"Oh, there you are again! I am ready to do all I can to assist you, but this matter of the lottery is impossible; and I must say, that your folly, in supposing I can give you the three lucky numbers, does little credit to your brains." "Oh, no! no! do not say so, _Padre mio_! Give me a _terno_. It will be like rain in May, or cheese on my maccaroni. On my word of honor, I'll keep it secret. _Via!_ You, so good and charitable, cannot refuse me the three numbers. Pray, content me this once." "_Caro mio!_ I will give you a rule for always being content:--Avoid Sin, think often on Death, and behave so as to deserve Paradise,--and so"---- "_Basta! basta! Padre mio!_ That's enough. Thanks! thanks! God will reward you." And, making a profound reverence, off the _bottegaio_ rushes to his house. There he takes down the "Libro del Sogni," calls into consultation his wife and children, and, after a long and earnest discussion and study, the three numbers corresponding to the terms Sin, Death, and Paradise are settled upon, and away goes our friend to play them in the lottery. Will you believe it? the three numbers are drawn,--and the joy of the poor _bottegaio_ and his family may well be imagined. But what you will not imagine is the persecution of the poor _uomo apostolico_ which followed. The secret was all over town the next day, and he was beset by scores of applicants for numbers. Vainly he protested and declared that he knew nothing, and that the man's drawing the right numbers was all chance. Every word he spoke turned into numbers, and off ran his hearers to play them. He was like the girl in the fairy story, who dropped pearls every time she spoke. The worst of the imbroglio was, that in an hour the good priest had uttered words equivalent to all the ninety numbers in the lottery, and the players were all at loggerheads with each other. Nor did this persecution cease for weeks, nor until those who had played the numbers corresponding to his words found themselves, as the Italians say, with only flies in their hands.