THE VINEYARD
Constantine, I have brought some wine with me. Mitsos drop it into the fountain, for it must be tepid. Tepid wine saps a man's self-respect, and if a man, or a boy either, doesn't respect himself, Mitsos, nobody will ever respect him."
Mitsos followed him out of the room with his eyes, and then turned to his father.
"My hands are so dirty from that vine-digging," he whispered. "Do you think Uncle Nicholas saw?"
"He sees everything," said his father. "Wash, then, before you go up to his room."
Mitsos adored his uncle Nicholas with a unique devotion, for Nicholas was a finer bake of man than any he had ever seen. He had been to foreign countries, a feat attainable by sailing for weeks in big ships. He had been able to talk to some French sailors who had once been wrecked, within Mitsos' memory, on the coast near, and understand what they said, though no one in the place, not even the mayor, could do that; indeed the latter, before Nicholas had interpreted, roundly asserted that they spoke as sparrows speak. Then Uncle Nicholas was constantly going on mysterious journeys and turning up again when he was least expected, but always welcome; and he had a wonderfully low, soft voice, as unlike as possible to the discordant throats of the country folk; and he had long, muscular hands and pink nails. Also he could shoot wild pigeon when they were flying, whereas the utmost that the mayor's son, who was the acknowledged Nimrod of the neighborhood, could do, was to shoot them if they were walking about. Even then he could only hit them for certain if there were several of them together and he got very close. Also Uncle Nicholas was omniscient: he knew the names of all birds and plants; he could imitate a horse's neigh
21
