Chapter 3 Summary

Chapter three contains the account of Biagio's first venture up into the trees to visit his brother, as well as the beginning of his understanding that Cosimo does not intend to return to life on the ground any time soon. He enters by way of the mulberry with an offering of pie. He assures Cosimo that he stole the pie under his own initiative and that he was not sent with it by any of the grown-ups. He apologizes heartily for his lapse in solidarity with his brother and assures him that the meal of snails was wretched, explaining he simply could not endure the scolding.

Cosimo begins, upon softening, to describe the exotic garden he has discovered over the brick wall, and Biagio asks if he could please be allowed to come on a guided exploration. Cosimo wants him to prove he...