The Portland daily press., 1894-07-18
THE FREETHINKER.

Michelina, the little model from Castle
Gondolfo, told me this:
1T was my own father, /" she said, "but
you must understand it was years before
he was my father-years before he took
the wine shop or married mamma and
gears and years before any of us were
born or thought of. Afterward he was my
father, but then he was young, just like
anybody else, and he worked in the Non
nos fields at home, and when there was
wine or oil to sell he put it all on a big OK
cart and covered it over with fresh green
leaves in the proper fashion and drove it
all the way along the side of the hills I'M
der the trees to the market place at AL
bano.
"You, gentlemen-you are not Chris.
tians at all, - says little Michelina, shak-
ing her long earrings and looking straight
over at Dysart, who had just left Oxford
and had feelings-assorted eelings-about
ritualis1n, ''but you come over here in
crowds from outside, and you make stat
ues, and you make pictures, and that is
work for US. Father francesca was parish
priest at Genzano, and Father Teobaldo
was parish priest at Arficcia, and at
Castle Gondolfo we had our own Father
IaDF16t6. Anu WU61l UIl6 OH WAS uOU WduU-
ing for one altar or the corn and the chest
nuts had all been blessed and a little por-
ton carried home for each good father to
taste, as was only just and fitting, there
were always all the brethren in the big
convent on the other side of the lake, who
never touched aught but clear water at
their meals-holy men-exeept by dispen-
sation or in case of urgent sickness. That
was why my own father and other young
men of his age and his way Of thinking
would speak of the time Of the new wine
making as the sickly season. Ill words
have hundred legs, so that these things
and others came to the ears of Father Ga
briele, who thereupon took his stick in his
hand, clapped his hat on his head and
climbed up the hillside to cali upon the
Nonno.
81 have heard my father and my grand
father tell the story many tines-how,
when all the proper courtesies had passed
and his reverence had tucked up his skirts
and was seated under the arbor, with a
glass of last years best before him and
this years green grapes hanging down
over the top of his tonsured head, "A fine
house, rich house, Sor Michele he be-
gins, looking up and down the fields and
Alt1Il1lSE VI
was busy cutting the young vine shoots
not 10 yards away. A rich house-the
richest in my parish he says, and crosses
his legs one over the other, with the fiat
steel buckles twinkling in the sun.
'Eh-eh, says my grandfather, his
reverence will have his little joke with
u.s. Then he picks up clod of earth and
crunbles it between his fingers, and looks
at it, and turns it over, and smells it, and
then throws it away from him, as if it
were too poor stuff even to mention in
such company. Lacking horses, man
drives donkeys, your reverence. And the
thirsty ass will drink dirty water-as his
reverence knows better than I, says my
grandfather very innocently, and goes to
I'LL up Don Gabriele's glass. And my
father snickered, bending his head down
over his vines.
g sSor Michele, Sor Michele, tits an ex-
pensive donkey that kicks it's own master,
says his reverence, looking very dark.
And it's who hope you may not find it
out for yourself-when it is too late, Scr
Michele, he says, picking with his hand
at his black soutane.
''Then my grandfather, who was an old
white wolf for cleverness-the saints have
his soul-saw he had gone too near the
fire. Con rispeto, what is thatg he
asks as if he had not heard or understood.
Was your reverence meaning my little
old she ass who carries down the baskets
to Albano of a morning? Affeddiol !
was just thinking in my mind it would be
easy for her to stop at the canonica door
on her way down. 1t would be an honor
to us all, and she would feel it, poor beast
If his reyerence's cook would just look
over the baskets. She knows when her
load is Heightened. She understands like
any Christian, says nay grandfather, feel
ing uneasy.
Scr Michele, Sor Michele, be careful
that there are not better Christians in your
COW stable than about your hearthstone,'
says Don Gabrielle very solemnly, and at
that my own father drops his big vine cut
ter and steps up nearer, dragging his old
hat off his curly head with both hands,
Perhaps, if your reverence is kindly
speaking of me, he begins, half laughing,
for he was lion of courage, was my IA
ther. But he never got a chance to finish
what he meant to say.
For his reverence jumped up, leaving
his full glass untouched before him, and
for those who kaew him that was enough
to turn ones flesh and blood into plaster
'Sor Michele, and thou, Michele's son, I
say it to both of you alike. This is but
the beginning of the working week, but
before the end, before Sunday st early
mass shall have seen you down on your
four knees in the dust. In the dust of the
common highway you shall kneel, before
the weight OF your sins of pride and stiff
neekedness and evil speaking of dignities
be lifted from off your miserable souls.
You shall kneel there, and it is I, your
parish priest with authority to loose and
to bind, who tells you SO. In nomine Pa
iris ct Fill ct Spiritus Sancti, says Fa-
ther Gabrielle making q great sign of the
eraRs.
"Whon he was safely away down the
hill, By Diana and Diogcnesr says my
father. Where the fox has been. there you
can smell his skim, says my father,
scratching his head.
But the Nonno, he was true wolf for
wisdom. Silence. thou disgrace of my
ruined homo! 0 thou misbegotten, thou
lawbreaker! Truly, truly it is said ''Sons
to bring up, iron to chew" Come, come
thou hither to me, that 1 may break every
bone in thy body, ungrateful onel o
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