the
artists did not have to go to confession to that man.

Dinner finished, Rocjean proposed a walk. They first went to the old
church, but found its interior ruined with whitewash and tawdry
decorations. The music, however, was excellent, but the crowd of
worshippers intense; so they repaired to the cattle market, in the
piazza in front of the prison. They had been there but a short time,
before the procession in honor of the patron saint of Frosinone, whose
full-length seated effigy was carried by bearers, passed them. Along
with other emblems borne by priests or laymen was a cross, apparently of
solid wood, the upright piece fully twelve feet long, and as large round
at the base as your thigh; the transverse piece of the cross was
proportionately large; this was borne with ease by a moderate-sized man.
Caper was at a loss to account for the facility with which the bearer
handled pieces of timber as large as small joists of a house; so he
asked a good-natured looking citizen standing near him, if that wooden
cross was not very heavy?

'Eh! that heavy? Why, it's not wood; it's made of stove-pipes!'

The citizen also told Caper that the seated effigy of the patron saint
had had a hard time of it some years ago, for the country around
Frosinone suffering from a long drought, the inhabitants had in vain
prayed, begged, and supplicated the aforementioned saint to send them
rain; but he remained obdurate, until at last, seeing him so stubborn,
they seized him, in spite of the priests, carried him down to the
bridge, neck and heels, and threatened him, by all his brother and
sister saints, to put him to bed--bed of the stream (it was nearly
dry)--unless he speedily gave them a good supply of rain. In a couple of
days, sure enough, the rain came down, and in such torrents, that there
was a grand rush of the country people from the vicinity, begging the
saint to hold up. Since that time he has behaved very decently, and just
now is in high favor.

There were some fine cattle at the fair; and Dexter, noticing a peculiar
and becoming headdress to several of the long-horned oxen, made of the
skin of some animal, ornamented with bright-colored strips of woollen
with tassels at the end, tried to purchase a pair, but found the owners
generally unwilling to sell them: however, one man at last agreed to
sell a pair made of wolf-skin, with bright red, yellow, and green strips
and tassels, for a fair price, and Dexter at once bought