 Chapter 10 of The House by the Medlar Tree by Giovanni Verga Translated by Mary A. Craig This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Tom Denham. Antoni went out to see every blessed day and had to row, tiring his back dreadfully. But when the sea was high and fit to swallow them all at one gulp, them, the Providenza and everything else, that boy had a heart as brave as the sea itself. Malavoglia blood, said his grandfather, and it was fine to see him at work in a storm, with the wind whistling through his air while the bark sprang over the big waves like a porpoise in the spring. The Providenza often ventured out into blue water, old and patched, though she was, after that little handful of fish which was hard to find, now that the sea was swept from side to side as if with brooms. Even on those dark days when the clouds hung low over Agnione and the horizon to the east was full of black shadows, the sail of the Providenza might be seen like a white handkerchief against the leaden-colored sea, and everybody said that Padron Antoni's people went out to look for trouble like the old woman with a lamp. Padron Antoni replied that he went out to look for bread, and when the corks disappeared one by one in the wide sea, gleaming green as grass, and the houses of Trezza looked like a little white spot so far off were they, and there was nothing all around them but water. He began to talk to his grandsons in sheer pleasure. La Longa and the others would come down to the beach to meet them on the shore as soon as they saw the sail rounding the Farilione, and when they too had been to look at the fish flashing through the nets, and looking as if the bottom of the boat were full of molten silver, and Padron Antoni replied before anyone had asked, yes, a quintal or a quintal twenty-five, generally right even to an ounce, and then they'd sit talking about it all the evening while the women pounded salt in the wooden mortars and when they counted the little barrels one by one, and Uncle Crucifix came in to see how they had got on to make his offer, so with his eyes shut, and Gusfut came too, screaming and scolding about the right price and the just price, and so on. Then they didn't mind his screaming because after all it was a pity to quarrel with old friends, and then La Longa would go on counting out, Sue by Sue, the money which Gusfut had brought in his handkerchief, saying, these are for the house, these are for the everyday expenses, and so on. Mena would help too to pound the salt and to count the barrels, and she should get back her blue jacket and her coral necklace that had been pawned to Uncle Crucifix, and the women could go back to their own church again, for if any young man happened to look after Mena, her dowry was getting ready. For my part, said Antoni, rowing slowly, slowly round and round so that the current should not drive him out of the circle of the net, while the old man pondered silently over all these things, for my part, all I wish, is that Hussie Barbara may be left to gnaw her elbows when we have got back her own again, and may live to repent shutting the door in my face. In the storm one knows the good pilot, said the old man, when we are once more what we have always been, everyone will bear a smooth face for us, and will open their doors to us once more. There were two who did not shut their doors, said Alessio, Nunciata and our cousin Anna. In prison, in poverty and in sickness one finds one's friends, for that may the Lord help them too, and all the mouths they have to feed. When Nunciata goes out on the downs to gather wood, or when the rolls of linen are too heavy for her, I go and help her too, poor little thing, said Alessio. Come and help now to pull in this side, for this time, since Francis has really sent us the gift of God. And the boy pulled and puffed with his feet braced against the side of the boat, so that one would have thought he was doing it all himself. Meanwhile, Antoni lay stretched on the deck, singing to himself with his hands under his head, watching the white gulls flying against the blue sky which had no end. It rose so pure and so high, and a providence rushed on the green waves rolling in from farther than the eye could see. What is the reason, said Alessio, that the sea is sometimes blue and sometimes green and then white? Then again black as the sound of the beach, and is never all one color as water should be. It is the will of God, replied the grandfather, so the mariner can tell when he may safely put out to sea and when it is best to stay on shore. Those gulls have a fine time of it flying in the air. They need not fear the waves when the wind is high, but they have nothing to eat, either, poor beasts. So everyone has need of good weather, like Nunciata, who can't go to the fountain when it rains, concluded Alessio, neither good nor bad weather lasts forever, observed the old man. But when bad weather came, and a mistral blue, and the corks went dancing on the water all day long as if the devil were playing the violin for them, or if the sea was white as milk or bubbling up as if it were boiling, and the rain came pouring down upon them until evening so that no wraps were proof against it, and the sea went frying all about them like oil in the pan. Then it was another pair of shoes, and Antoni was in no humor for singing, with his hood down to his nose bailing out the providenza that filled faster than he could clear out the water, and the grand-papa went on repeating, Don't see, Sir Rocco, there'll be, or curly sea, fresh wind, as if he had come there only to learn Proverbs. And with these blessed Proverbs, too, he'd stand in the evening at the window looking out for the weather with his nose in the air, and say, when the moon is red it means wind, when it is clear fine weather, when it is pale it means rain. If you know it is going to rain, said Antoni one day, why do we go out when we might stay in bed an hour or two longer? Water from the sky, sardines in the net, answered the old man. Later on Antoni began to curse and swear with the water half up to his knees. This evening, said his grandfather, Maroza will have a good fire ready for us, and we shall soon be quite dry. And at dusk, when the providenza with her hull full of the gifts of God turned towards home with her sail puffing out like Dono Rosalina's best petticoat, and the lights of the village came twinkling one by one from behind the dark rocks as if they were beckoning to each other. Padron and Antoni showed his boys the bright fire which burned in La Longa's kitchen at the bottom of the tiny court in the narrow back street. For the wall was low, and from the sea the whole house was visible, with the tiles built into a shed for the hens and the oven on the other side of the door. Don't you see what a blaze La Longa has got up for us, said he in high spirits, and La Longa was waiting for them with the baskets ready. When they were brought back empty, there wasn't much talking, but instead if there were not enough and Alessio had to run up to the house for more, the grandfather would put his hands to his mouth and shout, men, oh men! And men knew well what it meant, and they all came down in procession. She, Leah and Nunciata too, with all her chicks behind her. Then there was great joy, and nobody minded cold or rain, and before the blazing fire they sat talking of the gifts of God which St. Francis had sent them, and of what they would do with the money. But in this desperate game, men's lives are risked for a few pounds of fish. And once the Malavolia were within a hair's breadth of losing theirs all at once, as Bastionazzo had, for the sake of gain, when they were off Agnione, as the day drew to a close, and the sky was so dark that they could not even see Etna, and the winds blew and swept up the waves so close about the boat that it seemed as if they had voices and could speak. Ugly weather, said Padron and Tony, the wind turns like a silly wench's head, and the face of the sea looks like goose-foot's when he is hatching some eightful trick. The sea was as black as the beach, though the sun had not yet gone down, and every now and then it hissed and seethed like a pot. Now the gulls have all gone to sleep, said Alessio. By this time the auto have lighted the beacon at Catania, said Antony, but I can't see it. Keep the rudder all was north-east, ordered the grandfather, in half an hour it will be darker than an oven. On such evenings as this it is better to be at Santuzza's tavern, or asleep in your bed, eh? said the old man. Then you should be a clerk, like Don Silvestro. The poor old fellow had been groaning all day with pain. The weather is going to change, he said. I feel it in my bones. All of a sudden it grew so black that one couldn't see even to swear. Only the waves as they rolled past the providencer shone like grinning teeth ready to devour her, and no one dared speak a word in the presence of the sea that moaned over all its waste of waters. I have an idea, said Antony, suddenly, that we had better give the fish we've caught today to the devil. Silence! said his grandfather, and the stern voice out of that darkness made him shrink together like a leaf on the bench where he sat. They heard the wind whistle in the sails of the providencer, and the ropes ring like the strings of a guitar. Suddenly the wind began to scream like the steam engine when the train comes out from the tunnel in the mountain above Trezza. And there came a great wave from nobody knew where, and the providencer rattled like a sack of nuts and sprang up into the air and then rolled over. Down with the sail, down! cried Pradran, and Antony, cut away, cut away! And Antony, with the knife in his mouth, scrambled like a cat out on the yard, and standing on the very end to balance himself, hung over the howling waves that leapt up to swallow him. Hold on, hold on! cried the old man to him through all the thunder of the waves that strove to tear him down and tossed about the providencer and all that was inside her and flung the boat on her side so that the water was up to their knees. Cut away, cut away! called out the grandfather again. Sacrament exclaimed Antony, and what shall we do without the sail