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There
were once two companions who were humpbacks, but one more
so than the other. They
were both so poor that they had not a penny to their
names. One of them said: "I will go out into the
world, for here there is nothing to eat; we are dying of
hunger. I want to see whether I can make my fortune."
"Go,"
said the other. "If you make your fortune, return,
and I will go and see if I can make mine." So the
humpback set off on his journey. Now these two humpbacks
were from Parma. When the humpback had gone a long way,
he came to a square where there was a fair, at which
everything was sold.
There
was a person selling cheese, who cried out: "Eat the
little Parmesan!" The poor humpback thought he meant
him, so he ran away and hid himself in a courtyard. When
it was one o'clock, he heard a clanking of chains and the
words "Saturday and Sunday" repeated several
times.
Then
he answered: "And Monday."
"Oh,
heavens!" said they who were singing. "Who is
this who has harmonized with our choir?"
They
searched and found the poor humpback hidden. "O
gentlemen!" he said, "I have not come here to
do any harm, you know!"
"Well!
we have come to reward you; you have harmonized our
choir; come with us!" They put him on a table and
removed his hump, healed him, and gave him two bags of
money.
"Now,"
they said," you can go." He thanked them and
went away without his hump. He liked it better, you can
believe! He returned to his place at Parma, and when the
other humpback saw him he exclaimed: "Does not that
look just like my friend? But he had a hump! It is not he!
Listen! You are not my friend so and so, are you?"
"Yes,
I am," he replied.
"Listen!
Were you not a humpback?"
"Yes.
They have removed my hump and given me two bags of money.
I will tell you why. I reached," he continued,
"such and such a place, and I heard them beginning
to say, 'Eat the little Parmesan! Eat the little Parmesan!"
I was so frightened that I hid myself." (He
mentioned the place -- in a courtyard.) "At a
certain hour, I heard a noise of chains and a chorus
singing: 'Saturday and Sunday.' After two or three times,
I said: 'And Monday.' They came and found me, saying that
I had harmonized their chorus, and they wanted to reward
me. They took me, removed my hump, and gave me two bags
of money."
"Oh,
heavens!" said the other humpback. "I want to
go there, too!"
"Go,
poor fellow, go! Farewell!"
The
humpback reached the place, and hid himself precisely
where his companion had. After a while he heard a noise
of chains, and the chorus: "Saturday and Sunday!"
Then another chorus: "And Monday!" After the
humpback had heard them repeat: "Saturday and
Sunday, and Monday!" several times, he added: "And
Tuesday!"
"Where,"
they exclaimed, "is he who has spoiled our chorus?
If we find him, we will tear him in pieces." Just
think! they struck and beat this poor humpback until they
were tired; then they put him on the same table on which
they had placed his companion, and said: "Take that
hump and put it on him in front."
So
they took the other's hump and fastened it to his breast,
and then drove him away with blows. He went home and
found his friend, who cried: "Mercy! Is not that my
friend? But it cannot be, for this one is humpbacked in
front. Listen," he said, "are you not my
friend?"
"The
same," he answered, weeping. "I did not want to
bear my own hump, and now I have to carry mine and yours!
and so beaten and reduced, you see!"
"Come,"
said his friend, "come home with me, and we will eat
a mouthful together; and don't be disheartened." And
so, every day, he dined with his friend, and afterward
they died, I imagine.
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