Under the Shadow of Etna Part 5

In that way, the factor killed the _stellato_ on the spot, so as at least to save his pelt, and the dull noise which the gun held at short range made, as the charge pierced the living flesh, Jeli thought he felt in his own heart.

"Now if you want a piece of advice from me," said the factor, as he left him there, "I'd not let the master lay eyes on you, in spite of that bit of wages due you, for you may be sure, he'd give it to you with a vengeance!"

The factor went off together with Alfio, taking along the other colts, which did not once turn round to see what had become of the _stellato_, but proceeded cropping the gra.s.s along the ridge. The poor _stellato_ was left alone in the ravine waiting for the knacker to flay him, its eyes were still wide open, and its four legs stretched into the air, for to stretch them up was the only thing it could do.

Jeli, now that he had seen how the factor had been able to aim at the colt, as it painfully lifted its head in fear, and had been courageous enough to fire off the gun at it, no longer wept, but remained sitting on a rock looking at the _stellato_ till the men came to take off the pelt. Now he might go at his own pleasure and enjoy the _festa_, or stand in the square all day long and see the gentlemen in the _cafe_, as best pleased him, for now he no longer had bread or a shelter, and it behooved him to find a new _padrone_, if any one would take him after the misfortune of the _stellato_.

Thus go things in this world:--While Jeli was seeking a new employer, walking about with his bag over his shoulder and his staff in his hand, the band was playing gayly in the square, with plumes in their caps, and surrounded by a merry throng of white hats thick as flies, and the gentlemen were enjoying themselves as they sat at their coffee. All the people were dressed in holiday attire like the animals of the fair, and in one corner of the square was a lady, with a short gown and flesh-colored stockings, making her appear bare-legged, and she was pounding on a great box before a great painted sheet on which appeared a slaughter of Christians with blood flowing in torrents, and, there among the throng, gazing with open mouth, was _ma.s.saro_ Cola, whom he used to know when he was at Pa.s.sanitello, and he told him that he would find him an employer, because _compare_ Isidoro Macca was in want of a herdsman for his hogs.

"But I wouldn't say anything about _stellato_," recommended _ma.s.saro_ Cola. "A misfortune like that might happen to any one in the world.

But it is best not to talk about it."

So they went in search of _compare_ Macca, who was at the ball, and while _ma.s.saro_ Cola went to plead his cause, Jeli waited outside in the street in the midst of the throng, who were gazing in at the door of the hall. In the big room, there was a world of people jumping about enjoying themselves, all flushed and perspiring, and making a great trampling on the floor, while above all was heard the _ron ron_ of the double ba.s.s, and as soon as one piece of music, costing a _grano_,[10] was finished they would all lift their fingers to signify that they wanted another; and the man of the double ba.s.s would make a cross with a piece of charcoal on the wall, to keep account to the last, and then begin over again.

[10] A fraction of a soldo, or cent.

"Those in there spend without thought," said Jeli, to himself. "That means that they have their pockets full and are not in trouble as I am, for lack of an employer, and if they sweat and tire themselves out in dancing, it is for their own pleasure, as if they were paid by the day."

_Ma.s.saro_ Cola came back saying that _compare_ Macca needed no one.

Then Jeli turned away, and walked off gloomily, gloomily.

Mara's home was toward Sant'Antonio, where the houses climb up the mountainside, facing the valley of la Canziria, all green with p.r.i.c.kly pears, and with the mill-wheels churning the water into foam in the lowlands by the stream. But Jeli hadn't the courage to go in that direction, now that they needed no one to watch the swine; and, making his way amid the throng which jostled him and pushed him without any thought of him, he seemed more alone than ever he had been when he was with his colts in the plains of Pa.s.sanitello, and he felt like weeping.

At last _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino, wandering about with his arms swinging, and enjoying the _festa_, fell in with him in the square, and shouted to him,--

"Oh! Jeli! oh!" and took him home.

Mara was in gala dress, with such long ear-rings that they hung down to her cheeks, and she was standing on the threshold with her hands folded, loaded with rings, waiting till it should grow dark, so as to go and see the fireworks.

"Oh!" said Mara to him, "so you have come also for the _festa_ of Saint John!"

Jeli did not want to go in because he was shabbily dressed, but _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino forced him in saying that it was not the first time they had ever seen each other, and that he knew that he had come to the fair with his employer's colts. _Gna_ Lia poured him out a good generous gla.s.s of wine, and wanted to take him with them to see the illuminations, together with the _comari_ and their other neighbors.

