Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-11-16
THE STORY OF .CRILLO.
BY Elizabeth CavaZza.

Whenever Don Giuseppe, the parish
priest went over in his mind al that
he came to know while he watched
that night by the bedside of CirillO, the
frog-seller, who died at dawn, he al
WAYS crossed himself and said: That
Door fellow went straight to Paradise,
let us hope: for Purgatory he had here
below on earth
This was what Don Giuseppe heard
from Cirillo, and he kept it to him
self like a confession:
Thirty years before, day for day,
there was a great festival on the es-
tateS of the baron because an heir was
born to him. Squibs and muskets were
fired all day in the piazetta; casks
Of wine, of the kind that rich people
drink, were tapped for whomever wish
ed to take a glass; in the evening the
lads and girls danced to the music of
the town band, and rockets and bengal
lights dashed UP through the air while
the people stood staring with open
mouth, to see them burst into a rain
of gold and silver and cOlored fires.
Only the wife of the baron, poor lady,
cared nothing for what was done. AS
the women had said beforehand, she
was as fragile as glass, and, indeed,
a few days after her child came into
the world, she went out Of it, gently,
ike a lamp that lacks oil. The bishop
himself came to confess her, although,
said the women, she was such saint
that to give her absolutiOn was like
carrying clean clothes to the tank to
be washed. The baron was in despair,
and turned his shoulders to the Ma
donna del Carmine, who had done him
such Il bad turn, after the two candles
that he had given to her, tall as the
sacristan's boy and of pure wax.
Meanwhile the little baron screamed
for hunger, in his fine cradle all laces
and silk, so that they were obliged
to send to the mountain for comare
Bibiana, the carriers wife, who had
a little son n fortnight old, to come
to the great house to take the siSnorinO
away to nurse him. She came in her
husbands cart, handsome and healthy,
dressed for holiday, with many neck
laces, and rings up to the joint of the
ten fingers; and when the doctor, Don
Luca WHALE, put the baby into her
arms, she said that it was beautiful
as an eye of the sun, so that it APP
peared like the child of a king; and
that, even if her own little one had
to be stinted, she would always content
first the signorinO. At the sight of
the poor dead lady on the bier be-
tween the lighted tapers, cOmare Blbi-
ana wept, and began to tear her hair
with one hand holding, meanwhile,
the child upon her neck with the other,
and to shrek, as is the custom on such
occasions. But Don Luca WHALE put
his hands upon her shoulders and
pushed her, with good manners, out
Of the room, saying: 'Think of the
little baron, think of him!'
Then the hOuSekeeper, Donna Sabina
Mosca, with her handkerchief at her
eyes, led comare Bbiana into another
room, and made her eat something from
the table where the cunsulatu was
spread, all the good gifts of heaven,
while the women wept in group at
one side. They they showed comare
Bibiana down the staircase and out of
the great door, under the escutcheon
draped with black cloth; and she,
stunned with awe and with pity for
that poor mother who had to go away
to stay with the saints leaving her
little creature on earth, climbed into
the cart Maso handed her their own
child, that they were obliged to bring
with them: she accommodated a baby
on each shoulder. ':Arrcan cried
bfaso to his mules; and so the little
baron went away from his house, far
upon the road that leads from Cosenza
to the hills of the JaSs.
Indeed, it was pity that the baron
had it against his son, poor innocent
for the child was fine and robust
so that it was a consolation to see
him. But the baron, every time that
MAESTRO Gaetano Starace, the steward,
of Dorr" abina MoSca, ventured to
hint as much, answered: THAT one
will not see, for he cost me the mot, y
Neither would he think of taking an
other wife, not even if she were a
kings daughter, beautiful as the moon
ard the sun, and rich as the sea.
THAT saint" he would say, 'prays
for me in Paradise"
And, for her sake, he took thought
to make his soul, so much so that he
caused two candles, larger than before.
to be lighted in honor of the Madonna
del Carmine; and since it is the bust
ness of the Beautiful Mamma, to for
give, he in his heart did not doubt
of pardon for the former slight
Meanwhile, the little baron, Cora
dino, and 'CirilIo, the son of the car,
rier, were always together, in the era
die, or under a hedge when comare
Bibiana worked in the fields. Each
was prettier than the other: there was
no choice. One day, however, by i'll
luck, it happened that as Bibiana sat
in the doorway spinning, with the
little baron on her knee, while her
baby rolled, like Il chicken in the dust,
stretching his hand toward the foster
brother the poor little noble lost his
balance and fell on the fiat dOor-Stone
He cried but little, then; afterward he
whimpered always, with open eyes, as
if somebody had taken away his sleep;
anu Bibiana kissed him the more, be
cause every wall was like a reproach
to her for that fall on the stone. The
sor of the baron seemed to pine slow
ly. while the carriers baby grew fat
as a little pig, and slept like a spindle