Part 37 (1/1)
Now, all this time the crowd behind the house maintained their shouts and outcries Under the circuly absurd, and out of place; so the guide hastened to put an end to it On the whole, he thought it was not worth while to tell the truth, for the truth would have so excited the good people of Albano, that they would, undoubtedly, have taken vengeance on the strangers for such a disgrace as this Therefore the guide decided to let his fancy play around the actual fact, and thus it was that the guide's story beca to the following effect:--
The terrible wild boar, he said, had been completely indifferent to their outcry, or had, perhaps, been afraid to couide) had therefore determined to try to smoke him out, and had borrowed their handkerchiefs for that purpose, as there were no other combustibles to be had Of this they were already aware He had tied these handkerchiefs together in such a way that they would burn, and after setting fire to thefuhtened, and confounded the lurking wild boar Then, in the un, rushed forward and poured the deadly contents of his piece into the body of the beast Had it been any other annual, it would undoubtedly have perished; but the wild boar has a hide like sheet iron, and this one was h not actually wounded, he was enraged, and at the sae and fear he started froe attack upon the party in front of the house They stood their ground firmly and heroically, and beat him off; whereupon, in despair, he turned and fled, vanquished, to his lair in the Alban tunnel
In this way the guide's vivid iination saved the travellers fro that fury, and supplying in its place self-complacency The Alban people felt satisfied with themselves and with this story They accepted it as undoubted; they took it to their hoed, adorned, ithened it out, until, finally, it assumed the aends of the place What is still uide, who had first created it, told it so often to parties of tourists, that he at length grew to believe every word of it himself; and the fact that he had been an actor in that scene never failed to make his story quite credible to his hearers
At this time, however, he had not advanced so far, and he was able to tell the actual facts of the case to the boys and Uncle Moses
They were these:--
At the convent they kept a nu, they had missed the very animal which had created this extraordinary scene He had escaped in some way from his pen, and had fled for parts unknown They had searched for him, but in vain He must have wandered to this old house at the first, and taken up his quarters here until he was so rudely driven out fro would learn a lesson fro away from home
To all this the boys listened without any interest whatever, and did not condescend to ularly uninteresting in their eyes, and they got rid of hi him liberally, however for the additional trouble to which they had put hiled with congratulation, to offer to David and Clive; but these also were heard in silence They ht have found ample excuse for their delay in this ruined house; but they did not feel inclined to offer any excuses whatever
The fact is, this reduction of the great wild boar to the very insignificant proportions of a little black pig--coether contemptible--was too much for their sensitive natures It had placed them all in a false position
They were not cowards, but they had all been alarmed by the most despicable of animals Frank felt profoundly huure that he hadbefore such an enes were very similar
But it was for David and Clive that the deepest mortification was reserved They had been the cause of it all It was their vivid i a terrible wild beast, which had kept theer, and which had thrown ridicule upon the population of Albano, by drawing the
As they walked back to the hotel, they kept far in the rear of the citizens of Albano; and Uncle Moses began to ”improve” the occasion, and moralized in a solemn strain
”Wal,” said he, ”reatest talent for gittin' yourselves into trouble that I ever see Ever sence we landed on these ill-fated shores you've ben a-goin' it, and a drivin' ofI can say is, that thus far your misadventoors hain't turned out so bad as I have feared in each individdool case In fact thar's allus ben what they call a anticliht to be a te-rific di-saster, thar's ben nothin'
but soherble tummination Now, I'erroundless I'm free to say that thus far thar hain't ben e can conscuentionsly call a accident But what of that? The incidents hev all ben thar Every individdool thing that can make a accident has ben thar--it's ony the conclusion that has sooin' to do about it? Is this to go on forever?
Is it perrobable that advuss circuoin' to allus eventooate thus? I don't believe it The pitcher that goes often to the fountain is broke at last, and depend upon it, if you go for to carry on this way, and thrust yourselves in every danger that comes in your way--somethin'll happen--mind I tell you”
This, and much more of the same sort, did Uncle Moses say; but to all of it the boys paid very little attention In fact, the subject was to all of theht forward even as the text of a seret all about it as soon as possible, and let it sink into co the hotel they found that it was quite late; but they were eager to go on Albano, the historic, had lost all its charer They could not hope now to see Ro before they could enter the city; still they were detero on to Roly, the carriage was made ready as soon as possible; Clive and David procured soe with them, to devour on their way; and thus they left Albano, and drove on to Rome
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