then? Stop swearing, we are in the hands of God now. Alessio, who was grasping the rudder with all his force, heard what his grandfather said and began to scream, Mama, Mama, Mama! Hush! cried his brother, as well as he could for the knife in his teeth. Hush! or I'll give you a kick! Make the holy sign and be quiet! echoed the grandfather so that the boy dared not make another sound. Suddenly the sail fell all at once in a heap, and Antony drew it in, furling it light, quick as a flash. You know your trade well as your father did before you, said his grandfather. You too! or I'll give you a kick! The boat rited and gave one leap, then began to leap about again among the waves. This way the rudder, this way! Now it wants a strong arm, said Padron Antony, and though the boy too clung to it like a cat, the boat still sprang about, and there came great waves sweeping over it that drove them against the helm, with force enough nearly to knock the breath out of them both. The oars, cried Antony, pull hard, Alessio! You're strong enough when it comes to eating, just now the oars are worth more than the helm. The boat creaked and groaned with the strain of the oars pulled by those strong young arms. The boy, standing with his feet braced against the deck, put all his soul into his oar, as well as his brother. Hold hard, cried the old man, who could hardly be heard at the other side of the boat over the roaring of the wind and the waves. Hold on, Alessio! Yes, grandfather, I do! replied the boy. Are you afraid? asked Antony. No, he's not, answered his grandfather for him, but we must commend ourselves to God. Holy devil! exclaimed Antony, hear one ought to have arms of iron like the steam engine. The sea is getting the best of it. The grandfather was silent, listening to the blast. Mama must by this time have come to the shore to watch for us. Don't talk about Mama now, said the old man. It is better not to think about her. Where are we now? asked Antony after some time, hardly able to speak for fatigue. In God's hands, answered the grandfather. Then let me cry, exclaimed Alessio, who could bear it no longer, and he began to scream aloud and to call for his mother at the top of his voice in the midst of the noise of the wind and of the sea, and neither of them had the heart to scold him. It's all very well you're howling, but nobody can hear you, and you at best be still, said his brother at last, in a voice so changed and strange that he hardly knew it himself. Now hush, he went on, it is best for you and best for us. The sail, ordered Padron and Tony, put her head to the wind and then leave it in the hands of God. The wind hindered them terribly, but at last they got the sail set, and the Providenza began to dance over the crests of the waves, leaning to one side like a wounded bird. The Malavolia kept close together on one side, clinging to the rail. At that moment no one spoke, for when the sea speaks in that tone, no one else dares to utter a word. Only, Padron and Tony said, over there they are saying the rosary for us. And no one spoke again, and they flew along through the wild tempest and the night that had come on as black as pitch. The light on the mole, cried and Tony, do you see it? To the right, shouted Padron and Tony, to the right, it is not the light on the mole, we are driving on shore, fell, fell, I can't, cried and Tony, the rope's too wet. His voice was hardly to be heard through the storm, so tired he was. The knife, the knife, quick Alessio, cut away, cut away. At that moment a crash was heard. The Providenza, righted suddenly, like a still spring let loose, and they were within one of being flung into the sea. The spar with the sail fell across the deck, snapped like a straw. They heard a voice which cried out as if someone were hurt to death. Who is it? Who called out? demanded and Tony, aiding himself with his teeth and the knife to clear away the rigging of the sail which had fallen with the mast across the deck and covered everything. Suddenly a blast of wind took up the sail and swept it whistling away into the night. Then the brothers were able to disengage the wreck of the mast and to fling it into the sea. The boat rose up, but Padron and Tony did not rise, nor did he answer when Tony called to him. Now when the wind and the sea are screaming their worst together there is nothing more terrible than the silence which comes instead of the voice which should answer to our call. Grandfather, grandfather, called out Alessio too and in the silence which followed the brothers felt the hair rise upon their heads as if it had been alive. The night was so black that they could not see from one end of the boat to the other and Alessio was silent from sheer terror. The grandfather was stretched in the bottom of the boat with his head broken. Tony found him at last by groping about for him and thought he was dead for he did not move nor even breathe. The helm swung from side to side while the boat leaped up and then plunged headlong into the hollows of the waves. Ah, Saint Francis de Paul! Ah, bless it, Saint Francis cried the boys now that they knew nothing else to do. And Saint Francis mercifully heard while he passed through the whirlwind helping his flock and spread his mantle under the providenza just as she was ready to crash like a rotten nut on the cliffs of the domes under the lookout of the coast guard. The boat sprang over the rocks like a colt and ran on shore burying her nose in the sand. Courage! Courage! cried the guards from the shore. We are here! We are here! And they ran here and there with lanterns ready to fling out ropes. At last one of the ropes fell across the providenza which trembled like a leaf and struck Tony across the face like a blow from a whip but not the gentlest of caresses could have seemed sweeter to him at that moment. Help! Help! he cried catching at the rope which ran so fast that he could hardly hold it in his hands. Alessio came to his assistance with all his force and together they gave it two turns around the rudder post and those on shore drew them in. Padron and Tony, however, gave no sign of life and when the light was brought they found his face covered with blood and the grandsons thought him dead and tore their hair. But after an hour or two arrived Don Michelli, Rocco Spattu, Vanny Pizzotti and all the eindlers that had been at the tavern when the news had come and by force of rubbing and of cold water they brought him to himself and he opened his eyes. The poor old man when he heard where he was and that they wanted less than an hour to reach Trezza asked them to carry him home on a ladder. Maruzza, Mena and the neighbours screaming and beating their breasts in the piazza saw him arrive like that, stretched out on the ladder, pale and still as if he had been dead. "'Tis nothing, tis nothing!' called out Don Michelli at the head of the crowd. "'Tis only a slight thing!' and he went off to the druggists for the thieves' vinegar. Don Franco came with it himself holding the bottle with both hands and Gusfoot too came running and his wife and Dumbled and the Zupidi and Padron Cipolla and all the neighbourhood for at such a time all differences are forgotten. There came even Pua La Loca who always went wherever there was a crowd or a bustle by night or by day as if she never slept but was always seeking her lost men, Nico. So that the people were crowded in the little street before the Malavoglia's house as if a corpse had been there and their cousin Anna had to shut the door in their faces. "'Let me in! Let me in!' cried Nunziata pounding with her fist on the door having run over only half dressed. "'Let me in to see what has happened to cousin Marutza! "'What good was it sending us for the ladder if we can't come in and see what's going on?' shouted the son of La Loca. The Zupidi and the Manjacarube had forgotten all the hard words that had passed between them and stood chatting before the door with their hands under their aprons. Yes, it was always so with this trade and it was bound to finish this way one day or another. Whoever marries their daughter to a seafaring man is sure to see her come back to the house a widow and with children into the bargain and if it had not been for Don McKayly there would have remained not one of the Malavoglia to carry on the family. The best thing to do was to do nothing like those people who got paid for just that like Don McKayly, for example, while he was as big and as fat as a cannon and he ate as much as ten men and everybody smoothed him down the right way even the druggist that was always railing at the king took off his great ugly black hat to him. "'It will be nothing,' said Don Franco, coming out of the house. "'We have bandaged his head properly. "'But if fever doesn't come on, I won't answer for him.'" Gusfoot insisted on going in because he was one of the family almost and Padron fortunato and as many more as could manage to pass. "'I don't like the looks of him a bit,' pronounced Padron Cipolla, shaking his head. "'How do you feel, cousin Antoni?' For two or three days Padron and Tony was more dead than alive. The fever came on, as the apothecary had said it would, but it was so strong that it went nigh to carry the wounded man off altogether. The poor old fellow never complained but lay quiet in his corner with his white face and his long beard and his head bound up. He was only dreadfully thirsty and when men all along gave him to drink he caught hold of the cup with both trembling hands and clung to it as if he feared it would be taken from him. The doctor came every morning, dressed the wound, felt his pulse, looked at his tongue and went away again, shaking his head. At last there came one evening when the doctor shook his head more sadly than ever. La Longa placed the image of the Madonna beside the bed and they said their rosary around it for the sick man lay still and never spoke, even to ask for water and it seemed as if he had even ceased to breathe. Nobody went to bed that night and Leah nearly broke her jaws yawning so sleepy was she. The house was so silent that they could hear the glasses by the bedside rattle and the carts passed by on the road making the watchers by the sick man start