will, the sly fellow changed his tactics.

“Ha, ha,” said he, “this is much easier for Totu,” and hurrying into the garden, stationed himself under the window which opened into and was on a level with the garden.  As soon as Father Somazzo left the room, Peppo went to the window to watch the sky rockets that every now and then went shooting into the sky, and to listen to the shouts of the merry revelers in the streets.

“What, little Lihu, are you not going to the celebration?  Why, down in the marketplace there is the finest puppet show that was ever seen or heard of anywhere,” said Totu in a sympathetic tone of voice.

“I can’t,” said he, “Father Somazzo is an old tyrant.  He wants me to renounce this pleasure, to make a sacrifice to God to-night by staying at home.”

“Oh, nonsense!” answered the tempter.  “You come with me.  I’ll take you down into the city, and to the puppet show, and the fireworks, and everything else.  We’ll be back in an hour, and Father Somazzo, who is saying his prayers, won’t even know you’ve been away.”

“He has locked the door, and will be angry if he finds me gone,” said the boy, half ready to yield to the tempter.