Note: Translator Pauline Bancroft Flach died in 1966, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second book - VII. After the Miracle
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
2 54 the miracles of antichrist
at the stations. It was not so difficult; they were
sure they would come out well.
That day there seemed to be no difficulties. It
was as easy to build a station as an ordinary house,
they said. Besides, more than two stations were not
needed; a little sentry-box was sufficient at most of
the stopping-places.
If they could only avoid forming a company, taking
fine gentlemen into their service, and doing things
that cost money, their plan of the railway would be
realized. It would not cost so much. The ground
they could certainly get free. The noble gentlemen
who owned the land on Etna would of course
understand how much use of the railway they would have,
and would let it pass free of charge over their ground.
They did not trouble themselves to stake out the
line beforehand. They were going to begin at
Diamante and gradually build their way to Catania.
They only needed to begin and lay a little piece
every day. It was not so difficult.
After that journey they began the attempt to
build the road at their own risk. Don Ferrante
had not left a large inheritance to Donna Micaela,
but one good thing that he had bequeathed her was
a long stretch of lava-covered waste land off on
Etna. Here Giovanni and Carmelo began to break
ground for the new railway.
When the work began, the builders of the railway
possessed only one hundred lire. It was the miracle
of the legacy that had filled them with holy frenzy.
What a railway it would be, what a railway!
The blind singers were the share-collectors, the
Christ-image gave the concession, and the old shop
woman, Donna Elisa, was the engineer.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
