II + 

They walked as far as Piccadilly Circus, Mario carrying the hamper. At the Circus they climbed to the top of a bus bound for Hammersmith Broadway. + 

“Be careful! Be careful!” shrieked Rosa to Geppe, who was trying to swing himself up by the handrail. + 

“He will hit me in the face with his heels,” fussed Berta; “I wish you would make him behave!” + 

Mario was stopped at the bottom of the steps by a kindly but firm conductor. “You must leave that ’amper with me,” said the conductor; “no ’ampers allowed on top.” + 

“Not so,” retorted Mario; “I will take him on my lap⁠—I will nurse him⁠—he cannot be left!” + 

The conductor pulled the cord and the bus moved off slowly behind the stout, sweating horses. + 

“I will not leave him!” cried Mario, still clutching his hamper; “you see, I take him on my lap.” + 

“Oh, all right.” The conductor stood aside for him to pass, and Mario struggled up the steps. + 

The bus was very full⁠—Geppe sat on top of Rosa. “Here we are!” shrilled Berta from her seat beside Gian-Luca. “You will have to go over there and sit beside Mamma.” Mario squeezed in with the hamper on his knees; it grew heavier every moment. “Dio!” he groaned, “what is living in this hamper? Is it perchance a giant?” + 

“You take Geppe and give it to me,” suggested Rosa; “I will now hold it for a little.” + 

Their burdens exchanged, they began to mop their faces⁠—it was growing exceedingly hot. + 

At Hammersmith Broadway the crowd was enormous, and most of it was waiting for the bus to Kew Gardens. + 

“You had better carry Geppe,” said Rosa to Mario; “I fear that he may get lost.” + 

Geppe objected, beginning to cry: “I want to walk with Gian-Luca!” + 

As his father picked him up, he beat with his heels: “Put me down, put me down, I tell you!” + 

Rosa dragged Berta along by the hand, while Gian-Luca struggled with the hamper. + 

“No more room on top!” yelled the harassed conductor. “Inside only, please.” + 

By dint of superhuman exertion, they managed at last to get in. + 

“Now then, young ’un, don’t gouge out my eyes with that basket!” protested a voice to Gian-Luca. + 

There were several other children on the knees of their parents, all fretful and on the verge of tears. + 

“It’s this terrible ’eat,” said a mother to Rosa; “it do try ’em, don’t it, the ’eat?” + 

The smell in the bus suggested that it did⁠—the sun was blazing through the windows. + 

“Phew! Ain’t it awful!” a lady complained, clinking her black jet bugles. + 

Berta sat scratching her nettle-rash, and Geppe’s nose required attention. Gian-Luca peered over the top of the hamper, his collar was feeling rather tight. + 

“May I undo my collar?” he whispered to Rosa. + 

But Rosa shook her head: “No, no, caro, you look so nice as you are; you cannot undo your collar.” + 

He subsided behind the hamper again, so as not to see Berta who was making him itch. He wished that Mario would observe Geppe’s nose⁠—it really did require blowing. Rosa’s fringe had begun to come out of curl⁠—Gian-Luca noticed that too⁠—one long, black strand was gradually uncoiling; very soon it would be in her eye. Her hat⁠—last summer’s⁠—looked rather jaded, the roses no longer very red; however, by contrast, Berta’s headgear was a triumph; a yellow poke bonnet trimmed with cornflowers and daisies and tied under the chin with white ribbon. Berta’s hair stuck out in a bush behind; her eyes stared, inquisitive and greedy. “I am hungry,” she was saying; “how long does it take?” + 

“We are nearly there,” consoled Rosa. + 