John of the Woods | Page 2

wicked-looking, dressed, like the drum-beater, in red and
yellow. The second tumbler was a huge fellow more than six feet tall,
with a shaggy mane of black hair. His muscles stood out in great knots
under the suit of green tights which he wore.
"A Giant he is! Faith, he could toss me over his shoulder like a
meal-bag!" muttered the Blacksmith, who stood with crossed arms
looking over the heads of the crowd. "And the wicked face of him! Ugh!
I would not wish a quarrel with him!"
But the little boys in the front row were most interested in the third
tumbler, who stood between the other two, with his arms folded, ready
to begin.
This also was a figure in green, with short trunks of tarnished
cloth-of-gold. But beside the Giant, in the same dress, he looked like a
pigmy or a fairy mite. This third tumbler was a little fellow of about
eight, very slender and childish in form, but lithe and well-knit. Instead
of being dark and gypsy-like, as were the other three of the wandering
band, this boy was fair, with a shock 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 him a strange expression which was hard to forget. When he was
grave, as now, it made him seem about to cry. If he should smile, the
spot would give the mischievous look of a wink. But Gigi so seldom
smiled in those days that few perhaps had noted this. On his left cheek
was a dark spot also. But this was only a bruise. Bruises Gigi always
had. But they were not always in the same place.
"Oh, the sweet Cherub!" said a motherly voice in the crowd. "I wonder
if they are good to him. They look like cut-throats and murderers, but

he is like the image of the little Saint John in church. Wolves, with a
lamb in their clutches! Save us all! Suppose it were my Beppo!"
At these words of his mother's, Beppo giggled, and the boy looked at
him gravely. The Hunchback with the drum had heard, too, and darted
a furious glance into the crowd where the woman stood. Then, giving a
loud double beat on the drum, he signaled for the tumbling to begin.
The three kicked off the sandals which protected their feet, stepped
upon the carpet, and saluted the spectators. The Giant stretched himself
flat, and, seizing Gigi in his strong arms, tossed him up in the air as one
would toss a rubber ball. 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 thistledown, so
light he was, so easily he rebounded from what he touched. The
children in the circle about him stared open-mouthed and admiring. Oh!
they wished, if only they could do those things! They thought Gigi the
most fortunate boy in the world.
But Gigi never smiled. At the end of one trick the Giant growled a
word under his breath, and made a motion at which the boy cringed.
Something had gone not quite right, and trouble threatened. He bit his
lip, and the performance went on as before.
Now Gigi had to do the most difficult trick of all. With the Giant as the
base, and Cecco, the other tumbler, above, Gigi made the top of a
living pyramid that ran, turned, twisted, and capered as the great
strength 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 this favorite act. But the sound gave him no pleasure. He was
tired; he was sore from a beating of the previous night, and his head
ached from the blow which had made that ugly mark on his cheek. Gigi
grew dizzy--

II
THE FALL
Suddenly a woman's voice screamed from the crowd:--
"Ah! The Cherub!"
Gigi had fallen from the top of the pyramid. He fell on his shoulder,

and for a moment lay still. But presently he was on his feet, kissing his
hand prettily to the crowd, and trying to pretend that he had fallen on
purpose, as he had been taught. The Giant