Under the Shadow of Etna Part 11

"That's the one for us."

The a.s.s's mistress, every once in a while, came over to her husband to see how business was progressing, and when she saw him sitting with the halter in his hand, she said,--

"Isn't the Madonna going to send a purchaser for the foal, to-day?"

And the husband would always reply in these terms,--

"None yet! One's been here bargaining, and he liked it. But he objected to the price, and went off again with the money in his pocket. There he is, over yonder with the white cap, beyond that flock of sheep. He hasn't bought anything yet; that means, he'll be back again."

The woman was about to squat down on a couple of stones near her foal, to see whether it would be sold or not. But her husband said to her,--

"Off with you. If they see you are waiting, they won't finish the bargain."

Meantime the foal was nosing about between the legs of several she-a.s.ses that were pa.s.sing by. It wanted to nurse, for it was half starved. It was just opening its mouth to bray when the _padrone_ reduced it to silence by a shower of blows because they had not wanted it.

"It's still there," said _compare_ Neli in his brother's ear, pretending to turn round and look for something. "If we wait till the Ave Maria, we may be able to get it for five _lire_ cheaper than the price that we offered."

The May suns.h.i.+ne was warm so that gradually amid all the noise and bustle of the fair a great silence followed throughout the whole field, as if no one were there: then it was that the mistress of the young a.s.s came to her husband again and said:

"I wouldn't hold out for five _lire_ more or less, for to-night we have not enough to buy our supper and you know well that the foal will eat his head off in a month if he remains on our hands."

"If you don't go off," replied her husband, "I'll give you a kick that you'll remember."

Thus pa.s.sed the hours at the fair; but of all those who pa.s.sed in front of the Saint Joseph's a.s.s not one stopped to look at it, and that, too, though the _padrone_ had chosen the most humble place near the animals of small value, so that with its magpie skin it might not be compared with the beautiful bay mules and the sleek horses! Some one like _compare_ Neli was wanted to buy his Saint Joseph's a.s.s, at the sight of which every one at the fair was laughing.

The colt, after such a long waiting in the sun, let his head and ears hang down; his _padrone_ went and squatted on the stones, with his hands also hanging between his knees and the halter in his hands, gazing at the long shadows that began to be cast across the plain from the sun, which was preparing to set, and at the legs of all those animals that had not as yet found purchasers.

Just then _compare_ Neli and his brother, and a friend of theirs whom they had picked up for the occasion, came sauntering by, with their noses in the air; but the owner of the young a.s.s turned his head aside so as not to seem to be on the look out for them. And _compare_ Neli's friend, squinting up his eyes, remarked as if the idea had just occurred to him:

"O, see that Saint Joseph's a.s.s! Why don't you buy that one, _compare_ Neli?"

"I bargained it this morning; but he asks too much for it. Besides, I should be the laughing stock of the town if I were seen with that black and white beast. You see no one has had a thought of buying it so far."

"That's so, but the color makes no difference in the use that you make of one."

And turning to the _padrone_ he asked,--

"How much must we pay for that Saint Joseph's a.s.s of yours?"

The mistress of the Saint Joseph's a.s.s, seeing that the business was on once more, had quietly approached, with her hands clasped under her ap.r.o.n.

"Don't speak to me of it," cried _compare_ Neli making off across the field. "Don't speak of it again, I don't want to hear a word."

"If you don't want it, let it be," replied the _padrone_. "If he does not take it, some one else will. 'A sad wretch is he who has nothing left to sell after the fair.'"

"And I will be heard, _santo diavolone_!" screamed the friend. "Can't I be permitted to have my say?"

And he ran and caught _compare_ Neli by the jacket, then he came back and whispered something in the _padrone's_ ear as the man was about to return home with his young a.s.s, and he flung his arm round his neck, murmuring,--

"Look here! five _lire_ more or less, and if you don't sell it to-day you won't find another blunderhead like my _compare_ to buy a beast, which between you and me, isn't worth a cigar!"

