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the feast of san sebastiano ij7i
little Gandolfo, who was the son of the watchman at
the town-hall in Diamante.
All the people were astonished that Gandolfo
dared to appear in such a critical competition. Did
he do it to please his fiancee the little Rosalia ? No
one had ever heard that he could improvise. All
his life he had done nothing but eat oranges and
stare at Etna.
First, lots were cast between the competitors,
resulting in the cooper’s turn coming first and little
Gandolfo’s last. When the drawing of lots turned
out thus, Gandolfo grew pale. It was terrible to
be last, when all were to speak on the same subject.
The cooper chose to speak of San Sebastiano
when he was legislator in ancient Rome, and on
account of his faith was tied to a pole and used as a
target by his comrades. After him came the blind
man, who related how a pious Roman lady found
the martyr, bloody and pierced through with arrows,
and succeeded in bringing him back to life. Then
came the blacksmith who told about all the miracles
San Sebastiano had performed in Sicily during the
plague in the year fifteen hundred. They all
received a great deal of praise. They all used very
strong language about blood and death, and the
people were in raptures over them. But the
Dia-mantians became anxious about little Gandolfo.
" The blacksmith takes all the words away from
him. He is sure to fail," they said.
Others said, " Ah, little Rosalia will take the
betrothal ribbon out of her braid on that account."
But Gandolfo crouched down in his corner of the
wagon. He became smaller and smaller. Those
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