so passed the day too while the neighbours stood outside talking in low tones and watching what went on through the half-door. Towards evening Padron and Tony asked to see each member of his family one by one and looking at them with dim, sunken eyes asked them what the doctor had said. And Tony was at the head of the bed crying like a child for the fellow had a kind heart. Don't cry so said his grandfather, don't cry. Now you are the head of the house think how they are all on your hands and do as I have done for them. The women began to cry bitterly and to tear their hair hearing him speak in that way. Even little Leah did the same for women have no reason at such times and did not notice how the poor man's face worked for he could not endure to see them grieve for him in that way but the weak voice continued don't spend money for me when I am gone the Lord will know that you have no money and will be content with the rosary that Mena and Marutza will say for me and you Mena go on doing as your mother has done for she is a saint of a woman and has known well how to bear her sorrows and keep your little sister under your wing as a hen does her chickens as long as you cling together your sorrows will seem less bitter now Antoni is a man and before long Alessio will be old enough to help you too don't talk like that don't for pity's sake don't talk so cried the women as if it were of his own free will that he was leaving them he shook his head sadly and replied now I have said all I wish to say I don't mind please turn me on the other side I am tired I am old you know when the oil is burned out the lamp goes out too later on he called Antoni and he said to him don't sell the Providenza though she is so old if you do you will have to go out by the day and you don't know how hard it is when Padron Cipolla or Uncle Cola says to you there's nobody wanted on Monday and another thing I want to say to you Antoni when you have put by enough money you must marry off men and give her to a seamen like her father and a good fellow like him and I want to say also when you shall have portioned off Leah too try and put by money to buy back the house by the medlar tree Uncle crucifix will sell it if you make it worth his while for it has always belonged to the Malavolia and thence your father and Luca went away never to return yes grandfather yes I will promised Antoni with many tears and Alessio also listened gravely as if he too had been a man the women thought the sick man must be wondering hearing him go on talking and talking and they went to put wet cloths on his forehead no said Padron and Tony I am in right senses I only want to finish what I have to say before I go away from you by this time they had begun to hear the fisherman calling from one door to another and the carts began to pass along the road in two hours it will be day said Padron and Tony and you can go call Don Gia Maria poor things they looked for day as for the Messiah and went to the window every few minutes to look for the dawn at last the room grew lighter and Padron and Tony said now go call the priest for I want to confess Don Gia Maria came when the sun had already risen and all the neighbours when they heard the bell tinkle in the black street went after it to see the viaticum going to the Malavolia and all went in too for when the Lord is within the door can be shut upon nobody so that the mourning family seeing the house full of people dared not weep nor cry while Don Gia Maria muttered the prayers between his teeth and Master Cirino put a candle to the lips of the sick man who lay pale and stiff as a candle himself he looks just like the patriarch St. Joseph in that bed with that long beard said Santuzza who arranged all the bottles and straightened everything for she was always about when our Lord went anywhere like a raven said the druggist the doctor came while the vicar was still there and at first he wanted to turn his donkey round and go home again who told you to call the priest he said that is the doctor's affair and I am astonished that Don Gia Maria should have come without a certificate do you know what there's no need of the priest he's better that's what he is it is a miracle worked by our Lady of Sorrows cried longer our Lady has done this for us for our Lord has come too often to this house our Blessed Virgin, our Holy Virgin exclaimed men are clasping her hands how gracious are thou to us and they all wept for joy as if the sick man were quite ready to get up and be off to his boat again the doctor went off growling that's all was the way if they get well it is our Lady has saved them if they die it is we who have killed them Don McKaylee is to have the medal for throwing the rope to the Providenza and there's a pension attached to it said the druggist that's the way they spend the people's money Cusfoot spoke up in defence of Don McKaylee saying that he had deserved the medal and the pension too for he had gone into the water up to his knees big boots and all to save the Malavolia three persons do you think that a small thing three lives and was within a hair's breadth of losing his own life too so that everybody was talking of him and on a Sunday when he put on his new uniform the girls couldn't take their eyes off him so anxious were they to see if he really had the medal or not Barbara Zuppeter now that she's got rid of that lout of a Malavolia won't turn her back on Don McKaylee anymore said Cusfoot I've seen her with her nose between the shutters when he's passed along the street and Tony poor fellow as long as they couldn't do without him had run hither and thither indefatigably and had been in despair while his grandfather was so ill now that he was better he took the lounging about with his arms a kimbo waiting till it was time to take the providenza to Master Zuppeter to be mended and went to the tavern to chat with the others though he hadn't a zoo to spend there and told to this one and that one how near he had been to drowning and so passed the time away lounging and spitting about doing nothing when anyone would pay for wine for him he would get angry about Don McKaylee and say he had taken away his sweetheart that he went every evening to talk to Barbara at the window that Uncle Santoro had seen him that he had asked Nunciata if she hadn't seen Don McKaylee pass by the black street but blood of Judas my name is Tony Malavoglia if I don't put a stop to that blood of Judas it amused the others to see him storm and fume so they paid for him to drink on purpose Santuzza when she was washing the glasses turned her back upon them so as not to hear the oaths and the ugly words that were always passing among them but hearing Don McKaylee's name she forgot her manners and listened with all her ears she also became curious and listened to them with an open mouth and gave Nunciata's little brother and Alessio apples or green almonds to get out of them what had passed in the black street Don McKaylee swore there was no truth in the story and often in the evening after the tavern was shut they might be still heard disputing and her voice would be audible screaming liar assassin miscreant thief and other pretty names so much so that Don McKaylee left off going to the tavern at all and used to send for his wine instead and drink it by himself at Vani Pizzotti's shop End of chapter 10 Recording by Tom Denham Chapter 11 of The House by the Medlar Tree by Giovanni Verga Translated by Mary A. Craig This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Recording by Tom Denham One day Tony Malavoglia lounging about as usual had seen two young men who had embarked some years before a reposto in search of fortune and had returned from Trieste or from Alexandria in short from afar off and were spending and swaggering at the tavern grander than Cousin Naso the Butcher or than Padron Cipolla They sat astride of the benches joking with the girls and pulling innumerable silk handkerchiefs out of their pockets turning the place upside down and Tony, when he came home at night found nobody there but the women who were changing the brine on the anchovies and chatting with the neighbours sitting in a circle on the stones and passing away the time by telling stories and guessing riddles which amused greatly the children who stood around rubbing their sleepy eyes Padron and Tony listened too and watched the strainer with the fresh brine nodding his head in approval when the stories pleased him or when the boys were clever at guessing the riddles The best story of all, said Tony is that of those two fellows who arrived here today with silk kerchiefs that one can hardly believe one's eyes to look at and such a lot of money that they hardly look at it when they take it out of their pockets They've seen half the world, they say Trezza and Archie Castello put together are not to be compared to what they've seen I've seen the world too and how people in those parts don't sit still salting anchovies but go round amusing themselves all day long and the women with silk dresses and more rings and necklaces than the Madonna of Ognino go about the streets vying with each other for the love of the handsome sailors The worst of all things, said Menor is to leave one's own home even when the stones are one's friends and when one's heart must break to leave them behind one on the road Blessed is the bird that builds his nest at home Bravo, Santa Agatha, said her grandfather that is what I call talking sense Yes, growled and Tony and when we have sweated and steamed to build our nest we haven't anything left to eat and when we have managed to get back the house by the meddler we shall just have to go on wearing out our lives from Monday to Saturday and never do anything else And don't you mean to work any more? What do you mean to do? Turn lawyer? I don't mean to turn lawyer said and Tony and went off to bed in high Dungeon but from that time forth he thought of nothing but the easy wandering life other fellows led and in the evening not to hear all that idle chatter he stood by the door with his shoulders against the wall watching the people pass and meditating on his hard fate at least one was resting against the fatigues of tomorrow when must begin again over