Don Carlo promised, and took the first opportunity of broaching the subject.
"Nonsense, nonsense," was the answer, "there is no necessity at all," and the plea was cut short.
But Don Carlo was not so easily beaten; he knew the sunny nature of his friend, and determined to have recourse to strategy. On the arrival of the pedlar, he examined his materials, selected what he considered suitable, and set to work, after the manner of his country, to bargain. Having agreed on what he considered a fair price, he ordered the required length to be cut off, and turned to Don Giuseppe who had been innocently watching the transaction. "So many yards at such and such a price," he declared. "Pay up, Don Giuseppe!"
The rector was disgusted; but there was nothing to be done but to obey. The bargain had been made and the shirting cut off. "Even _you_ come here and plot to betray me," he complained.
As for Rosina, her delight knew no bounds. "God bless the day you came, Don Carlo," she said, meeting him outside the door. "If you had not been here to-day, to-morrow there would have been neither money nor linen!"
Salzano was a large parish, and the rector had to keep a conveyance. It was not much to look at, but it did hard service, being at the disposal of everybody who appealed to the well-known charity of its owner. The horse came home one day with both knees badly damaged.
"I am very sorry," pleaded the borrower, "an accident . . . ."
Don Giuseppe swallowed hard. "Never mind, never mind," he said; "it is all right."
One day--there had been a bad harvest that year, and there was much poverty in the parish--the rector asked a friend who was in easy circumstances to sell the horse for him. "You have so many relations with money," he pleaded.
The horse having been disposed of, it was then suggested that the same friend might also sell the carriage.
"I don't think I shall succeed," he remarked doubtfully, "for you must allow that it is not in the best condition." His fears were too true; no purchaser was found, and the carriage remained in the presbytery stable at the disposal of anyone who possessed a horse without a vehicle.
In 1873 there was a serious outbreak of cholera. The people of Salzano knew little of hygiene and less of sanitation; it was hard to make them take the most necessary precautions. Don Giuseppe was everything at once: doctor, nurse and sanitary inspector, as well as parish priest. Not only were there the sick and the dying to be tended, but the living to be heartened and consoled. "If it had not been for our dear Don Giuseppe," said an old man in later days, "I should have died of fear and sorrow during those dreadful times." Some of the people took it into their heads that the medicines and remedies ordered by the doctor were intended to put them quickly out of their pain, and would not take them unless they were administered by the priest's own hand.