Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/139

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Second Day


The Dawn had gone forth to grease the wheels of the Sun's chariot, and, with the fatigue of stirring the fat into the wheelbox with a stick, had grown as red as a rosy apple, when Taddeo, after stretching his limbs, called the Slave; and dressing themselves in a few seconds, they went down into the garden, where they found the ten women already arrived. Then, after gathering for each of them some fresh figs, which with their beggar's jacket, gallows heads and ladies' tear-drops,[1] made every one's mouth water, they began a thousand sports to cheat the time until the banquet was ready; among which they did not omit either 'Anca Nicola,' or 'Hopscotch,' or 'Look-ye, wife,' or 'Hide and seek,' or 'Comrade I'm wounded,' or 'Proclamation and command,' or 'Welcome, master,' or 'Rentinola my Rentinola,' or 'Close the cask,' or 'Jump a yard,' or 'Stone in the bosom,'

  1. Depicting a ripe fig, with a cracked skin, a bent stalk, and drops of juice upon it.