and over the same thing like Cousin Mosca's ass that when they brought the collar reached out his neck to have it put on We're all asses, he muttered that's what we are, asses beasts of burden and it was plainly enough to be seen that he was tired of that hard life and longed to leave it and go out into the world to make his fortune like those others so that his mother poor woman was always stroking him on the shoulder and speaking to him in tones that were each like a caress looking at him with eyes full of tears as if she would read his very soul but he told her there was no cause to grieve that it was better he should go for himself and for the rest of them and when he came back they would all be happy together the poor mother never close her eyes that night and steeped her pillow with tears at last the grandfather himself perceived it and called his grandson outside the door under the shrine to ask him what ailed him what is it my boy he said tell your grand-papa do that's a good boy and Tony shrugged his shoulders but the old man went on nodding his head and seeking for words to make himself understood properly yes yes you've got some notion in your head boy some new notion a rather who goes with lame men limps himself before long I'm a poor miserable devil that's what it is well is that all you knew that before and what am I and what was your father he is the richest who has the fewest wants better content than complaint fine consolation that is this time the old man found words for they were in his heart and so came straight to his lips at least don't say it to your mother my mother she would have done better not to have brought me into the world my mother yes ascended Padron and Tony it would have been better she had not borne you if you are to begin to talk in this way for a minute and Tony didn't know what to say and then he began well I mean it for your good too for you for my mother for us all I want to make her rich my mother that's what I want now we're tormenting ourselves for the house and for men as dowry then Leah will grow up and she'll want a dowry too and then a bad year will throw us all back into misery I don't want to lead this life any longer I want to change my condition and to change yours I want that we should be rich Mama men are you Alessio all of us Padron and Tony opened his eyes very wide and listened pondering to this discourse which he found very hard to understand rich he said rich and what shall we do when we are rich and Tony scratched his head and began to wonder himself what he should do in such a case we should do what other people do he said go and live in town and do nothing and eat meat in town go and live in town by yourself I choose to die where I was born and thinking of the house where he was born which was no longer his he let his head drop on his breast you are but a boy you don't know what it is he said you don't know you don't know when you can no longer sleep in your own bed or see the light coming through your own window you'll see what it is I am old and I know the poor old man coughed as if he would suffocate with bent shoulders shaking his head sadly his own nest every bird likes best look at those swallows do you see them they have always made their nest there and they still return to make it there and never go away but I am not a swallow sitting Tony I am neither a bird nor a beast I don't want to live like a dog on a chain or like cousin Alfio's ass or like a mule in a mill that goes round and round turning the same wheel forever I don't want to die of hunger in a corner or to be eaten up by sharks thank God rather that you were born here and pray that you may not come to die far from the stones that you know who changes the old for the new changes for the worse all through you are afraid of work or afraid of poverty I who have neither your youth nor your strength fear them not the good pilot is known in the storm you are afraid of having to work for your bread that is what ails you when my father rest his soul left me the providencer and five mouths to feed I was younger than you are now and I was not afraid and I have done my duty without grumbling and I do it still and I pray God to help me to do it as long as I live as your father did and your brother Luca blessed be their souls who feared not to go and die where duty led them your mother too has done hers poor little woman hidden inside four walls and you know not the tears she has shed nor how many she sheds now because you want to go and leave her nor how in the morning your sister finds her sheets wet with tears and nevertheless she is silent and does not talk of you nor of the hard things you say to her and she works and puts together her provision poor busy little aunt that she is and she has never done anything else all her life long before she had so many tears to shed and when she suckled you at her breast and before you could go alone or the temptation had come over you to go wandering like a gypsy about the world the end of it was that Antoni began to cry like a child for at bottom the boy had a good heart but the next day it began all over again in the morning he took the tackle unwillingly on his shoulder and went off to sea growling just like cousin Alfio's ass a daybreak I have to stretch out my neck to see if they are coming to load me after they had thrown the net he left Alessio to move the oars slowly so as to keep the boat in its place and folding his arms looked out into the distance to where the sea ended towards those great cities where people did nothing but walk about and amuse themselves or thought of the two sailors who had come back thence and had now for some time been gone away from the place but it seemed to him that they had nothing to do but to wonder about the world from one town to another spending the money they had in their pockets in the evening when all the tackle was put away they let him wander about as he liked like a houseless dog without a soul though to bless himself with sooner than see him sit there as sulky as a bear what ails you, Tony? said La Longa looking timidly into his face with her eyes shining with tears for she knew well enough poor woman what it was that ailed him tell me tell your mother he did not answer or answered that nothing ailed him but at last he did tell her that his grandfather and the rest of them wanted to work him to death and he could bear it no longer he wanted to go away and seek his fortune like other people his mother listened with her eyes full of tears and could not speak in reply to him as he went on weeping and stamping and tearing his hair the poor creature longed to answer him and to throw her arms round his neck and beg him not to go away from her but her lips trembled so that she could not utter a word listen, she said at last you may go if you will do it but you won't find me here when you come back for I am old now and weak and I cannot bear this new sorrow and Tony tried to comfort her saying he would soon come back with plenty of money and that they would all be happy together Marutza shook her head sadly saying that no, no, he would not find her when he came back I feel that I am growing old, she said I am growing old, look at me I have no strength now to weep as I did when your father died and your brother if I go to the washing I come back so tired that I can hardly move it was never so before no, my son I am not what I was once when I had your father and your brother I was young and strong the heart gets tired too, you see it wears away little by little like old linen that has been too often washed I have no courage now everything frightens me I feel as one does when the waves head when he is out at sea go away if you will but wait until I am at rest she was weeping but she did not know it she seemed to have before her eyes once more her husband and her son Luka as she had seen them when they left her to return no more so you will go and I shall see you no more she said to him the house grows more empty every day and when that poor old man your grandfather is gone too in whose hands shall I leave those orphaned children mother of sorrows she clung to him with her head against his breast as if her boy were going to leave her then and there and stroked his shoulder and his cheeks with her trembling hands then Antoni could resist her no longer and began to kiss her and to whisper gently in her ear no no I won't go if you say I must not look at me don't talk so don't well I'll go on working like cousin Mosca's ass that will be thrown into a ditch to die when he's too old to work anymore are you contented now? don't cry don't cry anymore look at my grandfather how he has struggled all his life and is struggling still to get out of the mud and he will go on so it is our fate and do you think that everybody hasn't troubles of their own every hole has its nail who are old they never fail look at Padron Cipolla how he has to run here and to watch there not to have his son Brassi throwing all the money he has saved and scraped into Vespas lap and Master Filippo rich as he is trembling for his vineyard every time it rains and Uncle Crucifix starving himself to put soldo upon soldo and was it lore with this one or with that and do you think those two foreign sailors that you saw here and that put all this in your head with their talk of strange countries do you think they haven't their own troubles too who knows if they found their mothers alive when they got home to their own houses and as for us when we have bought back the house by the medlar and have our grain in the hutch and our beans for the winter and when men is married what more shall we want when I am under the sod and that poor old man is dead too and Alessio is old enough to earn his bread go wherever you like but then you won't want to go I can tell you for then you will begin to know what we feel when we see you so obstinate and determined to leave us all even when we do not speak but go on in our usual way then you will not find it in your heart to leave the place where you were born where the very stones you know well where your own dead will lie together under the marble in the church which is worn smooth by the knees of those who have prayed so