The Vintage: A Romance of the Greek War of IndependenceBenson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
History
The Vintage: A Romance of the Greek War of Independence
Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
Greece -- History -- War of Independence, 1821-1829 -- Fiction
"That will be a fine day for me," said Yanni.
"And what for me," asked Mitsos, "after I leave Yanni there?"
"You go to Nauplia with a letter from me for Nicholas, but I expect
you will stay there just as long as the gull when he dips in the sea
and out again. There will then be another journey for you northward
to Patras to speak with Germanos. However, Nicholas will tell you all
that."
Yanni sat up and pulled Mitsos' hair.
"O lazy dog," he said, "is it for this I pay you wages, that you should
lie in the grass by your master"--and he felt in his pouch and found
his tobacco gone--"and, by the Virgin! take his tobacco, and then not
be able to fill a pipe fit for a Turk to smoke?"
"Fill it for me, Yanni," said the other, returning the tobacco, "and
let go my hair before there is trouble for a little cousin of mine."
"You shall brush my clothes and sew my buttons," continued Yanni, "and
lay my supper, and eat of my leavings. It is a fine thing to have a
good strong servant. There's your pipe."
Mitsos reached out a huge hand, plucked Yanni's pipe from his mouth,
and lit his own at it.
"There is a good clean smell abroad to-day," he said. "It is the first
of spring. Just think; last year only I went out picking flowers with
the little boys and girls on this day, and here am I now a man of war.
It was good to sleep under the pines and wake to them whispering; was
it not, Yanni? Perhaps that will come again when the kennel-work is
over."
"Easter candles give I to the Mother of God," said Yanni, "for the days
that are gone, and a candle more for every day we journey together,
Mitsos."
"The Blessed Mother of God will have a brave lighting up one night,
then," said Petrobey, "if things go well with us. There's many a tramp
for you both yet. And who will be paying for the candles, little Yanni?"
The third day after, the two set out for Tripoli, Yanni trinketed out
in his best clothes, as was fit for the son of a great chief, and going
forward on a fine gray horse, Mitsos behind him on his own pony, in the
dress of a servant, leading the baggage-mule. Four days' travelling,
for they rode but short hours, being in no way very eager to get to
the "kennel-work," as Mitsos called it, brought them to Tripoli, where
Yanni went straight to the governor's house, leaving Mitsos outside in
the square with the beasts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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