The boy ran to the canal and called out loudly, "Breakfast is ready, and there is enough for you. Why do you not come?" Getting no answer, the boy went again to the hut, saying, "What ails him? He will not speak." "Ah," said another, "the old fool is deaf. You must shout at him and swear a little." Again the boy went down and shouted, "The others wait for you. Come along, old fool!" But again the man moved not. The third time back to the hut ran the boy, saying, "Come, one of you! He will not wake for me." But they only laughed and said, "Go shake his leg, and say we cannot wait till doomsday for him." The boy did as he was bid, and clambered into the boat, and shook the man, who then sat up on the prow and said, "Go back and tell them I am coming." Then the boy hastened back, and found the men all laughing and joking, and he cried out, "It is all right now, and he is coming." Suddenly the laughter ceased, and the six men turned ashy pale. They heard the footsteps approaching, and soon the dead man came in and sat in the boy's place. The eyes of the others were fixed on him, and they could neither eat nor speak. They could not turn their eyes from the stranger's face, and their blood was gradually chilled in their veins; and when the sun was risen, seven {172} dead men sat around the table, and the poor little boy was alone. It is from this event that the _valle_ is called the Valle dei Sette Morti. Ghost-stories are rare in Venice. There is another that one usually hears. It concerns a house called "haunted." It stands on the most easterly point of Venice, and is spoken of as the "Casa degli Spiriti." The old women say that "once upon a time" a fine young Venetian lived there with a charming bride, and the friend who had been their groomsman visited them frequently. He was godfather to their first child, which is a very sacred relation in Venice, and is called "Compare di San Zuan." After a time the young wife and the _compare_ fell in love with each other. The husband knew this very well, and all three of them were most unhappy. Just then the _compare_ died; and so greatly did the lady suffer that she grieved herself ill, and was about to die. Her faithful maid knew all the story of her love and grief, and with her last breath her mistress begged that when she was dead no one else should be permitted to watch beside her; and although the other servants would gladly have kept the vigil, the maid was left alone beside her dead mistress. At midnight the door opened, and the dead _compare_ came in. The maid could neither move nor cry out, and the ghost raised his dead love up, and she began to dress. When she was ready, the ghost took her arm, and signed to the maid to light them on their way. Then the three went down, down to the very lowest vault beneath the house; and there the _compare_ struck the torch from the hand of the maid, and she swooned on the floor.