long before our mother of sorrows and Tony from that day forth said no more of going away or of growing rich and his mother watched him tenderly as a bird watches her young when she saw him looking sad or sitting silently on the doorstep with his elbows on his knees and the poor woman was truly a sad sight to see so pale was she so thin and worn and when her work was over she too sat down with folded hands and her back bent as badly as her father-in-law's but she knew not that she herself was going for a journey that journey which leads to the long rest below the smooth marble in the church and that she must leave behind her all those she loved so well who had so grown into her heart that they had worn it all away piece by piece now one and now another at Catania there was the cholera and everybody that could manage it ran away into the country here and there among the villages and towns in the neighborhood and at Oninno and at Trezza too these strangers who spent so much money were a real providence but the merchants pulled a long face and said that it was almost impossible to sell even a dozen barrels of anchovies and that all the money had disappeared on account of the cholera and don't people eat anchovies anymore? asked Gusfut but to Padron and Tony who had them to sell they said that now there was the cholera people were afraid to eat anchovies and all that kind of stuff but must eat macaroni and meat and so it was best to let things go at the best price one could get that hadn't been counted in the Malavolia's reckoning hence not to go backward crab fashion needs must that La Longa should go about from house to house among the foreigners selling eggs and fresh bread and so on while the men were out at sea and so put together a little money but it was needful to be very careful and not take even so much as a pinch of snuff from a person one did not know walking on the road one must go exactly in the middle as far away as possible from the walls where one ran the risk of coming across all sorts of horrors and one must never sit down on the stones or on the wall La Longa once coming back from Aci Castello with her basket on her arm felt so tired that her legs were like lead under her and she could hardly move so she yielded to temptation and rested a few minutes on the smooth stones under the shade of the fig tree just by the shrine of the town and she remembered afterwards though she did not notice it at the time that a person unknown to her a poor man who seemed also very weary and ill had been sitting there a moment before she came up in short she fell ill took the cholera and returned home pale and tottering as yellow as a gilded heart among the votive offerings and with deep black lines under her eyes so that when Mena who was alone at home saw her she began to cry and Lia ran off to gather rosemary and marshmallow leaves Mena trembled like a leaf while she was making up the bed and the sick woman sitting on a chair with pallid face and sunken eyes kept on saying it is nothing don't be frightened as soon as I have got into bed it will pass off and tried to help them herself but every minute she grew faint and had to sit down again Holy Virgin Stammered Mena Holy Virgin and the men out at sea Holy Virgin help us and Lia cried with all her might when Padron and Tony came back with his grandsons and they saw the door half shut and the light inside the shutters they tore their hair Marutza was already in bed and her eyes seen in that way in the dusk looked hollow and dim as if death had already dimmed their light and her lips were black as charcoal at that time neither doctor nor apothecary went out after sunset and even the neighbors barred their doors and stuck pictures of saints over all the cracks for fear of the cholera so cousin Marutza had no help except from her own poor people who rushed about the house as if they had been crazy watching her fading away before their eyes and their heads against the wall in their despair then la longer seeing that all hope was gone begged them to lay upon her breast the lock of cotton dipped in holy oil which she had bought at Easter and said that they must keep the light burning as they had done when Padron and Tony had been so ill that they thought him dying and wanted them all to stay beside her bed that she might look at them until the last moment with those wide eyes that no longer seemed to see Leah cried in a heart breaking way and the others white as the wall looked in each others faces as if asking for help where no help was and held their hands tight over their breasts that they might not break out into loud wailing before the dying woman who nonetheless knew all that they felt though by this time she saw them no longer and even at the last she felt the pain of leaving them behind she called them one by one by name in a weakened broken voice and tried to lift her hand to bless them knowing that she was leaving them a treasure beyond price Antony she repeated to you who are the eldest I leave these orphans and hearing her speak thus while she was still alive they could not help bursting out into cries and sobs so they passed the night beside the bed where Marutza now lay without moving until the candle burned down in the socket and went out and the dawn came in through the window pale like the corpse which lay with features sharpened like a knife and black parched lips but men are never weary of kissing those cold lips and speaking as if the dead could hear Antony beat his breast and cried oh mother oh mother and you have gone before me and I wanted to leave you Scio will never forget that last look of his mother with her white hair and pinched features no, not even when his hair has grown as white as hers a dusk they came to take La Longa in a hurry and no one thought of making any visits for everyone feared for their life and even Don Giamaria came no farther than the threshold against the holy water holding his tunic about his knees tight lest it should touch anything in the house like a selfish monk as he was said the apothecary he on the contrary had they brought him a prescription from the doctor would have given it them would even have opened the shop at night for the purpose for he was not afraid of the cholera and said besides the nonsense to say that the cholera could be thrown about the streets or behind the doors a sign that he spreads the cholera himself whispered the priest for that reason the people of the place wanted to kill the apothecary but he laughed at them with the cackling laugh he had learned of Don Silvestro saying kill me I'm a republican if it were one of those fellows in the government now I might find some use in doing it but what good would it do me to spread the cholera but the Malavolia were left alone with the bed whence the mother had been carried away for some time they did not open the door after the longer had been taken away it was a blessing that they had plenty to eat in the house beans and oil and charcoal too for Padron only like the ants had made his provision in time of plenty else they might have died of hunger for no one came to see whether they were alive or dead then little by little they began to put their black necker chiefs on and to go out into the street like snails after a storm still pale and dazed looking the gossips remaining aloof called out to them to ask how it had happened or cousin Maruzza had been one of the first to go and when Don Michelli or some other personage who took the king's pay and wore a gold bordered cap came their way they looked at him with scared eyes and ran into the house there was great misery and no one was seen in the street not even a hen and Don Cirino was never seen anywhere and had left off ringing at noon and at the Ave Maria for he too ate the bread of the commune and had five francs a month as parish beadle and feared for his life for was not he a government official and now Don Michelli was lord of the whole place for Pizzotti and Don Sylvestro and the rest hid in their burrows like rabbits and only he walked up and down before the Zoupida's closed door it was a pity that nobody saw him except the Malavoglia who had no longer anything to lose and so started watching whoever passed by sitting on the doorstep with their elbows on their knees Don Michelli not to take his walk for nothing looked at Sant'Agata now that all the other doors were shut and did it all the more to show that great hulking Donny that he wasn't afraid of anybody, not he and besides menna pale as she was looked a real Sant'Agata and the little sister with her black neckerchief was growing up a very pretty girl it seemed to poor menna that twenty years had fallen suddenly on her shoulders she watched Lea now as La Longa had watched her and kept her always close at her side and had all the cares of the house on her mind she had grown into a habit of remaining alone in the house with her sister while the men were at sea looking from time to time at that empty bed when she had nothing to do she sat with her hands in her lap looking at the empty bed and then she felt indeed that her mother had left her and when she heard them say in the street such and one is dead or such another she thought so they heard La Longa is dead La Longa who had left her alone with that poor little orphan with her black neckerchief Nunciata or their cousin Anna came now and then stepping softly and with sad looks nothing would sit down with her on the doorstep with hands under their aprons the men coming back from the fishing stepped quickly along looking carefully from side to side with the nets on their shoulders and no one stopped anywhere not even the carts at the tavern who could tell where cousin Alfio's cart was now or if at this moment he might not lie dying of cholera behind a hedge that poor fellow who had no one belonging to him sometimes goosefoot passed looking half starved glanced about him as if he were afraid of his shadow or uncle crucifix whose riches were scattered here and there and who went to see if his debtors were likely to die and to cheat him out of his money the sacrament went by too quickly in the hands of Don Giamaria with his tunic fastened up and a barefooted boy ringing the bell before him for