ve me in peace, crack-brained creature!" he said. "I suppose it
is fasting, more than the hurt, which makes me weak and miserable. I
haven't earned a single _quattrino_ for the last three days. I wanted
to go over to the monastery, to see if I could get a spoonful or two of
soup; but the comrades are all away. Not a soul would take me into his
boat for compassion. So I have fallen down here; very likely I shall
never get up again."

"'"He-he-he-he!" snickered the old woman: "why despair at once and lose
heart? You are hungry and thirsty. There's help at hand for that.
Here's some nice dried fish, bought this morning at the Zecca. Here's
lemon-juice, and a nice white loaf. Eat, my son; eat and drink, my son!
and then we'll have a look at the wounded arm."

"'She had taken the fish, the bread, and the lemon-juice out of the
sort of bag which she wore at her back, sticking up over her head
something like a cowl. As soon as Antonio had moistened his lips with
the lemon-juice his hunger awoke with redoubled might, and he eagerly
devoured the fish and the bread. The old woman meanwhile was busily
removing the bandages from his arm, when it was evident that, though
the hurt had been severe, it was healing now, fast. As she rubbed it
with a salve which she took out of a little box, warming it with her
breath, she said:

"'"Who was it who gave you the blow, poor little son?"

"'Antonio, refreshed, and aglow with new fire of life, had risen
upright. Raising his clenched right hand, he cried, with gleaming eyes:

"'"That scoundrel Nicolo wanted to kill me, because he grudges and
envies me every _quattrino_ which any benevolent hand gives me. You
know that I used to gain a hard-earned livelihood by carrying cargo
from the ships and boats to the German's warehouse, the Fontego, as
they call it; you know the building, of course?"

"'When Antonio pronounced the word "Fontego," the old woman began to
kicker and laugh in a horrible manner, and went on repeating the word
"Fontego, Fontego, Fontego," in a chattering, senseless way.

"'"Silence that nonsensical laughter of yours, old lady, if I am to go
on with my story," Antonio cried. She was silent at once, and he
continued.

"'"Well, I had earned a _quattrino_ or two, bought a new jacket, and
came among the gondoliers as one of themselves. And, because I was
always in good spirits, worked hard, and knew plenty of nice songs, I
earned many a _quattrino_ more than the others. An