 Introduction to the House by the Medlar Tree This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Tom Denham The House by the Medlar Tree by Giovanni Verga Translated by Mary A. Craig Introduction by W. D. Howells Anyone who loves simplicity or respects sincerity Anyone who feels the tie binding us all together in the helplessness of our common human life and running from the lowliest as well as the highest to the mystery immeasurably above the whole earth must find a rare and tender pleasure in this simple story of an Italian fishing village. I cannot promise that it will interest any other sort of readers but I do not believe that any other sort are worth interesting and so I can praise Signor Verga's book without reserve as one of the most perfect pieces of literature that I know. When we talk of the great modern movement towards reality we speak without the documents if we leave this book out of the count for I can think of no other novel in which the facts have been more faithfully reproduced or with a profounder regard for the poetry that resides in facts and resides nowhere else. Signor Verga began long ago in his vita dei campi Life of the Fields to give proof of his fitness to live in our time and after some excursions in the region of French naturalism he here returns to the original sources of his inspiration and offers us a masterpiece of the finest realism. He is, I believe, a Sicilian of that meridional race among whom the Italian language first took form and who in these latest days have done some of the best things in Italian literature. It is of the far south that he writes and of people whose passions are elemental and whose natures are simple. The characters, therefore, or types of good and of evil, of good and of generosity, of truth and of falsehood they are not the less personal for this reason and the life which they embody is nonetheless veritable. It will be well for the reader who comes to this book with the usual prejudices against the Southern Italians to know that such souls as Padron, Antoni and the Maruzza la Longa with their impassioned conceptions of honour and duty exist among them and that such love idylls as that of Menna and Alfio so sweet, so pure and the happier but not less charming everyday romance of Alessio and Nunziata are passages of a life supposedly only benighted and degraded. This poet, as I must call the author, does again the highest office of poetry in making us intimate with the hearts of men of another faith, race and condition and teaching us how like ourselves they are in all that is truest in them. Padron, Antoni and la Longa, Luca, Menna, Alfio Nunziata, Alessio, if harshly unnamed might pass for New England types which we boast the product of puritanism but which are really the product of conscience and order. The children of disorder who move through the story, the selfish, the vicious, the greedy like Don Silvestro and La Vespa and Gusfut and Dumbbell or the merely weak like poor Antoni Malavolia are not so different from our own images either when seen in this clear glass which falsifies and distorts nothing. Few tales, I think, are more moving, more full of heartbreak than this for few are so honest. By this I mean that the effect in it is precisely that which the author aimed at. He meant to let us see just what Manna of men and women went to make up the life of a little Italian town of the present day and he meant to let the people show themselves with the least possible explanation or comment from him. The transaction of the story is in the highest degree dramatic but events follow one another with the even sequence of hours on the clock. You are not prepared to value them beforehand. They are not advertised to tempt your curiosity like feats promised at the circus in the fashion of the febler novels. Often it is in the retrospect that you recognize their importance and perceive their full significance. In this most subtly artistic management of his material the author is most a master and almost more than any other he has the rare gift of trusting the intelligence of his reader. He seems to have no more sense of authority or supremacy concerning the personages than any one of them would have in telling the story and he has as completely freed himself from literacy as the most unlettered among them. Under his faithful touch life seems mainly sad in Trezza because life is mainly sad everywhere and because men there have not yet adjusted themselves to the only terms which can render life tolerable anywhere they are still rivals, traitors, enemies and have not learned that in the vast orphanage of nature they have no resource but love and union among themselves and submission to the unfathomable wisdom which was before they were. Yet seen a right this picture of a little bit of the world very common and low down and far off has a consolation which no one need miss there as in every part of the world and in the whole world goodness brings not pleasure, not happiness but it brings peace and rest to the soul and lightens all burdens the trial and the sorrow go on for good and evil alike only those who choose the evil have no peace. End of introduction Recording by Tom Denham 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 Once the malevolia were as numerous as the stones on the old road to Trezza there were