The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-22

asag.4 l. "a t-e sFts
When first saw Paolina she was
standing at my door with basket of
wild strawberries on her back Her
blue-and-white head-covering framed
and half Shaded the dark oval of her
little face, ana her big, solemn, dark
eyes. Her short, fiuttering skirt
did not hide her bare, brown shape
ly feet and ankles When she told me
the price of her Strawberries, those har-
bingers of spring in Malta, her voice
was soft and pleasant to hear, and even
now do not wonder that told her to-
come again daily while strawberries
lasted, and that 1 made point of go
ing down to the door myself in the
early morning to bargain for them and
try to make Paolina smile.
Soon gave up bargaining, for 1
found that Paolina and her people had
only lately come to live near NaAetta,
from the far side of the island, and
had not yet learned the art of asking
for twice what they expected to get.
After she had once walked off from my
doorstep in dignified silence, carrying
herpfruit with her since / suggested
lower TERMS / haggled no more, and,
indeed, tried an apology in broken NAL
tese the next time she came around.
At that time l, by reason of poverty,
lived over in Vitteriosa, the pilots ana
ffshermen's quarter of Malta, on the
side of the Grand harbor opposite to
Valletta. From my window | could
throw a orumpled ball of paper over
the bastion into the deep blue water
below the Bighi Sally port. Soon L
found that / could sec Paolina's little
home alone at the waters edge on the
opposite side of the bay, perhaps half
mile away, with tiny balcony, just
the breadth of a window, overhanging
the tidelesss Mediterranean.
Hot spring melted into hotter sum-
roar still Paolina, bare-footed and soft
voiced. brought fruit for my breakfast,
though the small, sweet strawberries,
which tasted no good at breakfast with
lemon Juice and sugar, had given place
+o1o GREAT fresh figs-honey-b at a
nennv the pound and three quarters.
Nov, If was so hot that one quilted the
cool stene-walled, green-shuttered
rooms very little, except in the early
morning or after sunset. l would sit on
the balcony, with books and the guitar
near. at hand, sometimes joining in the
talk of the pilots ard boatmen, who
io,,nqed and smoked upon the broad
wall beneath LIE
the steamers that churned IN ana out
through the mouth of the Grand harbor.
1Af night l would perhaps go for
long lonely swim, or hail 'Cenzini, as
he sat dangling his feet in the water
oyer the side of his green-pa1nted
dehaisa. Then we would go gliding
az in and out of the little bays of
81 Grand harbor or hugging the coast
ontside returning when the stars were
o,,t and scores of boat-lights fitted
over the sleepy sea that just whispered
where it met the rocks.
One hot gasping night had the gul-
+ar-ins.the boat with me. L mad put 1T
dawn and lay back in the stern, staring
~, Of the starry sky and thinking the
vague thoughts that most people nave
al such times, when 'Cenzlni asked
leave to strum.
ssTake ftr / said lazily, nodding at
the guitar, and letting the oars swing,
he sat silhouetted against the boW-hght,
and sang into the darkness:
..sweetheart, l am going away,
I sigh that take you not with me.
THAT strange, high-pitched song, with
,+s melancholy cadences and repeated
lines. is, / suppose, the most familiar IN
.ha Maltese tongue. | had heard 1t
scores of times but had never liked it
en- much before. 1t matched the night
and the tapping deep water under our
keel.
"Bravo," 1 said, "Cenzini you sing
vell." and 1 turned from staring over