In the
little town itself, early as was the hour, many people were stirring.
One gave me good-morning - a man of singular character, for here, in
the very peep of day, he was sitting on a doorstep, idle, lazy and
contented, as though it was full noon. Another was yoking oxen; a
third going out singing to work in the fields.
I did not linger in this crow's nest, but going out by the low and
aged southern gate, another deeper valley, even drier and more dead
than the last, appeared under the rising sun. It was enough to make
one despair! And when I thought of the day's sleep in that wilderness,
of the next night's toil through it -
LECTOR. What about the Brigand of Radicofani of whom you spoke in
Lorraine, and of whom I am waiting to hear?
AUCTOR. What about him? Why, he was captured long ago, and has since
died of old age. I am surprised at your interrupting me with such
questions. Pray ask for no more tales till we get to the really
absorbing story of the Hungry Student.
Well, as I was saying, I was in some despair at the sight of that
valley, which had to be crossed before I could reach the town of
Acquapendente, or Hanging-water, which I knew to lie somewhere on the
hills beyond. The sun was conquering me, and I was looking hopelessly
for a place to sleep, when a cart drawn by two oxen at about one mile
an hour came creaking by. The driver was asleep, his head on the shady
side. The devil tempted me, and without one struggle against
temptation, nay with cynical and congratulatory feelings, I jumped up
behind, and putting my head also on the shady side (there were soft
sacks for a bed) I very soon was pleasantly asleep.
We lay side by side for hour after hour, and the day rose on to noon;
the sun beat upon our feet, but our heads were in the shade and we
slept heavily a good and honest sleep: he thinking that he was alone,
but I knowing that I was in company (a far preferable thing), and I
was right and he was wrong. And the heat grew, and sleep came out of
that hot sun more surely than it does out of the night air in the
north. But no dreams wander under the noon.
From time to time one or the other of us would open our eyes drowsily
and wonder, but sleep was heavy on us both, and our minds were sunk in
calm like old hulls in the dark depths of the sea where there are no
storms.
We neither of us really woke until, at the bottom of the hill which
rises into Acquapendente, the oxen stopped.
