n, put his arm on the table and mournfully rested his head on
his hand.

"My dear Enrico," he said, "I have passed a night of horror. I did not
get to sleep at all, and then I was continually waking up again--"

"Nonsense, Buffo," I exclaimed.

"But it's not nonsense. Ah! you do not know what it is to lie awake all
night, sleepless and trembling, between sheets that are made of lava, and
to hear footsteps and the clanking of armour and to see Rinaldo shining
in the dark and threatening you as he holds over you his sword, Fusberta,
and shouts in your ear: 'How dare you applaud when my brother-in-law is
killed?'"

He seemed to enjoy his coffee, however, and to be ready for plenty of
exertion. He wanted a piece of lava to take home with him, and would it
not be possible to pick up a piece if we went to the slopes of Etna? So
we made inquiries and were told where to find the station of the
Circum-Etnea Railway and started soon after breakfast for Paterno. The
soil was black with lava and the wind was tremendous and carried the
gritty dust into our mouths and down our necks. In that way he got
plenty of lava to take home, but he wanted a large piece, and we could
not stop the train and get out and break a piece of rock off, besides, we
had nothing to break it with. We were like that old sailor in the poem
who was surrounded by water, water everywhere, but not a drop of a kind
to satisfy his immediate requirements. It was just as bad at Paterno;
from the station to the town all our energies were required to get along
in the blinding wind and the stinging dust and then we had to have our
luncheon.

"And what would you like for colazione, Buffo?"

"Seppia and interiori di pollo, if you please."

But he had to be a Sicilian and eat maccaroni with me, because the inn
could not provide what he wanted. Altogether the day was perhaps
something of a failure, and we returned without the piece of lava.

In the evening we went to the Birraria Svizzera, and he ate his seppia
while I got through my maccaroni. When his interiori di pollo came I
said:

"I will do my best to eat what you eat, not exactly but as nearly as I
can. Instead of a veal cutlet I will have part of an esteriore di pollo.
It rather surprises me that you should always eat the same things. Gildo
said you like plenty of variety."

"So I do," he replied. "Look at my plate. Can you imagine a more
delicious variety?"

I looked and said: "Certainly