he pulled aside the curtain at the
entrance and disclosed the stage full of fighting paladins and the
auditorium half empty. I paid three soldi and took a seat. After the
first act, I congratulated the young man at the door on the performance
and told him it was not the first time I had been to his theatre, and
that I was sorry to see it so empty.

"There is no one here," he agreed; "do you know why? It is because
to-night will die Guido Santo, a marionette very sympathetic to the
public, they cannot bear to see his end. But it is the last night and
to-morrow they will come because the story will begin all over again."

Feeling I could bear to witness the death of Guido Santo, I returned to
my seat. Before the curtain drew up on the last act there entered a page
who took his hat off with his right hand and stood politely bowing until
the audience should be ready to listen to what he had to say. He then
recited the programme for the next evening, telling us that all who came
would see the baptism of Costantino, Imperatore del Mondo. As soon as he
had gone, Pasquino and Onofrio came on and in dialect comically commented
upon the programme.

At the end of the entertainment, after Guido Santo was dead and the angel
had come down, taken his white soul out of his mouth and carried it up to
heaven, I resumed conversation with the young man at the door, and soon
perceived that he was a fine natural actor who will commit a crime if he
does not go on the stage as a buffo. He told me that the theatre is open
all the year round; they do not make much money in the summer because the
people prefer to be in the open air, but in the winter--! and his
gestures indicating how they sat shoulder to shoulder and craned their
necks to see over one another's heads and wiped the perspiration off
their foreheads and scattered it upon the floor, were rapid, precise and
eloquent. He remembered the performance of _Samson_ and the crowd and,
as soon as he saw I was interested, became like a puppy that has found
some one to play with. If I would come to-morrow he would show me all
the marionettes and tell me all the secrets of the business.

I went and was introduced to his brother, his three sisters and his
father who is the proprietor of the show. It was the father's voice that
I had heard in _Samson_, the buffo and his brother help in working the
marionettes and in cleaning and repairing them after the performance, the
sisters do t