IT was old ’Drea I was talking to, this time. Andrea was my peasant
friend’s father, a small, infirm-looking man, about eighty years of
age, of great shrewdness and penetration. We were sitting in the little
kitchen garden beside the bean-vines, and as we chatted his eye roamed
continually over the valley and the hills beyond, with the expression
of one accustomed to render an account to himself of all he saw. He
told me of his life as foreman to the great landowner of that part of
the country; of his journeyings from one outlying farm to another, to
collect the half of the farm-produce which is the due of the owner
of the soil; of his experiences as head forester down in Maremma; of
the power of the priests in his young days, the days of the Archduke
Peter Leopold. “Why in those days,” said he, “two lines from the parish
priest would send a man to the galleys for eight years without trial.
There were Giovanni and Sandro, lived opposite the post office, in that
house with a railing—you know it?—well, they’re old men now; but
they have each served their eight years as convicts, nobody ever knew
why.”
At last he asked me if I should like a story. ’Drea was a well-known
story-teller and improviser, so I said nothing would please me better,
and he began[3]:—
* * * * *
Once upon a time there was a knight who had three beautiful daughters.
Now this knight determined to go to the Holy Land to fight for the tomb
of our Lord, but he did not know what to do with his three daughters.
At length a friend said:—“Build a tower for them,” and the idea was
such a good one that he adopted it. He had a tall tower built, with
three bedrooms and a sitting-room at the top of it; he locked the door
at the foot and provided his daughters with a basket and a long rope
with which to draw up their food. Then he gave each girl a diamond
ring, and said:—
“So long as you are good, the diamonds will be bright and victorious,
but if you do wrong I shall find them dull on my return.”
So he went away to fight the Saracens.
A little while after he had gone, the eldest daughter going to draw up
the basket one morning, saw a poor man down below shivering with cold.
“Oh, sisters,” she said, “look at that poor man: shall we draw him up
and feed him and warm him?”
“Do as you like,” said they; “we won’t be answerable for the results.”
So the girl bade the man get into the basket, drew him up, made a
blazing fire, warmed him thoroughly, and gave him some dinner.
“Now you must go,” she said after a time, “you are warm, you have been
fed, you have rested; what more do you want?”
“I must have supper with you.” To that the girl agreed, and then again
told him to go away.
“I must sleep with you to-night,” said he.
Well, the girl did not know what to do, so she submitted.