Two creamy oxen with spreading horns stood in the stalls; these oxen were the pride of Ugo’s heart. With them he plowed his land, drew the wheat in his farmcart from field to threshing-floor, and occasionally took the family to Florence. They always went, for example, to the Cathedral on Easter Day, each carrying a little pot of new-springing wheat, as a symbol of life in the springtime. Or they went at Christmas, to see the little wax image of the Christ Child in the manger and to sing carols, standing in the huge aisles.

Besides themselves and their children, there was Grandmother, old and bent, bright-eyed and busy, as she sat in her chair in the kitchen. There were six stools about the table, and one chair, an American rocking-chair sent over as a present to Grandmother by Uncle Matteo, who had gone to America to live. Anyone might sit on any of the six stools, but only Grandmother sat in the rocking-chair.