Both, however, were very earnest at their occupation. As they stood there playing, a little group gathered round. A scamp of a boy left his sport to come and beat time with a stick on the stone step before them; several children clustered near; and two or three women, with rosy infants in their arms, also paused to listen and sympathize. At last the playing ceased. The _pifferari_ took up their hats and looked smilingly round at us. "Where do you come from?" I asked. "_Eh!_" said the _piffero_, showing all his teeth, and shrugging his shoulders good-naturedly, while the other echoed the pantomime. "_Dal Regno_"--for so the Abruzzi peasants call the kingdom of Naples. "And do you come every year?" "_Sì, Signore. Lui_" (indicating his friend) "_ed io_" (pointing to himself) "_siam' compagni per trenta tre anni. E siam' venut' a Roma per far la noven' ogn' anno."[B] [Footnote B: "He and I have been companions for thirty-three years, and every year we have come to Rome to play the _novena_."] To this the old _zampogna_ bent his head on one side, and said, assentingly,--"_Eh! per trenta tre anni._"-- And, "_Ecco_," continued the _piffero_, bursting in before the _zampogna_ could go on, and pointing to two stalwart youths of about twenty-two or-three years of age, who at this moment came up the street with their instruments,--"These are our two sons. He is mine,"--indicating one with his reversed thumb; "and that other is his,"--jerking his head towards his companion. "And they, too, are going to play in company, as we do." "For thirty-three years more, let us hope," said I. "_Eh! speriamo_," (Let us hope so,) was the answer of the _piffero_, as he showed all his teeth in the broadest of smiles. Then, with a motion of his hand, he set both the young men going, he himself joining in, straining out his cheeks, blowing all the breath of his body into the little pipe, and running up and down the vents with a sliding finger, until finally he brought up against a high, shrill note, to which he gave the full force of his lungs, and, after holding it in loud blast for a moment, startled us by breaking off, without gradation, into a silence as sudden as if the music had snapped short off, like a pipe-stem.