"Your mother! That's good! Go and find your mother!"
They were walking very slowly. Anania much afraid of spilling the soup.
"We are thieves!" he whispered.
"The money is my father's, and you're a ninny. Well! I'll go away alone, alone," replied Bustianeddu energetically.
"All right, go, and never come back," said Anania, "but I shall tell—Aunt Tatàna!" He was afraid to call her his mother again.
"Sneak!" burst out Bustianeddu doubling his fist; "if you tell I'll kill you like a lizard. I'll smash your teeth with a stone. I'll gouge out your eyes!"
Anania still afraid for the soup, bent his shoulders to receive the violence of his friend, but he did not withdraw the threat of telling Aunt Tatàna.
"What devil did you meet in that courtyard," continued the other furiously, "what did that horrid maid say to you? Speak!"
"She didn't say anything. But I don't wish to be a thief."
"You're a bastard anyhow! That's what you are! Well I shall go off at once, with the money, and without you."