THE PARISH CHURCH
As in any small respectable village, where everyone knows everybody's business and knows about the life, death and miracles of each family and every inhabitant, even in Pietrarubbia, after working in the fields and in front of the fireplace, one of the favorite pastimes was the ancient and entertaining art of gossip. The people, whose scarce consolation for the struggles of a wretched life of poverty and hunger, found some comfort in meddling in others' vicissitudes, mostly in well-known families, and even more in those who lived in misfortune. From mouth to mouth and from home to home, the m******e of the spring of Combarbio reached exaggerated proportions. Some attributed the responsibility first to a corps of bandits and then, even, to a monopoly of ferocious and bloo
