So Then I Pulled Out 80 C. In Coppers, And Said,
_'Tutto',_ Which Means 'all'.
Then he put the bottle before me, took
the money, and an immense clamour rose from all those who had been
watching the scene, and they applauded it as a ratified bargain.
And
this is the way in which bargains were struck of old time in these
hills when your fathers and mine lived and shivered in a cave, hunted
wolves, and bargained with clubs only.
So this being settled, and I eager for the wine, wished it to be
opened, especially to stand drink to my guide. The innkeeper was in
another room. The guide was too courteous to ask for a corkscrew, and
I did not know the Italian for a corkscrew.
I pointed to the cork, but all I got out of my guide was a remark that
the wine was very good. Then I made the emblem and sign of a corkscrew
in my sketch-book with a pencil, but he pretended not to
understand - such was his breeding. Then I imitated the mode, sound,
and gesture of a corkscrew entering a cork, and an old man next to me
said '_Tira-buchon' - _a common French word as familiar as the woods of
Marly! It was brought. The bottle was opened and we all drank
together.
As I rose to go out of Tizzano Val Parmense my guide said to me, _'Se
chiama Tira-Buchon perche E' lira il buchon'_ And I said to him,
_'Dominus Vobiscum'_ and left him to his hills.
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