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Vermont
1.
Mary Tomasi
63 Barre Street
Montpelier, Vt.
The Granite Worker
Well, anyway, the good freni Raffaele be have one fine
funeral yesterday before he is put away from us. All the men
from the stone shed are there, an lots from the other shed,
beside some one or two from almoir-every Italian family in Barre.
The line of ear it win' down two street to the church, one of the
funeral I ever see: \.j.14.47 Sure, I know. I count the car.
Amalia, she say, "Don't you count them, Giaco. It is bad luck,
maybe it mean you will die." I laugh anksay, "Ho, that is
nothing new. Some day we all die." That is true, no? But Suer
the same it make me think baek When I was a kid in the olVI
country. There is my little girl coasin Costanzia„ She is ten
year ol*, anA one day she have this bad pain in her side. All
that day she is complain, anA the neA day she is vomit so
much an so weak ant hot all over that she stay in bed. My aunt
anA uncles they are ready to hitch up the donkey mud go down
to the Villa to bring up the doctor. But Coatanzia she is
seareOeof doctor, an4 she cry ant') say it is nothing, her side
hurt because yesterday morning the goat he bump her when she
is go to pick flowers on the cliff. Well, they believe her, an'
they think she 6s so sick because she is scare'. So they put
the donkey in the barn, an' they heat up a flat stone an'
wrap it in a cloth an, put it on the side that hurt. They stay
up all that night to heat the stone when it get col', ant in the
2.
morning Costanzia is sick to die. This time the does not have
the streng' to tell them no when they go to get the doctor. The
doctor come, but he come too late, ant the little Costanzia is
dead ten minute after he get there. lie does not say what the
sickness is that kill her, but he is very mad when they say that
the goat is bump her. MO say that is a lie, it is not a bump
from a goat, it is a sickness inside her, ant he make them feel
very bad when he tell them that maybe the hot stone do a lot of
harm to her.
Well, I do not know for sure what the sick-
ness is, but she act a lot like my boy last year when he have
the appendicitei an' have to have the operation. His is what
they call the pus case an' when I say to the doctor, "Why not
put the hot bottle on his side to stop the pain,' he say, *Nos
it is the worse you can do. It will help make the the bag of
pus break. It will poison him.* So I think maybe it is that
what kill the little Costanzia. 41.: Oh, yes, I was go' to tell
why I think of Costanzia when I comnt the ear at the funeral of
Raffaele. You see, over there we4are up in the hills ant one
mile from the town which is sail' the Villa. They have the
undertaketithere, but when I was a boy, they do not embalm in
the hills like they do in the other towns in Italy or like they
do here. When Costanzia die in the morning, they sent for him
quick. He wash her clean, an' close down her eyes, comb her haif
dress her in the new dress an' put her in the plain wooden box.
It is a nice box though, carve' ant work' pretty ant then varnish'.
The max' morning already they have the funeral because it is
summer ant very hot. Well, there are no car an, no carriage at
3.
that funeral. Four stronger an' older cousin of Costanzia one
is my brother) *awry her in the box to the Villa. We all walk
behin' her two by two. Her family, then the aunts, uncles al'
cousin, an then mos' all the hillside who are am her trews.
we make a long line. At the bridge the cousin put the box down
on a fresh green spot under a tree, ant one of them run to the
Villa to bring the priest. He come dress' in his long blaek
dress. The cousin they pick up Costanzia again, ant with the
priest behinl them they cross the bridge to the church. But it
is while we are *tan' there under the tree an' wait for the
priest that my cousin Rodrigo, a brother of Costanzia, be take
it in his head to count all who are in the funeral line. Another
brother say to him that it is bad to do that, that it is like
to tempt the Die for another funeral. Rodrigo say, "140, there
is a big crowd here. I want to count them, then tomorrow I
will tell Mama the number an' it will make her feel some glad
in her heart that there is so many who like the little Costanzia
an' have cow to say goodby to her. Well, it is a strange thing,
but in two month Rodrigo be is dead, too. He is struck by the
lightn' when he is walk to school to the Villa. Right away
quick the story Is run arount the village that Rodrigo is dead
hissolf because he count the people t the funeral of his
sister. 4...
As? Ho, I do not believe that is thy he have
to die, but just the same yesterday when I count the car at
the funeral of my fren' Raffaelo„ I think of Costanzia an'
Rodrigo. I cannot help it. So when I count to fifty an' I
see with a quick look from the corner of my eye that there is
only a few more car than fifty, I do not finish the count. I
5.
like the coffee we use' to make so much from the barley we
grow. My mothers she use' to roast the barley good till it
was nice an' browns then she pound it with a stone in a big
granite bowl, Just before I come away she buy a real hand
grinder; that make it much easier. The coffee is cook in boiling
watersant straints an' we drink it like the coffee here with
sugar ant cream, I remember there was a rich family that come
to the Villa to live every summer. The doctor there he sent
them up all the time to our house to get the barley coffee
an' drink it,
sometime now I have the pain in my
stomach -the burns ant my doctor here he tell me to drink
the barley water. But he does not tell me to roast the barley
like we do in the olt country. .14,1e When I drink it Amalie,
the say to mes "Sees the stowchs they have to be treat' the
same all over. What is good for those over there is good for
those here, too."