A WEDDING. 



163 



have avoided, but also the very one at which the mule- 

 teer had determined to contrive a halt. The family 

 consisted of a widow with a large family of children, 

 the principal of whom were Don Clementino, a young 

 man of twenty-one, and a sister of about sixteen or 

 seventeen, a beautiful fair-haired girl. Under the shed 

 was a party of young people in holyday dresses, and 

 five or six mules, with fanciful saddles, were tied to the 

 posts of the piazza. Don Clementino was jauntily 

 dressed in white jacket and trousers, braided and em- 

 broidered, a white cotton cap, and over it a steeple- 

 crowned glazed hat,wath a silver cord twisted round as 

 a band, a silver ball with a sharp piece of steel as a 

 cockade, and red and yellow stripes under the brim. 

 He had the consequential air and feelings of a boy who 

 had suddenly become the head of an establishment, and 

 asked ine, rather superciliously, if I had finished my vis- 

 it to the " idols ;" and then, without waiting for an an- 

 swer, if I could mend an accordion ; then, if I could 

 play on the guitar ; then to sell him a pair of pocket- 

 pistols which had been the admiration of Don Grego- 

 rio's household ; and, finally, if I had anything to sell. 

 With this young gentleman I should have been more 

 welcome as a pedler than an ambassador from any 

 court in Europe, though it must be admitted that I 

 vv^as not travelling in a very imposing way. Finding 

 I had nothing to make a bargain for, he picked up a 

 guitar, danced off to his own music, and sat down on 

 the earthen floor of the piazza to play cards. 



Within, preparations were going on for a wedding at 

 the house of a neighbour, two leagues distant, and a 

 little before dark the young men and girls appeared 

 dressed for the journey. All were mounted, and, for 

 the first time, I admired exceedingly the fashion of the 



