They were the sons of Italian peasants who had been unable to resist the offers of the padrone, and for less than a hundred dollars each had sold his son into the cruelest slavery.

The boys were torn from their native hills, from their families, and in a foreign land were doomed to walk the streets from fourteen to sixteen hours in every twenty-four, gathering money from which they received small benefit.

Many times, as they trudged through the streets, weary and hungry, sometimes cold, they thought with homesick sadness of the sunny fields in which their earliest years had been passed, but the hard realities of the life they were now leading soon demanded their attention.
Naturally light-hearted, Filippo, or Phil, bore his hard lot more cheerfully than some of his comrades.

But Giacomo was more delicate, and less able to bear want and fatigue.

His livelier comrade cheered him up, and Giacomo always felt better after talking with Phil.
As the two boys were walking together, a heavy hand was laid on the shoulder of each, and a harsh voice said: "Is this the way you waste your time, little rascals ?" Both boys started, and looking up, recognized the padrone.