But she had made an effort. Borrowed her little sister's dolly to be the infant Jesus.
She was doing the sitting-very-still thing.
She was the only living statue I saw in Livorno.
So I dropped some money into her basket.
Suddenly her hand moved and she gave me a slip of paper.
She was wearing purple fluffy woollen gloves!
It gave me quite a turn.
It appeared the slip of paper blessed me in the name of the Virgin Mary and gave me my lucky number. I think it was 9.


