[1] ‘Il Morto della Quercia.’ [↑]
[2] ‘Camminò, camminò, camminò;’ see note 6, p. 13. [↑]
[3] ‘Quattro arquebuzate.’ [↑]
[4] ‘Frateria,’ a popular word for a monastery. [↑]
THE DEAD MAN’S LETTER.[1]
There was a rich man, I cannot tell you how rich he was, who died and left all his great fortune to his son, palaces and houses, and farms and vineyards. The son entered into possession of all, and became a great man; but he never thought of having a mass said for the soul of his father, from whom he had received all.
There was also, about the same time, a poor man, who had hardly enough to keep body and soul together, and he went into a church to pray that he might have wherewithal to feed his children. So poor was he, that he said within himself, ‘None poorer than I can there be.’ As he said that, his eye lighted on the box where alms were gathered, that masses might be offered for the souls in Purgatory. ‘Yes,’ he said, then, ‘these are poorer than I,’ and he felt in his pocket for his single baiocco, and he put it in the alms box for the holy souls.[2]
As he came out, he saw a painone[3] standing before the door, as if in waiting for him; but as he was well-dressed, and looked rich, the poor man knew he could have no acquaintance with him, and would have passed on.