"Ha! ha!" laughed Antonio, "I've no doubt of it. I should like to see _you_ with money, friend Peppe. You'd make a rare use of it." "_Per Bacco!_ wouldn't I?" answered the goatherd; "you wouldn't catch me sober again until the day of my death. If I could sell my milk to the Englishman at the rate you sell your wine, I'd soon make my fortune." "Well," said Antonio, "I would try it on if I were you. Perhaps milk isn't to be had in his country." "Perhaps not," said the goatherd, musingly. "It must be a curious country from all accounts. They tell me they never see the sun from one year's end to the other, and, indeed, how can they, when the sun is here all day? I hear, too, that the fog is so thick that you are obliged to cut it through with a knife as you go along the streets, and that the inhabitants are obliged to burn lamps all day long." "Yes, I have heard so, too," answered Antonio, "and that they have no wine in their country. Well, upon the whole, I'd sooner live where I am." "Ah, but the gold that is to be found about the streets," said Guiseppe, "you forget that." "What would be the good of all the gold, if there is no wine to buy with it?" replied Antonio. "I am very well content to live by the sale of my wine----" "At the rate you sell it to Englishmen, I've no doubt," broke in Peppe, with a laugh. "Well, my friend, of course we all try to get what we can, where we can, and how we can," pleaded Antonio. "That's only business. I'd be a fool if I didn't." "Well, Compar, I suppose we are all much alike in that; but don't you think that after having cheated the Englishman out of all that money, you could lend me three pauls?"[12] "Ah, Peppe, you rascal, I thought that was coming," laughed Antonio. "What! lend _you_ three pauls! Why, when do you think you would be able to pay me?" "Well, I make two pauls a day by the sale of my milk and go halves with my _padrone_.[13] That is a paul a day for us apiece. In three days, therefore, I shall be able to pay you the entire sum. If I can manage to gull the Englishman, I may pay you sooner," responded the goatherd. "Ah! Peppe," said Antonio, "I know you to be a slippery customer. How am I to be sure you will pay me within that time?" "I give you my word of honour," cried Peppe. "Ho! ho! what is that worth?" laughed his friend. "May I die of an accident, if I don't! May the earth open and swallow me up! May the Madonna cause my mouth to fall off if I fail in my word. May----" "There; that is enough," interrupted his friend. "Here are the three pauls. Take them, and if you fail to pay me back in three days' time--not one hour later, may all the curses that you have invoked upon yourself be fulfilled." This was all I overheard of the dialogue. Shortly after this they must have separated, as I heard soon the voice of the goatherd in the distance, chanting in that wild strain, with a prolonged dwelling on the last note peculiar to the peasantry in the Italian mountains.