When they sat down, in view of the lovely Giotto’s Tower, to rest a moment, with their bundles on the ground beside them, Annina had made up her mind to something. Very carefully, she exchanged her bundle for Fioretta’s, and Fioretta, so gay and lively, never knew it. So it happened that when grumpy old Nello examined the two bundles of braid, he gave Fioretta the larger sum of money, saying that her braid was better than her sister’s. And, since Mario had fewer cocoons to show for his summer’s work than he had hoped to have, why, there you were! It was Fioretta who was to go!

By this time, of course. Grandmother knew what the children were doing for her, and her little brown face was once more a happy one. When she heard that old Nello had thought Fioretta ’s braid better than Annina’s, she was surprised. She had watched those pieces of braid growing. She knew which was the better piece. She spoke to Margaretta about it, but neither of them mentioned it to the girls.