"quiet, now," commanded libereso.

under the water a frog could be seen swimming up with sharp little strokes of its green arms and legs. it suddenly surfaced, jumped on to a water-lily leaf and sat down in the middle.

"there," cried libereso and put out a hand to catch it, but maria-nunziata let out a cry, "ut!" and the frog jumped back into the water. libereso began searching for it, his nose almost touching the surface.

"there it is."

he thrust in a hand and pulled it out in his closed fist.

"two of them together," he cried. "look. two of them, on top of each other."

"why ?" asked maria-nunziata.

"male and female stuck together," said libereso. "look what they are doing." and he tried to put the frogs into maria-nunziatas hand. maria-nunziata wasnt sure if she was frightened because they were frogs, or because they were male and female stuck together.

"leave them alone," she said. "you mustnt touch them."

"male and female," repeated libereso. "theyre making tadpoles." a cloud passed over the sun. suddenly maria-nunziata began to feel anxious.

"its late. the signoras sure to be looking for me."

but she did not go. instead they went on wandering around though the sun did not come out again. and then he found a snake: it was a tiny little snake behind a hedge of bamboo. libereso wound it round his arm and stroked its head.

"once i used to train snakes. i had a dozen of them, one was long and yellow, a water snake. but it shed its skin and escaped. look at this one opening its mouth, look how its tongue is forked. stroke it, it wont bite."

but maria-nunziata was frightened of snakes too. then they went to the rock pool. first he showed her the fountains, and opened all the jets, which pleased her very much. then he showed her the goldfish. it was a lonely old goldfish, and its scales were already whitening. at last; maria-nunziata liked the goldfish. libereso began to move his hands round in the water to catch it; it was very difficult, but when hed caught it maria-nunziata could put it in a bowl and keep it in the kitchen. he managed to catch it, but didnt take it out of the water in case it suffocated.