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    Mezzo, who was keener in these matters, pulled Basso aside and said that he had noticed Orsino’s recent attentions to their cousin, Larosa, who now lived with their grandmother. Larosa, once only a stringy twig of a girl with a wild crown of red hair, had, over the span of one season, grown from a seedling to a wild flower. According to Mezzo, Larosa’s distracting countenance had not been overlooked by Orsino, and if he were reminded of this, surely he would take more easily to his task. Basso let Mezzo advance his plan. Mezzo proposed to Orsino that rather than cut wood for Grandmother while Larosa helped, perhaps he could stay at home and roast peppers with their mother.
      “No”, Orsino said, and he took a moment before claiming : “Peppers make my hands itch, which is far worse than the calluses from chopping wood. I will go to Grandmother’s.”
     Mezzo then said that he and Basso would follow later and help Orsino with the work. He then bid Orsino luck saying, “In boca al lupo.” Orsino replied in kind, “Crepi il lupo,” and headed off towards his grandmother’s, but not before scooping up his fishing pole and bait pail from the back step.
After all, if one is to work up a hunger cutting wood then there should at least be a good meal of fish to enjoy afterwards. Besides, didn’t Larosa make the finest herbed fish he had ever eaten and such a talent should not be wasted. Though she treated him no differently than his brothers, he was drawn to her. Her collarbones were strangely appealing to him.
     As he made his way, Orsino pondered that if he first cut the wood, he would not have enough light to go fishing later. As cutting wood required little light, it made far more sense to go fishing first. This infinitesimally small seed of logic was all that he required. He would take a shortcut through the woods that would bring him closer to a rumoured pond that he never been able to find. He would simply follow the stream to its inevitable conclusion.   
     Venturing into the forest, Orsino noticed how the trees closed in around him. The further he went, the denser the woods became. Where before he had walked along the embankment with ease, he now had to crouch and twist past old, low reaching branches. At one bend in the stream, he looked behind and could see no further back than he could ahead. It was as if the brush on either side of the water had woven together.  >>