Don Cesare stood still. Suddenly a puff of wind passed over the water which foamed up to his feet.
"Oh, oh!" said the little ship-trader, "from the west! The wind for rain! No, dear San Pancrazio, you will not be so obliging to those people who threw you into the water?"
Then he looked cautiously on every side, listened carefully to right and left, and believing himself secure stepped down to the shore where he knew the saint lay, felt around among the stones till he found the rope, and then one might have seen the little man, slowly pulling the line toward him, with the exertion of his whole strength. But the holy Pancrazio didn't come so easily. One arm stuck on a sharp rock, his halo got caught between two stones, and when there came a hard pull it seemed as if something cracked in poor Saint Pancras' ancient worm-eaten neck, and as if a very critical wabbling seized his old heathen head.
"Ei, ei!" the poor saint must have thought, "how careless these human beings are with their saints! First one is tied and thrown in the water, and then knocked to pieces against the stones, for some one is pulling the rope I see. What is he going to do with me?"
And the shiny varnished eyes of Evolino tried to recognize the man, and when he found that it was Don Cesare, he sighed in his wooden bosom, but he patiently resigned himself to his fate. Only the wabbling of his head made him anxious; for he liked his old head. Suppose he should lose it, and they should put him on a new one?--a new head on the old trunk! or if they should order a whole new saint from the best modern wood-carver, what would become then of him, the only real, true, ancient, genuine San Pancrazio of Evolo?
But Don Cesare pulled and pulled, and turned and twisted, and at last, there lay the saint at his feet on the dry sand.
"Now, God be gracious to you, poor Evolino!" thought that ill-used person. What then was his surprise, when Don Cesare, without speaking a word, dragged him across the footpath, set him carefully up in a cleft of the rock, brushed and cleaned him from slime and dirt, and dropping on his knees, with folded hands, thus addressed him:
"There you are again on dry land, dear, good, holy Pancrazio, and are rescued from the neighborhood of sea-crabs and polyps. And, do you see, me, me alone, you have to thank for it, Don Cesare, who loves and honors you! I told you so when I was bringing you down from the chapel. The others have treated you shockingly, poor patron, but I, I rescued you. Don't forget it, dear old San Pancrazio. Now I know well enough what you would say: Don Cesare! Don Cesare! you were there too, and slung the rope over the olive tree! Alas, yes! I had to be there! But only think what would have happened if I had not been there, those others were in such a rage with you!--on account of the rain! But what do I care about the rain? You may leave them for weeks longer without rain for all I care! they deserve it, and that tall, lean Ciccio, whom I just met outside the walls, he it was who blustered most shockingly about fire, and I it was who silenced him by slinging you into the water. Yes, Evolino, and it is I again who drew you out. And now, Evolino, be good to me, you who are also an ancient God of the Winds. Weren't you called Æolus before you became the Saint of Evolo? Surely you have not forgotten that,--and the winds will certainly listen to you still. Blow, then, a good strong wind into the sails of a foreign ship and guide it to our harbor, so that I may earn something once more! See, I am not a rich man"--
He broke off suddenly. A clear, white beam of light had fallen upon the saint and a strange smile seemed to play over his features. Don Cesare looked around him in fright But it was only the moon that had just risen from the ocean, and threw its first beams upon the image.
"It is clearing," said Don Cesare, as he rose, and brushed the sand from his knees. "I must go now, for you understand, Evolino, only you alone know that I have drawn you out of the sea. Now stand quietly, and dry yourself, and get over your fright. But don't forget that you have me to thank, me alone! and don't forget to send me the ship--soon! very soon! Then I will dress your altar, and you shall have a new halo."