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stole what he owed her not apfennig more. Well, I watched to make sure that's all she took. Left to
herself, she can be a lying little sneak, but what can you expect? She's the first real, live, foundling I've
ever come across. I thought that was real interesting. She's going to be the best fiddler I've ever taught.
Oh, the other? Somewhere up around Halle, on the other side of the river. I'd hitched a ride on a barge."
Somewhere up around Halle, on the other side of the riverequaled Saxony. Mentally, Ed moved the
concept ofpossibly needing to bail Benny out to a slightly higher rung on his ladder of priority items for
the Department of International Affairs.
Waving to them both, he picked up his beer and joined Cavriani, who had acquired two bratwurst as
well as a beer, plus two of Ed's staffers for company. Ed joined them happily. Among the advantages of
being a Roman Catholic "personal observer" at a Lutheran conference was that he never had to sit among
the head table guys when the topic was theology. They only needed him when the subject veered into
politics. Behind him, he could hear that Benny was handling the fiddle again. Minnie started to sing "Coal
Miner's Blues." By the time the lunch break was over, they'd made it through "Bury Me Beneath the
Willow" and a bilingual version of "When the Roses Bloom in Dixie Land."
They had also attracted a new audience that Ed recognized the delegation of Tuebingen theology
students. Minnie started to sell music again, while Benny treated them to "San Antonio Rose."
* * *
It was hard, hard, hard to go back to Professor Osiander, who, when they slid into their seats a few
minutes late, was announcing that: "Christ, who is the purest bridegroom of His church, does not share
His love, as expressed in the sacrament, with those who have vain and blasphemous opinions."
Osiander explained the rationale which had led the Tuebingen faculty to this conclusion in the most
minute detail, with frequent references to theConcordia Triglotta , throughout the afternoon. He defined
"church" and he defined "sacrament." He defined "vain" and he defined "blasphemous." He advanced
comparative instances of usage of the words in the Bible, both in Hebrew and in Greek, along with
variant translations into Latin and German.
Then he defined "opinions."
Ed had picked up a rumor that there had once been an attempt to assassinate Professor Osiander during
one of his sermons. Nowif I had been on the jury . . . he thought. On his right, Leopold Cavriani was
sleeping quietly.
* * *
Cavriani, in fact, had not been sleeping. He had been pondering the question of who had been doing the
German translations for Benny Pierce. He thought that Secretary of State Piazza must be so familiar with
the words of Benny's songs in English that he really hadn't paid any attention to the German lyrics.
Cavriani had paid attention and he knew enough of both languages to catch that, "When the roses bloom
in Dixieland, I'll be coming home to you" bore a reasonable relationship to"Als die Rosen naechst im
Suden bluh'n, kehr ich ein, mein Schatz, bei dir."
But the next verse of the English, which talked about birds singing music to the sweetest girl that the boy
ever knew, bore no relation at all to:"Wenn wir endlich von dem Kriege ruh'n, kehr ich ein, mein
Schatz, bei dir!"
The English words said nothing at all about finally resting from this war. There was a reason why he had
made that "ensure that an idea spreads" comment to the American. He'd been vaguely disappointed that
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Piazza hadn't picked up on it. This evening, he thought, he would see where the old man and the girl went
after they packed up in the market square. It would be interesting to find out who their associates were.
* * *
"My life hasn't been much, really," Benny said to Cavriani. "I graduated from eighth grade, but that's as
far as it went. Fought in the Second World War. Down in Italy, it was your name sort of rings a bell,
but we've got a lot of Italians in Grantville, too. Got married. Mary Ann's family came from Lebanon. She
was Catholic. I've got to say that bothered me a bit we were Methodist teetotal at home and I was
really brought up on the 'no popery' line. But she switched over, so it was fine. I used to play 'The
Romish Lady' in her honor. Hmm . . . haven't played that one in quite a while. Maybe I can polish it up
tonight. If you come by the market tomorrow, I'll play it for you."
Benny stopped talking for a moment to eat before his grilled cheese sandwich got cold. "These aren't
bad, are they, Mr. Cavriani? They aren't burgers, but they aren't bad. Do you really want to hear more?
Well, I worked in the mines most of my life. After the mine exploded at Farmington in sixty-eight that
was bad, seventy-eight men killed; only four got out Mary Ann carried on 'til I gave in and quit. I was
forty-seven then and went to driving the trucks; did that for twenty-three years. I'd figured on keeping on
'til she could collect her social security, but she died in ninety-two, before she'd even applied. I'd fiddled
all my life, but after I lost her, I started fiddling pretty much full time. Galax; other competitions. Even did
a few gigs at the big Tamarack tourist center down by Beckley. Wish you could have seen that place it
had quilts, jams, hand-carved duck decoys. You'd have liked it, I think. A marketplace with a roof over
the top."
Benny looked at his new friend, who nodded solemnly. Cavriani wasn't able to identify half the
references, but they weren't going past him. He was storing them in his mind, to be written down later in
the evening and checked out as soon as he had a chance.
Cavriani glanced at Minnie, who quite obviously didn't understand what Benny was talking about either.
But, right now, she didn't care. Cavriani had ordered two whole sandwiches and a large glass of milk for
her. Minnie was apparently a focused woman: she was definitely going to finish eating it all before the
men stopped talking and left the Freedom Arches. For a minute, Cavriani was afraid that she'd try to
cram that last half-sandwich into her mouth all at once and try to wash it down with the rest of the milk,
but Benny started talking again.
"Well, anyway. Then we landed here. Sort of cramped my style, at first, but then I figured that I could
hitch a ride on the carts going off to markets and I started bumming. In the beginning, all I could do was
instrumentals. A guy can't sing with a fiddle under his chin. Sometimes, I'd put the fiddle down for a
couple of minutes and do a verse. That went over okay, I guess. But I knew it would be better if folks
could understand the words."
The old man had ordered a kettle of boiling water for a beverage, and had dropped some odd dried
roots into it. He poured some of it out into a mug and rinsed his mouth.
"Sassafras tea, if you're wondering. I told you I was brought up teetotal. Still am. Want to try some?"
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