Don Cirino was nowhere to be seen that bell in the deserted streets where no one passed not a dog and even Don Franco kept his door half shut was heart-rending the only person to be seen day or night was La Loca with her tangled white hair who went to sit before the house by the medlar tree or watched for the boats on the shore even the cholera would have none of her poor old thing the strangers had flown as birds do at the approach of winter and no one came to buy the fish so that everyone said after the cholera comes the famine Padron and Tony had once more to dip into the money put away for the house and day by day it melted before his eyes but he thought of nothing save that Maruzza had died away from her own house he could not get that out of his head and Tony too shook his head every time it was necessary to use up the money finally when the cholera was at an end and there only remained about half together with such pains and trouble he began to complain that such a life as that he could not bear eternally saving and sparing and then having to spend for bare life that it was better to risk something once for all to get out of this eternal worry and that there at least where his mother had died in the midst of that hideous misery he would stay no longer don't you remember that your mother recommended men to you said Padron and Tony what good can I do to men by staying here tell me that men looked at him timidly but with eyes like her mother's where one could read her heart but she dared not speak only once clinging to the jam of the door she found courage to say I don't ask for help if only you'll stay with us now that I haven't my mother I feel like a fish out of water I don't care about anything but I can't bear the idea of that orphan Leah who will be left without anybody if you go away like Nunciata when her father left her no said Tony no I can do nothing for you if I stay here the proverb says help yourself and you'll be helped when I have made something worthwhile I'll come back and we'll all be happy together Leah and Alessio opened their large round eyes and seemed quite dazzled by this prospect but the old man let his head fall on his breast now you have neither father nor mother and can do as it seems best to you he said at last while I live I will care for these children and when I die the Lord must do the rest men are seeing that Tony would go whether or not put his clothes in order as his mother would have done and thought out over there in strange lands his brother would be like Alphio Mosca with no one to look after him and while she sewed at his shirts and pieced his coats her head ran upon days gone by and she thought of all that had passed away with them with a swelling heart I cannot pass the house by the medlar now she said as she sat by her grandfather I feel such a lump in my throat that I am almost choking thinking of all that has happened since we left it and while she was preparing for her brother's departure she wept as if she were to see him no more at last when everything was ready the grand-papa called his boy to give him a last solemn sermon and much good advice as to what he was to do when he was alone and dependent only on his own discretion only about him to consult or to condole with him if things went wrong and gave him some money too in case of need and his own pouch lined with leather since now he was old he should not need it anymore the children seeing their brother preparing for departure followed him silently about the house hardly daring to speak to him feeling as if he had already become a stranger just so my father went away said Nunciata who had come to say goodbye to Antoni and stood with the others at the door after that no one spoke the neighbors came by one by one to take leave of cousin Antoni and then stood waiting in the street to see him start he lingered with his bundle on his shoulder and his shoes in his hand as if at the last moment his heart had failed him he looked about him as if to fix everything in his memory and his face was as deeply moved as any there his grandfather took his stick to accompany him to the city and men went off into a corner where she cried silently come come now said Antoni going away forever we'll say I'm going for a soldier again then after kissing Mena and Leah and taking leave of the gossips he started to go and Mena ran after him with open arms weeping aloud and crying out what will mama say what will mama say as if her mother were alive and could know what was taking place but she only said the thing which dwelt most strongly in her memory when Antoni had spoken of going away before and she had seen her mother weep and used to find her pillow in the morning wet with tears er dear Antoni Alessio called after him taking courage now he was gone and Leah began to scream just so my father went said Nunciata who had stayed behind the others at the door Antoni turned at the corner of the black street with his eyes full of tears and waved his hand to them in token of farewell Mena Mena then closed the door and went to sit down in a corner with Leah who continued to sob and cry aloud now another one is gone away from the house she repeated if we had been in the house by the meddler it would seem as empty as a church Mena seeing her dear ones go away one after the other felt indeed like a fish out of water and Nunciata lingering there beside her with the little one in her arms still went on saying just so my father went away just so End of Chapter 11 Recording by Tom Denham Chapter 12 of the House by the Meddler Tree by Giovanni Verga translated by Mary A. Craig this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Recording by Tom Denham Padron Antoni now that he had no one but Alessio to help him with the boat had to hire someone by the day Cos Nuncio perhaps who had a sick wife and a large family of children or the son of La Locca who came whining to him behind the door that his mother was starving and that his uncle Crucifix would give them nothing because he said he had ruined him so many of his debtors had died and had cheated him out of his money and he had taken the cholera himself but he hadn't died added the son of La Locca and shook his head ruefully now we might have plenty to live on I and my mother and all the family if he had died we stayed two days with Vesper nursing him and it seemed as if he were dying every minute but he didn't die after all however the money that the Malavolia gained day by day was often not enough to pay Cos Nuncio or the son of La Locca and they were obliged to take up those precious coins so painfully put together to buy back the house by the medlar tree every time men went to take the stocking she and her grandfather sighed La Locca's son was not to blame poor fellow he would have done four men's work sooner than not give the full worth of his wages it was the fish that would not let themselves be caught and when they came ruefully home empty rowing with loosened sails he said to Padron and Tony give me wood to split or faggots to bind I will work until midnight if you say so as I did with my uncle I don't want to steal the wages from you so Padron and Tony after having thought the matter over carefully consulted men as to what was to be done she was clearheaded like a mother and she was the only one left for him to consult the only one left of so many the best thing was to sell the providenza which brought in nothing and only ate up the wages of cousin Nuncio or the son of La Locca to no purpose and the money put aside for the house was melting away little by little the providenza was old and always needed to be mended every now and then to keep her afloat later if and Tony came back and brought better fortune once more among them they might buy a new boat and call that also the providenza on Sunday he went to the piazza after the mass to speak to Gusfoot about it Cusantino shrugged his shoulders shook his head said that the providenza was good for nothing but to put under the pot and talking in this way he threw him down to the shore the patches he said could be seen under the paint like some women he knew of with wrinkles under their stays and went on kicking her in the hull with his lame foot besides the trade was going badly rather than buy everybody was trying to sell their boats much better than the providenza and who was going to buy her Padron Cipolla didn't want old stuff like that this was an affair for Uncle Crucifix but at this moment Uncle Crucifix had something else on his hands with that demon ridden Vespa who was tormenting his soul out running after all the marriageable men in the place at last for old friendship's sake he agreed to go and speak to Uncle Crucifix about it he found him in a good humour if Padron and Tony were really anxious to sell the providenza for an old song for after all he Gusfoot could make Uncle Crucifix do anything he liked in fact when he did speak of it drawing him aside towards the horse trough Uncle Crucifix replied with shrugs and frantic shakings of his head till he looked like one possessed and tried to slip out of Gusfoot's hands Cosentino poor man did his best caught him by the coat and held him by force shook him to make him give his attention put his arm round his neck and whispered in his ear yes you are an ass if you let slip such a chance going for an old song I tell you Padron and Tony sell sir because he can't manage her any longer now his grandson is gone but you could put her into the hands of Cosentino or of your own nephew who are dying of hunger and will work for next to nothing every soul though she gains will come into your pocket I tell you you are a fool the boat is in perfectly good condition good isn't you old Padron and Tony knew very well what he was about when he had her built this is a real ready money business as good as that of the Lupins take my word for it but Uncle Crucifix wouldn't listen to him almost crying with his yellow hatchet face uglier than ever since he had nearly died of the cholera and tried to get away even to the point of leaving his jacket in Uncle Tino's hands I don't care about it said he I don't care about anything you don't know all the trouble I have Cosentino everybody wants to suck