United States or Pitcairn Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Tutti walked in charge of Bianca, while Tuttu devoted all his attention to the scaldino in its red handkerchief, and a large green cotton umbrella he had brought from home in case the day should turn out to be rainy. This umbrella seemed to be endowed with life, so extraordinary was its power of wriggling itself under the legs of the passers by.
The scaldino is a small pot of glazed earthen-ware, having an earthen bale: and with this handle passed over the arm, and the pot full of bristling charcoal, the Veneziana's defense against cold is complete.
In order not to be absolutely frozen, he sat in a large cloak, and had beside him, or in his hands, a little earthen-ware pot filled with burning braize a scaldino, as it is called, the use of which is common to the noble in his palace, and the beggar in the street. He pointed to a chair near the table, and as he spoke, paid his visitor the ordinary courtesy of offering him his scaldino.
There are some degrees of poverty below the standard of the scaldino, and the beggars and the wretcheder poor keep themselves warm, I think, by sultry recollections of summer, as Don Quixote proposed to subsist upon savory remembrances, during one of his periods of fast.
In one of the public bathhouses in Venice there are four prints upon the walls, intended to convey to the minds of the bathers a poetical idea of the four seasons. There is nothing remarkable in the symbolization of Spring, Summer, and Autumn; but Winter is nationally represented by a fine lady dressed in furred robes, with her feet upon a cushioned foot-stool, and a scaldino in her lap!
But even in the midst of his ungovernable rage, Tutti's voice reached him. "Oh, Tuttu, Tuttu! the scaldino!" Tuttu darted across the street towards the stone where he had left the precious red bundle. There it was, lying unhurt, and he was about to seize it and carry it to a place of safety, when a fast-trotting horse with one of the light country gigs behind him, dashed down the street.
"You've got a little money left, haven't you, Tuttu?" enquired Tutti, who was always practical; "Couldn't we buy some cakes. I really feel very hungry." "Certainly not," said Tuttu, firmly, "I shall put it inside the scaldino for grandmother. That'll be the second surprise. Don't you see, Tutti?" "But it's only two half-pennies," argued Tutti.
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" shouted the driver but it was too late! The gig flew on, and Tuttu lay white and quiet, the scaldino still grasped in his two little outstretched hands. "Where's the scaldino, grandmother?" were Tuttu's first words, when he woke up to find himself lying on a little bed in a long room, with Maddalena and Father Giacomo bending over him.
His last basket of weeds had been handed in to Father Giacomo, and the entire sum for the scaldino lay in small copper pieces in a crumpled scarlet pocket handkerchief. "It's all here," whispered Tuttu, one great smile stretching across his good-tempered little face. "Every penny of it! Shall it be brown or yellow? It must have a pattern. We'll go into Siena to-morrow and buy it."
We saw it as she looked round at us, the immediate and precipitous chasm between such a life as she led, and the life of one like my friend, ever close to her husband, understanding his whims, his fears, his hopes, his follies and his victories. We saw the desolation of the sea-wife, the long lonely nights, the ever-present apprehension of loss. We understood the pathos of the scaldino.
Word Of The Day