THE BOY FIDDLER OF SICILY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 9 May 1925, Page 16

THE BOY FIDDLER OF SICILY.

Pero was a merry simple lad, and h© lived in a village in the beautiful island of Sicily. His parents died when he was young, and when he was fourteen he set out to make his fortune. On the road he met a beggarman, who said: “My son, 1 am starving. Give me something to buy some bread.” ..“You can take my wages,” said Pero, “and I will go back and serve three years more.” “Yon are really as kind as you are simple,” said the beggarman, and as he spoke he changed into a bright spirit. “I give you three wishes.’ < • “ “Well,” said Pero, “give me, please, ? violin that make e.erybody ance, and a gun that will ne%*er miss, and the gift of speech, that nobody onn refuse me anything.” The 'Spirit granted Pero these wishes, and Pero turned back to the farm. Seeing a pheasant fly by, lie fired at it to test* his magic” gun. The bird ) fell, blit before he could pick it up j the farmer ran out and .seized it. “Well,” said Pero, “you can have it if you like to dance for it.” He played on his violin and the farmer capered like a madman. “Stop, Pero!” he cried at last “and I’ll give you a thousand crowns.” Pero received the money, but as soon as his back was turned, the farmer ran to the magistrate and denounced him as a robber. There was little mercy for robbers in Sicily in those days. Pero was quickly arrested, tried, ■and condemned. But just as the hangman was putting the rope round his neck he asked the magistrate* to let him play one tune. “Don’t give him the. violin,” cried the farmer. But Pero had the gift of speech, and nobody could refuse him anything. The magistrate gave the violin to him, and Pero played on it, and the magistrate and the farmer and the hangman and the spectators danced to his playing. He played till they were worn out: he played till the soles came off their boots, and still he played. And the magistrate at last'‘promised that if he would stop he should go free. Pero then came down from the scaffold, and took his gun and his violin and his thousand crowns, and returned to his native village, and, having the gift of speech, he won the prettiest girl in Sicily as his wife, and settled down.