my blood like so many leeches he is Vanny Pazzotti running after Vesper too they are like a pack of hunting dogs why don't you marry her yourself after all is she not your own blood she and her field it will not be another mouth to feed not at all she has a clever pair of hands of her own she is well worth the bread she eats that woman you'll have a servant without wages and the land will be yours listen Uncle Crucifix you'll have another affair here as good as that of the Lupins Padron and Tony meanwhile waited for the answer before Pizzotti's shop and watched the two who were discussing his affairs like a soul in purgatory now it seemed as if everything were at an end now they began again and he tried to guess whether or not Uncle Crucifix would consent to the bargain Gus Foote came and told him how much he had been able to obtain for him and went back to Uncle Crucifix going backward and forward in the piazza like the shuttle in the loom dragging his club foot behind him until he had succeeded in bringing them to an agreement capital he said to Padron and Tony then to Uncle Crucifix for an old song I'll tell you and in this way he managed the sale of all the tackle which of course was no longer of any use to the malevolia and now that they had no boat but it seemed to Padron and Tony that they took away his very heart from within him as he saw them carry away the nets, the baskets the oars, the rope everything I managed to get you a position by the day and your grandson Alessio too never fear said Gus Foote to Padron and Tony but you mustn't expect high wages you know strength of youth and wisdom of age for my assistance in the bargaining I trust to your good will in time of famine it's barley bread answered Padron and Tony necessity has no nobility that's right, that's right, I understand replied Gus Foote and away he went in good earnest to speak to Padron Chipala at the drugstore where Don Silvestro had at last succeeded in enticing him as well as Master Filippo and a few other big wigs to talk over the affairs of the commune for after all the money was theirs and it is silly not to take one's proper place in the government when one is rich and pays more taxes than all the rest put together you, who are rich, can afford a bit of bread to that poor old Padron and Tony, suggested Gus Foote it will cost you nothing to take him on by the day him and his grandson Alessio you know that he understands his business better than anyone else in the place and he will be content with little for they are absolutely without bread it is an affair worth gold to you Padron Fortunato it is indeed Padron Fortunato caught as he was just at that propitious moment could not refuse but after higgling and screwing over the price for now that the times were so bad he really hadn't worked for any more men he at last made a great favor of taking on Padron and Tony yes, I'll take him if you'll come and speak to me himself will you believe that they are out of temper because I broke off my son's marriage with men a fine thing I should have made of it and to be angry about it what could I do Don Silvestro Master Filippo goose-footed himself all of them in fact hastened to say that Padron Fortunato was quite right men, meanwhile did not even put her nose at the window for it was not seemly to do so now that her mother was dead and she had a blacker chief on her head and besides she had to look after the little one and to be a mother to her and she had no one to help her in the housework so that she had to go to the tank to wash and to the fountain and to take the men their luncheon when they were at work on land so that she was not sent agata any longer as in the days when no one ever saw her and she was all day long at the loom in these days she had but little time for the loom since the day when the Zoupida had given him such a talking to from her terrace and had threatened to put out his eyes with her distaf never failed to pass by the black street and sometimes he passed two or three times a day looking after Barbara because he wasn't going to have people say that he was afraid of the Zoupida or of her distaf and when he passed the house where the Malavoglia lived in this space had looked in to see the pretty girls who were growing up at the Malavoglias in the evening when the men came back from sea they found everything ready for them the pot boiling on the fire the cloth ready on the table that table that was so large for them now that they were so few that they felt lost at it they shut the door in their supper in peace then they sat down on the doorstep to rest after the fatigues of the day at all events they had enough for the day's needs and were not obliged to touch the money that was accumulating for the house Padron and Tony had always that house in his mind with its closed windows and the medlar tree rising above the wall Marutza had not been able to die in that house nor perhaps should he die there but the money was beginning to grow again and his boys at least would go back there some day or other now that Alasio was growing into a man and was a good boy and one of the true Malavoglia stamp when they had bought back the house and married the girls if they might get a boat again they would have nothing more to wish for and Padron and Tony might close his eyes in peace Nunziata and Anna their cousin came to sit on the stones with them in the evenings to talk over old times for they too were left lonely and desolate so that they seemed like one family Nunziata felt as if she were at home in the house and came with her brood running after her like a hen with her chickens Alasio sitting down by her would say did you finish your linen or are you going on Monday to Master Filippo to help with the vintage now that the olive harvest is coming you'll always find a day's work somewhere even when you haven't any washing to do and you can take your brother too they'll give him too salty a day Nunziata talked to him gravely and asked his advice with regard to her plans and they talked apart together as if they had already been a grey-haired old couple they have grown wise in their youth because they have had so much trouble said Padron and Tony wisdom comes of suffering Alasio with his arms round his knees like his grandfather asked Nunziata will you have me for a husband when I grow up plenty of time yet to think about that replied she yes there's time but one must begin to think about it now so that one may settle what is to be done first of course we must marry men and Leah when she is grown up Leah wants to be dressed like a woman now and you have your boys to find places for we must buy a boat first the boat will help us to buy the house grandfather wants to buy back the house by the medlar and I should like that best too for I know my way all about it even in the dark without running against anything and the court is large so that there's plenty of room for the tackle minutes one is at the sea then when my sisters are married grandfather can stay with us and we'll put him in the big room that opens on the court where the son comes in so when he isn't able to go to see any longer poor old man he can sit by the door in the court and in the summer the medlar tree will make a shade for him we'll take the room on the garden you'll like that the kitchen is close by so you'll have everything under your hand won't you, when my brother Donny comes back we'll give him that room and we'll take the one upstairs there are only the steps to climb to reach the kitchen and the garden in the kitchen there must be a new hearth said Nunciata the last time we cooked anything there when poor cousin Maruzza was too unhappy to do it herself he'd drop up the pot with stones yes I remember said Alessio sitting with his chin in his hands and nodding gravely with wide dreamy eyes as if he saw Nunciata at the fire and his poor mother weeping beside the bed and you too said he can find your way in the dark about the house by the medlar you have been there so often Mama always said you were a good girl now they have sown onions in the garden and they're grown as big as oranges do you like onions my must I have no choice they help the bread down and they are cheap when we haven't money enough to buy macaroni we always eat them I and my little ones for that they sell so well Uncle Crucifix doesn't care about planting cabbages or lettuce at the house by the medlar because he has them at his own house and so he puts nothing there but onions but we'll plant broccoli and cauliflower won't they be good eh the girl with her arms across her knees curled upon the threshold looking out with dreaming eyes as well as the boy then after a while she began to sing and Alessio listened with all his ears at last she said there's plenty of time yet yes ascent to Alessio first we must marry Mena and Leah and we must find places for the boys but we must begin to talk it over now when Nunziata sings said Mena coming to the door it is a sign that it will be fair weather and we can go tomorrow to wash cousin Anna was in the same mind for her field and vineyard was the washing tank and her feast days were those on which she had her hands full of clothes to be washed all the more now that her son Rocco was feasting himself every day after his fashion at the tavern trying to drown his regret for the man Giacarube who had thrown him over for Brasi Cipolla like a coquette as she was it's a long lane that has no turning said Padron Antoni perhaps this may bring your son Rocco to his senses and it will be good for my Antoni too to be away from home for a while and is tired of wondering about the world everything will seem as it should be and he will not complain anymore and if we succeed in once more putting our own boat at sea and it's putting our own beds in the old places that we know so well you will see what pleasant times we shall have resting on the doorsteps there when we are tired after our day's work when the day has been a good one and how bright the light will look in that room where you have seen it so often and have known all the faces that were dearest to you on earth but now so many are gone and never have come back that it seems as if the room would be always dark and the