She came to the window and looked toward the west. "That isn't the
moon: it is a star," she said, fixing her eyes upon Venus.
It was quite characteristic of her class. They all think _forestieri_
do not know the moon from a star.
I pointed lower down, to where an ecstatic crescent was melting in the
sunset gold.
She gazed at it a moment, then said: "It is beautiful: I never noticed
it before. I never look at the sky except to see what the weather is to
be. It is for you signori to look at beautiful things, not for us
_poveretti_.--Do you see the sky in America?" she asked presently.
I assured her that we do, and that the sun, moon and stars shine in it
just as here in Italy.
She was greatly puzzled. "I thought that America was under ground," she
said.
I remembered Galileo and held my peace. Besides, in these days of
universal knowledge, when we hear scientific terms lisped by infant
lips, it is refreshing to see an example of fine old-fashioned
ignorance. Yet this woman had better manners than are to be found in
most drawing-rooms, a sweet, courteous dignity, and in matters which
came within her personal knowledge great good sense and judgment.
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