Any one who considered himself aggrieved might plead for
himself, and there was some risk in giving the verdict against him
because sooner or later he was pretty certain to become presidente or
sotto-presidente and to take his revenge. This gave opportunities for
declamation and gesticulation and resulted in much merriment.

Some discussion presently arose as to how far Africa and America are the
same place: one of the actors, who had not forgotten his geography, said
it was well known that they are separate countries, being, in fact, two
of the quarters of the globe. Whereupon Peppino remembered how when he
was at school one of the boys, on being asked to name the quarters of the
globe, replied--

"The five quarters of the globe are four in number and they are the three
following, viz. Europe and Asia."

"Bravo, bravo!" shouted Giovanni, and repeated the sentence several times
in his deep, rich voice.

But however amusing this might be, it did not convince us all that the
two names might not apply to one place; so the geographical actor went
further and told us that Africa had been known since the earliest ages,
that it was not very far from Sicily and contained Tunis, a city which
the company had visited on one of their tours, whereas America was a long
way off, on the other side of the world, and had been discovered in
comparatively recent times, and, strange to say, by an Italian. Giovanni
at once showed great interest.

"Tell us about it," he said, leaning forward.

"His name was Cristoforo Colombo," said the actor. "He was poor and
confided his difficulty to a priest who happened to be the queen's
confessor and a kind-hearted man. This priest went to the queen and
said, 'May it please your Majesty, I have a friend, Cristoforo Colombo,
who wishes to discover America but he has no money to buy ships.' The
queen thought it would be a good thing that America should be discovered
and promised to give him as much money as he wanted for the purpose."

"Oh, bel!" exclaimed Giovanni. "Let us drink the health of the good
queen."

"She died some years ago," said the actor in a warning tone.

"Then," said Giovanni, bowing his head reverently and crossing himself,
"let us drink to the repose of her blessed soul."

We did so and had all about the voyage and the tunnies, the flight of the
birds, the alarm of the crew when the meteor appeared, their
disappointment when the fancied land vanished in the morning,