When they reached the square Jeli stood with open mouth, wondering at the spectacle; the whole square seemed a sea of fire as when the steppes are burning, and the reason was the great number of torches which the devout lighted under the eyes of the saint, who stood enjoying it all at the entrance of _il Rosario_--all black under his silver baldachin. The acolytes were coming and going amid the flames like so many demons, and there was, moreover, a woman in loose attire and with dishevelled hair, and with her eyes staring out of her head, also engaged in lighting the candles, and a priest in a black soutane and without a hat, like one rendered crazy by religion.

"There's the son of _ma.s.saro_ Neri, the factor of Saloni, and he is spending more than ten _lire_ for rockets," said _gna_ Lia, pointing to a young man who was going round through the square holding two rockets in each hand, just like candles, so that all the women devoured him with their eyes, and cried to him: "_Viva San Giovanni!_"

"His father is rich and owns more than twenty head of cattle," added _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino.

Mara also knew well that he had carried the great banner in the procession, and held it as straight as a pillar--such a strong and handsome youth was he.

_Ma.s.saro_ Neri's son seemed to have heard them, and he set off his rockets for Mara, making the wheel of fire before her, and after this part of the fireworks was over, he joined them, and took them to the ball and to the cosmorama, where the new world and the old world were to be seen depicted, and he paid for them all, even for Jeli, who followed behind the others like a masterless cur, to see _ma.s.saro_ Neri's son dancing with Mara, who whirled round and crouched down like a dove on a roof, and held daintily up the corner of her ap.r.o.n, and _ma.s.saro_ Neri's son gamboling like a colt, so that _gna_ Lia wept like a child at the consolation of the sight, and _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino nodded with his head to signify that all was going to his mind.

At last when they were all tired, they went out where the people were promenading, and they were carried away by the crowd as if they were in the midst of a torrent, and there they saw the transparencies lighted where the decapitation of Saint John was represented with such faithfulness that it would have moved the heart of a Turk, and the saint kicked out his legs like a goat under the hatchet. Near by the band was playing under a great wooden umbrella, all lighted up, and in the square there was such a crowd that one would have said never before had so many Christians come to the fair.

Mara went holding _ma.s.saro_ Neri's son's arm, as if she were a fine lady, and she whispered into his ear and laughed, as if she were having a fine time. Jeli was utterly tired out, and actually went to sleep sitting on the sidewalk till the first bombs of the fireworks were sent up. At that moment Mara was still by the side of _ma.s.saro_ Neri's son, leaning against him with her hands clasped on his shoulder, and in the different-colored lights from the fireworks she seemed now all white and now all rosy. When the last sparks died away in the darkness of the sky, _ma.s.saro_ Neri's son turned toward her, with green light on his face, and gave her a kiss.

Jeli said nothing, but at that instant all that he had enjoyed till then changed into poison, and he began once more to think of his misfortunes, which he had for the moment forgotten--that he was without an employer--and knew not what to do, nor where to go, that he had no food or shelter; that the dogs might eat him as they were eating the poor _stellato_ left down in the bottom of the ravine, skinned to the hoofs!

Meantime, around him the people were still making merry in the darkness that had ensued; Mara, with her companions, was dancing and singing through the rock-paved streets as they turned homeward.

"Good-night! Good-night--_buona notte_!" shouted the people to one another, as they were left at their own doors. Mara shouted "good-night--_buona notte_!" in her musical voice, and it expressed her happiness, and _ma.s.saro_ Neri's son did not see fit to leave her while _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino and _gna_ Lia were disputing about the opening of the house door. No one gave Jeli a thought, till at last _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino remembered him, and said,--

"And where are you going?"

"I don't know," said Jeli.

"Come and see me to-morrow and I will help you find a place. For to-night, go back to the square where we have been hearing the band play. You'll find a spot on some bench, and sleep out doors; you must be used to that."

Jeli was used to that, but what pained him was that Mara said nothing to him, but left him there at the door as if he were a beggar; and the next day when he came back to see _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino, he was hardly alone with the girl before he said to her,--

"Oh, _gna_ Mara! How you forget old friends!"

"Oh, is that you, Jeli?" replied Mara. "No, I haven't forgotten you.

But I was so tired after the fireworks!"

"You're in love with him aren't you--_ma.s.saro_ Neri's son?" demanded Jeli, twirling his staff in his hands.

