‘That will do,’ answered Jesus Christ; and he sent St. Peter to help the man to prepare it for dressing.
‘Here is the mutton,’ said the beggar; ‘but I cannot cook it, because I have no lard.’[6]
‘Look!’ said Jesus Christ.
The beggar looked on the hearth, and saw everything that was necessary ready for use.
‘Now, then, bring the wine and the bread,’ said Jesus Christ, when the meat was nearly ready.
‘There is the only loaf I have,’ said the beggar, setting the polenta loaf on the table; ‘but, as for wine, I never see such a thing.’
‘Is there none in the cellar?’ asked Jesus Christ.
‘In the cellar are only a dozen empty old broken wine-jars that have been there these hundred years; they are well covered with mould.’ Jesus Christ told St. Peter to go down and see, and when he went down with the beggar, there was a whole ovenful of fresh-baked bread boiling hot,[7] and beyond, in the cellar, the jars, instead of being broken and musty, were all standing whole and upright, and filled with excellent wine.
‘See how you told us falsely,’ said St. Peter, to tease him.
‘Upon my word, it was even as I said, before you came.’