John of the Woods

d white. Overhead the larks were singing their happiest songs, because the sky was so blue. But nearer the vill

ittle drum sounded from the market-place. Boys and

Tumblers have come.

een poking about the market at their mother's heels, pricked

whence the whole village was wont to draw all the water it needed. In those long-ago days folk were more sparing in the use of water than they a

er as the crowd increased. Men and women craned their necks to see w

d with each movement he made. In his left hand he held a small drum, from which hung streamers of red and green and yellow ribbon. This drum he

nge accent. "Hither, hither quickly, and make ready to give your pennies. For the

po and Giovanni and Paolo wriggled through the forest of legs and skirts and came out into the open space which had been le

ood the three tumblers. One of them was a thin, dark man, small and wicked-looking, dressed, like the drum-beater, in red and yellow. The second tumbler wa

tered the Blacksmith, who stood with crossed arms looking over the heads of the

erested in the third tumbler, who stood between th

k of golden hair falling about his shoulders, and with a skin of unusual whiteness, despite his life of exposure to sun and hard weather. And the eyes that looked wistfully at the children in front of him were blue as the depths into which the skylarks were at that moment diving rapturously. On the upper eyelid of the boy's left eye was a brown spot as big as an apple-seed. And this gave

m. They look like cut-throats and murderers, but he is like the image of the little Saint Jo

back with the drum had heard, too, and darted a furious glance into the crowd where the wom

. Up, down, then back and forth between the elder tumblers, flew the little green figure, when he touched ground always landing upon his toe-tips, and finishing each trick with a somersault, easy and graceful. The boy seemed made of thistledo

breath, and made a motion at which the boy cringed. Something had gone not quite r

gth of the Giant willed. At a signal they managed somehow to reverse their positions. All stood upon their heads; Gigi, with his little green legs waving in the air, heard shouts of applause which always greeted