At last they struck the long beach and began to trudge through the sand.
"And what shall we do to-morrow?" asked Sebastiano.
Ruggiero was whistling loudly to show his younger brother that he was
not tired nor afraid of anything. At the question he stopped suddenly,
and faced the blazing blue sea.
"We can go to America," he said, after a moment's reflection.
Little Sebastiano did not seem at all surprised by the proposition, but
he remained in deep thought for some moments, stamping up a little
hillock of sand between his bare feet.
"We are not old enough to be married yet," he remarked at last.
"That is true," admitted Ruggiero, reluctantly.
Possibly, the close connection between going to America and being
married may not be apparent to the poor untutored foreign mind. It would
certainly not have been understood a hundred miles north of Sebastiano's
heap of sand. And yet it is very simple. In Calabria any strong young
fellow with a decently good character can find a wife with a small
dowry, though he be ever so penniless. Generally within a week, and
always within a fortnight, he emigrates alone, taking all his wife's
money with him and leaving her to work for her own living with her
parents.
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