Merchant's trade—that's bankruptcy;
Gambler's trade in cursing ends,
Thief's trade to the gallows sends.
But in spite of the second line about "l'arte del mercante," a girl does not much mind marrying a merchant or shopkeeper; nay, it is sometimes her avowed ambition:
I want no fisher with a fishy smell,
A market gardener would not suit me well;
Nor yet a mariner who sails the sea:
A fine flour-merchant is the man for me.
A miller seems to think that he stands a good chance: "Come to the window, Columbine! I am that miller who brought thee, the other evening, the pure white flour." Shoemakers are in very bad odour: "I calegheri ga na trista fama." Fishermen are considered poor penniless folk, and she who weds a sailor, does so at her peril:
L'amor del mariner no dura un 'ora,