midday
`` This festa , '' he said , `` whither we go , will bring all the world to Prato , if it have not done so already ; and as this same world is the orange which I and you , my apprentices , propose to suck , let us lose no time in getting our teeth well into the rind . In this way , namely : there are three days ' junketing before us , to which we will minister exactly what the revellers need . Tomorrow , when they translate the blessed remains of Santa Caterina de ' Ricci , we shall sell objects of devotion to the faithful . '' As we were now sitting by the roadside for our midday meal , he produced a variety of objects from a bag at his feet . `` Observe , '' he continued , `` these images -- lilies , bambini , nourishing matrons , curly-headed deacons ; these flaming hearts , these hearts stuck upon swords : a holy traffic indeed ! Here , too , '' and he extricated a budget tied in blue tape-ribbon , `` are the lives of all the frati worthy of record , and of a good few , between you and me and this damsel , not to be found recorded . Here , in this napkin , is everything requisite to make Santa Caterina de ' Ricci the happiest of dead ladies -- as , portraits of her mother , of her mother 's sisters , of her father and all his relatives , of the young man who drowned himself at Pontassieve for her love , and of that other young man who , on the contrary , did not , but made himself a priest and became her spiritual director .