"A man is lucky to escape from you with his life.

Are you trying to throttle your godfather, Lippo?
Whoever put two fat little arms about a godfather's neck like that?
You seem to have climbed the chair from behind and to have only your foot on the arm of the chair.

If you slip, I shall be strangled.

Who then will find out for whom I brought a harmonica that's buried in the depths of my coat-pocket?
It gives forth the most beautiful melodies you ever heard, when you have learned to play it." A harmonica was the most wonderful thing Lippo could imagine.

His neighbor in school, a little girl called Toneli, owned one and could play whole songs on it--he had always thought it splendid.