landscape across which peasants and sheep were escaping, and the
trees shook with the violence of his fury. He was catching some of the
peasants and throwing them away, shouting and cursing that fatal woman,
and struggling to drown the music and the drum, which made a crescendo
till the curtain fell. I should have recognised it even if the pictures
had not had titles, because I had recently seen it in a marionette
theatre.

The harness cost as much as the cart, and it took a month to make it. It
was of leather, wood and metal, tasselled with gold and silver and wool
of many colours; here and there were sparkling bits of looking-glass, and
little pictures of ladies; here and there circles and crescents of blue
and red felt, and little pictures of cupids and angels. Other spaces
were covered with silver tinsel and spangles. There were spread eagles
and horses' heads and two bouquets of artificial flowers. There was a
St. George and the Dragon carved in wood and painted, there were bells
and ribbons, and two trophies of coloured feathers, one for the head and
another for the back, each more magnificent, and three or four times
larger, than the plume which the maresciallo dei carabinieri wears with
his gala uniform.

CHAPTER II
FESTA RIMANDATA

One day the bells were ringing for the festa of S. Somebody, but it was
not really his day. Peppino told me that his proper day had been stormy
or unsympathetic or the people had had some crops to get in or something
else to do, and so the saint had had his festa shifted; or it may have
been because some greater festival had fallen on S. Somebody's day owing
to the mutability of Easter or for some other reason. I had been wishing
I could have been at Castellinaria for the first anniversary of Ricuzzu's
birth, I ought to have wished to be there for the festa of S. Enrico, but
I did not know when it fell, nor did Peppino; but if festas might be
transferred in this easy way, perhaps we might keep it now and find out
afterwards to what extent it had been shifted. It would have been no use
consulting the baby--besides, he would have been sure to agree--so as
they were not very busy in the albergo it was decided that next day we
would keep the onomastico of Ricuzzu and his padrino by driving down to
the shore, throwing stones into the sea, and perhaps eating a couple of
peperoni with a drop of oil and vinegar and a pinch of salt.

Next morning the mule, the cart and the