Page:Maud Howe--Roma Beata.djvu/142

 of all the women is exempt from work in the fields. She is personally neat and keeps her two rooms clean. Her cousin, a slatternly creature, living next door, and evidently the beauty's guardian,—asked us into her house. In spite of our curiosity to see interiors we quailed at the threshold of that hovel inhabited by the village naturale (simpleton), who is brother to Mariuccia's cousin, a large turkey gobbler, and several hens.

As we took leave, Mariuccia shyly pulled my sleeve. "When the signori return to America they will take a passeggiata one day to Pittsbourgo to see my Andrea, yes?" she whispered.

"Figlia mia, from our paese it would take twelve hours' travelling, even by the railroad, to reach Pittsbourgo." Mariuccia smiled incredulously, she did not believe us but was too polite to say so.

J. says that when Mariuccia goes to mass she carries the American shoes on her head (I think when he met her she must have been taking them to show to some friend) and wears cioce on her feet. To fit the cioce to the foot of the wearer, a square of cowhide, with the hair still on, is soaked in water till it becomes soft and pli-