Once more they rolled out into the night. As they drove through the
country Fairfax saw the early moonlight lie along the tracks, sifting
from the heavens like a luminous snow. No breeze stirred and over the
grain fields the atmosphere hung hot and heavy, and they rushed through
a sea of heat and wheat and harvest smells. The wind of their going made
a stir, and as Fairfax peered out from his window his head was blown
upon by the wind of the speed.
Falutini from his side of the cab said, "Benvenuto Cellini. That is not
a Carrara man, no, no."
"I never knew him by any other name," said the engineer. "I like
Italians." He threw this cheerfully over his shoulder at his inferior.
There was a childlike and confiding smile on the Italian's face; brutal
as all Italian peasants are, brutal but kindly and unsuspicious as a
child, ready to love and ready to hate.
"Only you mustn't use your knife; it's not well thought of in America.
You'll get sent to gaol."
The Limited whistled from around a curve, came roaring toward them, tore
past them, cutting the air, and Fairfax's local plugged along when the
mile-a-minute left them. Tony was conscious that as he hummed the sound
grew full and louder; he was accompanied by a voice more assured than
his own, and in melodious fraternity the two men sang together. So they
took their train in.
CHAPTER XXI
The Kennys did not know what had happened to Misther Fairfax. He sang on
the stairs now and again as he had done when he first came to Nut
Street. He bought the children sweet Jackson balls and the baby nearly
died from "wan in its troat," and his mother picked him up by his socks
and rattled the sticky sweet out of the child's larynx, and the cat
finished it.
Tony's foreman was asked in to have supper and a late cup of coffee, and
Miss Cora Kenny, whom "Pop" had sent to the Troy convent the first week
of Antony's appearance in the Gents' Boarding and Lodging House, came
home for a Catholic holiday, and she helped her mother. They made
macaroni for Tito Falutini--"high Falutini," as Mrs. Kenny called him.
The name stuck, and the macaroni stuck as well, fast to the plate; but
the Italian, in bashful gratitude, his eyes suffused with smoke and
tears, ate gratefully, gesticulating his satisfaction, and Cora Kenny
studied him from the stove where she slaved to tempt the appetites of
Fairfax and his friend.
Fairfax was proud of Falutini: he was not an ordinary acquaintance; he
sang after supper, standing stiffly in a corner of the kitchen, his red
shirt well opened at the throat, and his moustache like black velvet
above his red lips.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account