"What are you saying?" abruptly interposed _gna_ Mara. "My mother is there and hears everything you say."

_Ma.s.saro_ Agrippino found him a place as shepherd at la Salonia, where _ma.s.saro_ Neri was factor, but as Jeli was not very much skilled in taking care of sheep, he had to be content with far smaller wages than he had been having.

Now he attended faithfully to his flocks, and strove to learn how cheese is made--the ricotta and the _caciocavallo_, and all the other products of the flocks; but in the gossip that went on at eventide in the yard, among the shepherds and _contadini_, while the women were preparing the beans for the soup, if ever _ma.s.saro_ Neri's son was mentioned as soon to marry _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino's Mara, Jeli said not a word, and never dared open his mouth.

One time when the keeper insulted him, by saying, jestingly, that Mara refused to have anything more to do with him, after every one had declared that they were to be husband and wife, Jeli, as he went to the pot where the milk was boiling, replied, as he slowly shook in the rennet,--

"Now Mara has grown to be so pretty, she seems like a lady."

But as he was patient and laborious, and quickly got hold of the secrets of the business, even better than one who had been born to it, and as he was accustomed to be with animals, he came to love his sheep as if they were his own, and for this reason the distemper--_il male_--did not do so much damage at la Salonia, and the flock prospered, so that it was a delight for _ma.s.saro_ Neri every time that he came to the estate, and the next year it was no great trouble to induce the _padrone_ to increase Jeli's wages, so that he came to have as much as he got in looking out for the horses. And it was money well spent, for Jeli never thought of reckoning up the miles and miles that he travelled in search of the best pasturage for his flock, and if the sheep were with young or were sick, he would take them to his saddle-bags and carry the lambs in his arms, and they would lick his face, thrusting their noses out of his pocket, and they would even suck his ears.

In the famous snow storm of Santa Lucia's night, the snow fell four handbreadths deep in the _lago morto_ at la Salonia, and all around for miles and miles there was nothing else to be seen when day came, and nothing would have been left of the sheep but the ears, had not Jeli got up three or four times in the course of the night to drive the sheep into the yard, so that the poor beasts shook the snow from their backs and did not remain, as it were buried, as was the case in so many of the neighboring flocks--at least so _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino said when he came to give a look to a field of beans which he had at la Salonia, and he also said that that story of _ma.s.saro_ Neri's son marrying his daughter Mara was a lie made up of whole cloth--that Mara had some one else in mind.

"It was said they were to be married at Christmas," said Jeli.

"Nothing of the sort; they aren't to marry at all; it's all the gossip of envious folks who meddle with others' business," replied _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino.

But the keeper, who had known about it for some time, having heard it talked about in town when he was there on Sunday, told the story as it really was, after _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino had gone away.

"The engagement was broken because _ma.s.saro_ Neri's son had learned that _ma.s.saro_ Agrippino's Mara was keeping company with Don Alfonso, the signorino, who had known Mara from a little girl; and _ma.s.saro_ Neri had declared that his son was to be a man respected as his father was, and the only horns he wanted in his house should be those of his oxen."

Jeli was present at this conversation, sitting with the others in the circle at breakfast, and at that instant was cutting his bread. He still said nothing, but his appet.i.te left him for that day.

While he was driving his sheep out to pasture he began to think of Mara, as she had been when she was a little girl, when they were together all day long wandering through the _valle del Jacitano_ and over the _poggio alla Croce_, and how she stood looking at him, with her chin in the air, while he climbed up to the tree-tops after the birds' nests; and he thought also of Don Alfonso, who used to come and see him from the neighboring villa, and how they would stretch themselves out on their bellies, stirring up crickets' nests with straws. All these things he considered and reconsidered for hours and hours, as he sat on the edge of the brook, holding his knees between his arms, and thinking of the tall walnuts of Tebidi, and the thick bushes in the valleys and the slopes of the hills, green with sumachs, and the gray olive trees spreading through the valley like a fog, and the red-tiled roof of the house, and the campanile that looked like "a handle of a salt cellar" among the oranges of the garden.

Here the campagna stretched away naked, desert, speckled with dried gra.s.s, blending silently with the distant horizon.

In Spring the bean pods had begun to fill out when Mara came to la Salonia with her father and mother and the boy and the a.s.s, to pick the beans, and they all came together to sleep at the farm for two or three days during the picking.