--not other. In England shall be falling always the rain and plenty
grass shall be growing and the beefs and the muttons shall be fat and
much nourishment shall come to those who are eating them."

I said that if I could have chops and stout instead of the few odds and
ends which Carmelo had managed to scrape together for our ridiculously
inadequate luncheon, of course I should stay at Castellinaria and never
go home any more.

So that was settled for the time, and Brancaccia, having put herself
tidy, proposed a visit to the grottoes. Carmelo packed up his kitchen
and took it off to the cart. On the way he met his cousin, borrowed his
boat and came rowing in it--for Carmelo is also a fisherman. We got in
and rowed round the promontory and into the caves. The baby was a good
deal puzzled, he thought he was indoors, and yet it wasn't right, but he
was pleased. When we were tired of the grottoes we rowed back, restored
the boat to Carmelo's cousin, packed ourselves into the cart and Guido
Santo took us up the zig-zags to Castellinaria after a day which we all
enjoyed very much; Ricuzzu, who understood least, perhaps enjoyed it
most, but then this baby enjoys everything. If we could have remanded
his festa for a few years, instead of only a few days or weeks or
whatever it was, he might have understood more and enjoyed less.

Ricuzzu did not come to the theatre, he was supposed to be tired, so
Brancaccia put him to bed and, leaving him with Carmelo, accompanied
Peppino and me to see _Il Diavolo Verde_. We took our seats while the
fiancee of Don Giuseppe, assisted by her lady's-maid, was endeavouring to
make up her mind. The difficulty was that Don Giovanni, the brother of
Giuseppe, had sent her a case of jewels and, like Margherita, in _Faust_,
she could not resist the temptation to try them on in front of a
looking-glass. We saw in the glass the reflection of a devil in green
with pink trimmings. He appeared to be standing behind her, looking over
her shoulder, but he was not really present; it must have been a magic
mirror. Don Giovanni came and denounced his brother who, he said, was a
bastard and no gentleman, proving his words by the production of their
father's will written on a sheet of brown paper which he always carried
in his belt. This convinced the lady, and she went off with Giovanni.
Don Giuseppe, who had been carried away by armed men, escaped and
returned to meditate on the crisis of his life.