Part 4 (1/2)

”What do you want?” demanded Mara.

He knew not what he wanted.

”Oh! what will you do here all alone?” asked the girl.

”I shall stay with the colts.”

Mara ran skipping away, and he stood there as if rooted to the spot so as to catch the last sounds of the cart rattling over the stones.

The sun was just resting on the high rocks of the _Poggio alla Croce_, the gray crests of the olive trees were shading into the twilight and over the vast campagna far away, nothing was heard except the tinkling bell of ”Bianca” in the gathering stillness.

Mara, now that she was in the midst of new faces and amid all the bustle of the grape gathering, forgot about Jeli; but he was always thinking about her, because he had nothing else to do in the long days that he spent looking at the horses' tails. There was now no special reason for him to go down into the valley beyond the bridge, and no one ever saw him any more at the farm.

Thus it was that he was for some time ignorant that Mara had become betrothed--so much water had run and run under the bridge. The only time that he saw the girl was on the day of Saint John's _Festa_, when he went to the fair with his colts to sell; a festa which changed everything for him into poison, and caused the bread to fall out of his mouth by reason of an accident that befell one of the _padrone's_ colts--the Lord deliver us!

On the day of the fair, the factor waited for the colts ever since dawn, walking impatiently up and down in his well-polished boots behind the groups of horses and mules that came filing in along the highway from this direction and that. It was almost time for the fair to close, and still Jeli with his animals was not in sight beyond the turn made by the highway. On the parched slopes of _Calvario_ and the _Mulino a vento_--the Wind-Mill Mountain--there remained only a few droves of sheep gathered in a circle, with noses drooping and weary eyes, and a few yoke of oxen with long hair--of the kind that are sold to satisfy unpaid rent, waiting motionless under the boiling sun.

Yonder toward the valley, the bell of San Giovanni's was ringing for High Ma.s.s, accompanied by the long crackling of the fireworks.

Then the fair grounds seemed to spring up, and there ran a prolonged cry among the shops of the green grocers, cl.u.s.tered in the place called _salita dei Galli_, spreading through the country roads and seeming to return from the valley where the church stood.

”Viva San Giovanni!”

”_Santo diavolone!_” screamed the factor. ”That a.s.sa.s.sin of a Jeli will make me lose the fair!”

The sheep lifted their heads in astonishment and began to bleat all at once, and the cattle also made a step or two, slowly looking around with their great, calm eyes.

The factor was in a rage because he was expected that day to pay the rent due for the large enclosures--as the contract expressed it, ”when Saint John arrived under the elm;” and to make up the full sum, the profits on the sale of the colts was necessary. Meantime the colts and horses and mules were coming in such numbers as the good Lord had seen fit to make, all curried and s.h.i.+ning and adorned with ta.s.sels and c.o.c.kades and bells; and they were switching their tails to while away their tedium, and turning their heads toward every one who pa.s.sed, and evidently waiting for some charitable soul willing to buy them.

”He must have gone to sleep on the way, the a.s.sa.s.sin!” yelled the factor, ”and so made me lose the sale of my colts.”

In reality, Jeli had travelled all night so that the colts might reach the fair fresh, and get a good position on their arrival; and he had reached the _piano del Corvo_, and the ”three kings” had not yet set, but were s.h.i.+ning over _monte Arturo_. There was a continuous procession of carts pa.s.sing along the road, and people mounted on horses or mules going to the _festa_. Therefore, the young fellow kept his eyes open so that the colts, frightened by the unusual commotion, might not get away, but that he might keep them together along the ridge of the road behind _la bianca_, the white mare, who with the bell around her neck, always travelled straight ahead without minding anything.

From time to time, when the road ran over the crest of the hills, the bell of Saint John's could be heard in the distance, and in the darkness and silence of the plain the rumor of the _festa_ was distinguishable, and along the whole road far away, wherever there were people on foot or on horseback going to Vizzini, were heard shouts of ”_Viva San Giovanni!_” And the rockets rose up high in the air and brilliant behind the mountains of la Canzaria, like the rain of meteors in August.

”It is like Christmas Eve!” Jeli kept saying to the boy, who was helping him drive the herd. ”And in every place there is feasting and light, and throughout the whole campagna you can see fireworks.”

The boy was half asleep as he forced one leg after the other, and he made no response; but Jeli, who felt his blood stir within him at the sound of that bell, could not keep quiet, as if each one of those rockets that left their silent s.h.i.+ning trails on the darkness behind the mountains burst forth from his soul.

”Mara also must be going to the _festa_ of Saint John,” he said, ”because she goes every year.”

And without caring because the boy made no reply,--

”Don't you know? Mara is now so big that she must be taller than her mother, and when I saw her last I couldn't believe that it was the very same girl with whom I used to go after p.r.i.c.kly pears and knock off the nuts.”

And he began to sing at the top of his voice all the songs that he knew.

”Oh Alfio, why do you sleep?” he cried, when he was through with them. ”Look out that you keep _la bianca_ always behind you, look out!”

”No, I am not asleep,” replied Alfio, with a hoa.r.s.e voice.