"Why, Signor, you must know that as soon as Peppe left the church on the morning of the miracle he was followed by a great crowd of the faithful."
"Of the curious and the idle, you mean," I observed, interrupting her. "Well, proceed."
"Who followed him to the door of his house," she continued; "and as divers of them were labouring under sore diseases, they besought him to touch them that they might be healed. Well, very many of them went away cured; others, he said, he was unable to cure on account of their want of faith."
"The artful dog!" said I, smiling. "Now, I'll be bound to say he made all those who imagined themselves cured pay him well."
"Oh, they all gave him something, of course, from a baiocco upwards, according to their means. They tell me the worthy man has made a heap of money by his miraculous touch."
"Miraculous humbug!" I exclaimed, half-amused and half-angry at the success of such a vagabond.
"Humbug! say you still?" cried my hostess. "How can it be humbug, if he really has cured the sick?"
"Come now," said I; "perhaps you will oblige me with a list of the diseases that this new saint professes to have cured."
"Willingly," she replied.
"In the first case, there is old Margherita, who lives at the bottom of the dell, and has been suffering much from nervous headaches; he but touched her forehead, and she walked away declaring herself cured. Then there was poor old Carluccio, who goes about begging from one place to another. He suffered much from rheumatism; but having been touched by Peppe on the parts affected, he immediately pronounced himself much better, if not quite cured. Then the girl Lucia, who lives half-way down the hill, and who used to suffer from the jumps, she likewise has not complained since. Then, again, Pietro, the vignauolo, who was suffering from stomach-ache, felt himself considerably better some few hours after he had been touched by Peppe. Brigida, the daughter of old Angeluccio, has for some time been the victim of a deep melancholy. Since she received the magic touch she has done nothing but laugh and sing, Giacomuccio, the idiot boy, complained of loss of appetite, but after Peppe had touched him he went home and ate up all the maritozza in the house. Then the number of children he has cured is something fabulous; at least, so their parents say."