door shut as if those who are gone had taken the key with them forever and Antoni should not have gone away added the old man after a long silence he knew that I was old and that when I am gone the children will have no one left if we buy the house buy the medlar while he is gone he won't know it and will come here to find us but Ron Antoni shook his head sadly but there's time enough yet he said at last like Nunziata and cousin Anna added if Antoni comes back rich he can buy the house Padron Antoni answered nothing but the whole place knew that Antoni would come back rich now he had been gone so long in search of fortune and many envied him already and wanted to go in search of fortune too like him in fact they were not far wrong they would only leave a few women to fret after them and the only ones who hadn't the heart to leave their women were that stupid son of LaLocca whose mother was what everybody knew she was and Rocco Spattu whose soul was at the tavern fortunately for the women Padron Antoni's Antoni was suddenly discovered to have come back by night in a bark from Catania ashamed to show himself as he had no shoes if it were true that he had come back rich he had nowhere to put his money for his clothes were all rags and tatters but his family received him as affectionately as if he had come back loaded with gold his sisters hung round his neck crying and laughing for joy and Antoni did not know Leah again so tall she was and they all said to him now you won't leave us again will you the grandfather blew his nose and growled now I can die in peace now that these children will not be left alone in the world but for a whole week Antoni never showed himself in the street everyone laughed when they saw him and Goosefoot went about saying have you seen the grand fortune that Paderont and Tony's and Tony has brought home and those who had not been in such a terrible hurry to make up their bundles of shirts and stockings to leave their homes like a lot of fools could not contain themselves for laughing whoever goes in search of fortune and does not find it is a fool everybody knows that Don Silvestro Uncle Crucifix Paderont Cipolla Master Filippo were not fools and everybody did their best to please them because poor people always stand with their mouths open staring at the rich and fortunate and work for them like Cousin Mosca's ass instead of kicking the cart to pieces and running off to roll on the grass with heels in the air the druggist was quite right when he said that it was high time to kick the world to pieces and make it over again and he himself with his big beard and his fine talk about making the world over again was one of those who had known how to make a fortune and to hold on to it too and he had nothing to do but stand at his door and chat with this one and that one when he had done pounding that little bit of dirty water in his mortar his work was finished for the day that fine trade he had learned of his father to make money out of the water in the cistern but Tony's grandfather had taught him a trade which was nothing but breaking one's arms and one's back all day long and risking one's life and dying of hunger and having a day to oneself when one could lie on the grass in the sun even as Mosca's ass could sometimes do a real thieves trade that wore one's soul out by our lady and he for one was tired of it and would rather be like Rocco Spattu who at least didn't work and for that matter he cared nothing for Barbara nor any other girl in the world they care for nothing but fishing for husbands to work worse than dogs to give them their living and buy silk handkerchiefs for them to wear when they stand at their doors of a Sunday with their hands on their full stomachs he'd rather stand there himself Sunday and Monday too and all the other days in the week since there was no good in working all the time for nothing so Antoni had learned to spout as well as the druggist that much at least he had brought back from abroad for now his eyes were open like a kitten's when it is nine days old the hen that goes in the street comes home with a full crop if he hadn't filled his crop with anything else he had filled it with wisdom and he went about telling all he had learned in the piazza in Pizzuti shop and also at Santuzza's tavern now he went openly to the tavern for after all he was grown up and his grandfather wasn't likely to come there after him and pull his ears and he should know very well what to say to anybody who tried to hinder him from going there after the little pleasure there was to be had his grandfather poor man instead of pulling his ears tried to touch his feelings see he said now you have come we shall soon be able to manage to get back the house always that same old song about the house Uncle crucifix has promised not to sell it to anyone else your mother poor dear was not able to die there we can get the dowry for men are on the house with God's help we can set up another boat because I must tell you that at my age it is hard to go out by the day and obey other people when one has been used to command you were also born of masters would you rather that we should buy the boat first with the money instead of the house now you are grown up and can have your choice because you have seen more well and should be wiser than I am now I am old what would you rather do he would rather do nothing that's what he would rather do what did he care about the boat or the house then there would come another bad year another cholera some other misfortune and eat up the boat and the house and they would have to begin all over again like the ants a fine thing and when they had got the boat and the house could they leave off working or could they eat meat and macaroni every day while instead down there where he had been there were people that went about in carriages every day that's what they did people beside whom Don Franco and the town clerk were themselves no better than beasts of burden working as they did all day long spoiling paper and beating dirty water in a mortar at least he wanted to know why there should be people in the world who had nothing to do but to enjoy themselves and were born with silver spoons in their mouths and others who had nothing and must drag a cart with their teeth all their lives besides which that idea of going out by the day was not at all to his taste he was born a master his grandfather had said so himself he to be ordered about by a lot of people who had risen from nothing who as everybody in the place knew had put their money together soldo after soldo sweating and struggling he had gone out by the day only because his grandfather took him and he hadn't strength of mind to refuse but when the overseer stood over him like a dog and called out from the stern now then boy, what are you at? he felt tempted to hit him over the head with the oar and he preferred to weave baskets or to mend nets sitting on the beach with his back against a stone for then if he folded his arms for a minute nobody called out at him thither came also a Rocco Spartu to yawn and stretch his arms and Vani Pizzotti between one customer and another in his idle moments and Gusfut came there too for his business was to mix himself up with every conversation that he could find in search of bargaining Censere, a sort of very small brokerage upon which a tiny percentage is paid and they talked of all that happened in the place from one thing to another they got talking of Uncle Crucifix who had they said lost more than 30 scoody though people that had died of the cholera had left pledges in his hands now Dumbbell not knowing what to do with all these earrings and fingerings that had remained on his hands had made up his mind to Marie Vespa the thing was certain they had been seen to go together to write themselves up at the municipality in Don Silvestro's presence it is not true that he is marrying on account of the jewellery, said Gusfut who was in a position to know the things are of gold or of silver and he could go and sell them by weight in the city he would have got back a good percentage on the money he had lent on them he marries Vespa because she took him to the municipality to show him the paper that she had had drawn up ready to be signed before the notary with Cousin Spattu here now that the man Gio Carube has dropped him for Brasi Cipolla excuse me hey Cousin Rocco oh I don't mind Cousentino and said Rocco Spattu it is nothing to me for whoever trusts to one of those false cats of one kind is worse than a pig I don't want any sweetheart except Santuzza who lets me have my wine on credit when I like and she is worth two of the man Gio Carube any day of the week a good handful eh Cousentino pretty hostess heavy bill said Pizzuti spitting in the sand they all look out for husbands to work for them and at Antoni they're all alike and continued Cousfoud Uncle Crucifix ran off panting to the notary with his heart in his mouth so he had to take the wasp after all here the apothecary who had come down to the beach to smoke his pipe joined in the conversation and went on pounding in his usual way upon his usual theme that the world ought to be put in a mortar and pounded to pieces and made all over again but this time he really might as well have pounded dirty water in his mortar for not one of them understood a word he said unless perhaps it were Antoni he at least had seen the world and opened his eyes like the kittens when he was a soldier they had taught him to read and for that reason he too went to the drug-shop door and listened when the newspaper was read and stayed to talk with the drugist who was a good-natured fellow and did not give himself airs like his wife who kept calling out to him Why will you mix yourself up with what doesn't concern you? One must let the women talk and manage things quietly said Don Franco as soon as his wife was safe upstairs he didn't mind taking counsel even with those who went barefoot provided they didn't put their feet on the chairs and explained to them word for word all that there was printed in the newspaper following it with his finger telling them that the world ought to go as it was written down there End of chapter 12 Recording by Tom Denham