STORY OF ALDOBELLO BANDARINI. 105 



rather as a philosopher than as a son-in-law, begins his story 

 very much in the manner of a physician of the present day 

 who has a case to state, and defines his subject as 

 " Aldobello dei Bandarini, of the town of Sacco, aged 

 about thirty-five, hairy over his whole body, short, round 

 limbed, and of a dusky colour," &c. This man began 

 life as a soldier, and made a little money in the wars that 

 is to say, being of an acquisitive disposition, he had laid by 

 three or four hundred crowns of gold. Retiring then 

 from military life, he built an inn at Sacco, and dwelt in 

 it with his wife Thadda3a and his seven children. Mine 

 host soon made himself known in Sacco as a sociable, 

 friendly fellow. In his domestic management he was a 

 strict economist : nothing was in his eyes too small to be 

 saved. He bought in times of cheapness stores that he 

 laid by to sell in times of dearth ; he paid cash for his 

 purchases when he could obtain any advantage by so 

 doing, and wherever it was gain to him to run a bill up and 

 allow it to remain unpaid for a time, so he did. He not 

 only received guests as an innkeeper, but also provided 

 dinners and suppers for private parties in the town ; at 

 such entertainments, whatever was to be consumed he sold ; 

 whatever was to be looked at only, he let out on hire ; 

 what he himself did not possess, if it was required he 

 would contrive to borrow and sub-lend. To the great 

 men of the town he was indispensable : whether they 



