144 THE PEASANT'S SUPERSTITION. 



ral of the fire-flies which were flitting around him, and sport- 

 ively placed them in the coloured net- work which confined 

 the maiden's luxuriant tresses. Bianca shrunk almost 

 shrieked as she tried to arrest the playful action of her noble 

 lover. " Marco! for the love of heaven, do not so? Those 

 Lucciole if you knew how I dread them !" 



"Dread them?" 



" Yes ; bright as they look, they come from the dark 

 graves; and with us, in our family, they have always been 

 omens warnings of death and dolor. Before my poor 

 mother died"- 



" Nay, nay," cried Marco ; " now art thou more silly than 

 I deemed thee." 



Yet he strove, at the same time, to remove the glittering 

 causes of alarm. When with some trouble he had disengaged 

 them from the net-work, one yet clung to his hand, and, on 

 shaking it off into the air, the insect, as if proud of the place 

 it had lately occupied, instead of joining its companions, flew 

 back, and settled on Bianca's head. Not a word, this time, 

 escaped her lips ; but she turned pale and trembled. Her 

 lover again gently chid her again displaced the Lucciola, 

 and threw it far into the underwood. Then, supporting the 

 steps of the frightened girl, accompanied her to within a few 

 paces of her father's cottage, once more whispered his tender 

 " Buona Notte" and departed to join in the revels of the night 

 prolonged far into the morning. 



