certainly not have been understood a hundred miles north of Sebastiano's
heap of sand. And yet it is very simple. In Calabria any strong young
fellow with a decently good character can find a wife with a small
dowry, though he be ever so penniless. Generally within a week, and
always within a fortnight, he emigrates alone, taking all his wife's
money with him and leaving her to work for her own living with her
parents. He goes to Buenos Ayres or Monte Video. If, at the end of four,
five or six years he has managed to increase the money so as to yield a
small income, and if his wife behaves herself during his absence, he
comes home again and buys a piece of land and builds a house. His
friends do not fail to inform him of his wife's conduct, and he holds
her dowry as a guarantee of her fidelity. But if he fails to enrich
himself, or if she is unfaithful to him, he never comes back at all. It
is thus clear that a penniless young man cannot go to America until he
is married.

"That is very true," Ruggiero repeated.

"And we must eat," said Sebastiano, who knew by experience the truth of
what he said.

"And we are always hungry. It is very strange. I am hungry now, and yet
we had the beans only this morning. It is true that the plate was not
full, and there were two of us. I wish we were like the son of Antonio,
who never eats. I heard his mother telling the chemist so last winter."

"He is dead," said Sebastiano. "Health to us!" he added, according to
custom.

"Health to us!" repeated Euggiero. "Perhaps he died because he did not