Page:Under the shadow of Etna; Sicilian stories from the Italian of Giovanni Verga (IA undershadowofetn00vergrich).pdf/194

164 the dough, turned her head, with her hands still at work in the trough, her arms bare to the elbow. and asked the little girl,—

"How is your step-mother?"

The child, not knowing the woman, looked at her with frightened eyes, and hanging her head, and nervously working at the ends of her apron, said, in a low voice, between her set teeth,—

"She's in bed."

"Don't you see 't is the Sacrament," replied la Licodiana, "Now the neighbors have begun to scream at the door."

"As soon as I finish kneading this dough," said comare Sidora, "I'll run over a moment to see if they have need of anything. Compare Meno loses his right hand when this second wife of his dies."

"Some men have no luck with their wives, just as some are unfortunate with their mules. No sooner do they get 'em than they lose 'em. There's comare Angela."

"Yesterday evening," observed la Lico-