He also embraced the young a.s.s's mistress, whispered in her ear to win her to his way of thinking. But she shrugged her shoulders and replied with stern face,--

"'Tis my husband's business: I don't mix myself in it. But if he lets it go for less than forty _lire_ he is a dunce, and that's what I say.

It cost us more than that."

"This morning I was crazy when I offered him thirty-five _lire_,"

resumed _compare_ Neli. "Has he found any other purchaser even at that price? I reckon not. In the whole fair there aren't more than four scabby rams and the Saint Joseph's a.s.s. I'll give thirty _lire_ if he'll take it."

"Take it," softly whispered the young a.s.s's mistress to her husband, and the tears came into her eyes. "We haven't made enough this evening to buy our supper, and Turiddu has the fever again; he'll have to have quinine."

"_Santo diavolone!_" screamed her husband, "if you don't get away from here I'll give you a taste of this halter."

"Thirty-two and a half, there now!" cried the friend at last, giving him a powerful shake to the collar.

"Neither you nor I! This time my advice ought to hold, by all the saints in paradise! and I don't even ask for a gla.s.s of wine. Don't you see the sun is set? What is the use of you both holding out any longer?"

And he s.n.a.t.c.hed the halter from the _padrone's_ hand, while, at the same time, _compare_ Neli with an oath took out of his pocket his closed fist clutching the thirty-five _lire_, and gave them to the man without looking at them as if they took his liver with them. The friend retired to one side with the mistress of the young a.s.s to count over the money on a rock, while the _padrone_ went off to another part of the fair like a colt, cursing and beating himself with his fists.

But when he was at last rejoined by his wife, who was carefully recounting the money in her handkerchief, he demanded,--

"Have you got it?"

"Yes, the whole of it; praised be San Gaetano![16] Now I'll go to the apothecary's."

[16] The especial saint of the Provident.

"I got the best of them! I'd have let them have the beast for twenty _lire_; a.s.ses of that color are _vigliacchi_--vile."

And _compare_ Neli, as he got behind the a.s.s to drive it off, said,--

"As G.o.d exists I robbed him of the colt! The color makes no difference. See what solid legs, _compare_! That beast is worth forty _lire_ with one's eyes shut."

"If it had not been for me," returned the friend, "you would not have struck the bargain. Here are still two _lire_ and a half of your money. And if you don't object we will go and have a drink to the health of the a.s.s!"

Now the colt needed to have its health in order to repay the thirty-two and a half _lire_ which had been paid for it, and the straw which it ate. Meanwhile it was contented to frisk behind _compare_ Neli, trying to bite his new _padrone's_ coat tails, and making no ado because it was leaving forever the stall where it had been sheltered by its mother's side, free to rub its nose on the edge of the manger, or to gambol and cut up capers, b.u.t.ting with the ram or going to rub the pig's back in its pen.

And the _padrone_, who was still again counting over the money in her handkerchief before the apothecary's counter, had on her side no regrets, although she had a.s.sisted at the birth of the foal with its black and white skin, as s.h.i.+ny as silk, and which could not at first stand up on its legs, but lay in the warm sun in the court-yard while all the gra.s.s which had made it grow so big and strong had pa.s.sed through her hands!

The only person who missed the foal was its mother, who stretched out her neck toward the entrance of the stall and brayed. But when her udder was no longer painfully distended with the milk, she also forgot about the foal.

"Now you will see," said _compare_ Neli, "that this a.s.s will carry four bushels of corn better than a mule, for me."

And at harvest time he was set to thres.h.i.+ng.

At the thres.h.i.+ng, the colt, fastened by the neck, in a row with other animals--worn out mules, decrepit horses, paced over the sheaves, from morning till night, so that when it was brought back to the stable, he was so tired that he had no desire to bite at the heap of straw where they put him up in the shade when the wind blew, while the peasants did their winnowing with shouts of "_Viva Maria!_"