some even at Ognino and at Aci Castello and good and brave seafaring folk quite the opposite of what they might appear to be from their nickname of the ill-wills as is but right. In fact in the parish books they were called Toscani but that meant nothing because since the world was a world at Ognino, at Trezza and at Aci Castello they had been known as malevolia from father to son who had always had boats on the water and tiles in the sun. Now at Trezza there remained only Padron Antoni and his family who owned the Providenza which was anchored in the sand below the washing tank by the side of Uncle Corla's Concetta and Padron Fortunato Cipolla's bark. The tempests which had scattered all the other malevolia to the four winds had passed over the house by the medlar tree and the boat anchored under the tank without doing any great damage and Padron Antoni to explain the miracle used to say, showing his closed fist a fist which looked as if it were made of walnut wood to pull a good oar the five fingers must help one another. He also said men are like the fingers of the hand the thumb must be the thumb and the little finger the little finger and Padron Antoni's little family was really disposed like the fingers of a hand. First he came the thumb who ordered the fasts and the feasts in the house then Bastian his son called Bastian Atzo because he was as big and as grand as the St. Christopher which was painted over the arch of the fish market in town and big and grand as he was he went right about at the word of command and wouldn't have blown his nose unless his father had told him to do it. So he took to wife La Longa when his father said to him take her! Then came La Longa a little woman who attended to her weaving her salting of anchovies and her babies as a good housekeeper should do last the grandchildren in the order of their age Antoni the eldest a big fellow of twenty who was always getting cuffs from his grandfather and then kicks a little father down if the cuffs had been heavy enough to disturb his equilibrium Luca who had more sense than the big one the grandfather said menna filomenna so named Sant'Agata because she was always at the loom and the proverb goes woman at the loom hen in the coop and mullet in January Alessio our urchin that was his grandfather all over and lia rosalia as yet neither fish nor flesh on Sunday when they went into church one after another they looked like a procession Padron Antoni was in the habit of using certain proverbs and sayings of all times for said he the sayings of the ancients never lie without a pilot the boat won't go to be pulled one must begin by being sacrestan or stick to the trade you know somehow you'll manage to go be content to be what your father was then you'll be neither a name nor an ass and otherwise sores therefore the house by the medlar was prosperous and Padron Antoni passed for one of the weighty men of the village to that extent that they would have made him a communal counselor only Don Silvestro the town clock who was very knowing insisted that he was a rotten codino a reactionary who went in for the Bourbons and conspired for the return of Francescallo that he might tyrannize over the village as he tyrannized over his own house Padron Antoni instead did not even know Francescallo by sight and used to say he who has the management of a house cannot sleep when he likes for he who commands must give account in December 1863 Antoni the eldest grandson was called up for the naval conscription Padron Antoni had recourse to the big wigs of the village who are those who can help us if they like but Don Giamaria the vicar replied that he deserved it and that it was the fruit of that satanic revolution which they had made hanging that tricolour handkerchief to the campanile Don Franco the drugist on the other hand laughed under his beard and said it was quite time there should be a revolution and that then it would send all those fellows of the draft and the taxes flying and there would be no more soldiers but everybody would go out and fight for their country if there was need of it then Padron Antoni begged and prayed him for the love of God to make the revolution quickly before his grandson Antoni went for a soldier as if Don Franco had it in his pocket so that at last the drugist flew into a rage then Don Silvestro the town clerk dislocated his jaws with laughter at the talk and finally he said that by means of certain little pockets slipped into certain pockets that he knew of they might manage to get his nephew found defective in some way and sent back for a year unfortunately the doctor when he saw the tall youth told him that his only defect was to be planted like a column on those big ugly feet that looked like the leaves of a prickly pear but such feet as that would be of more use on the deck of an ironclad in certain rough times that were coming than pretty small ones in tight boots so he took Antoni without saying by your lead the longer when the conscripts went up to their quarters trotted breathless by the side of her long-legged son reminding him that he must always remember to keep round his neck the piece of the Madonna's dress that she had given him and to send home news whenever anyone came that way that he knew and she would give him money to buy paper the grandfather being a man said nothing but felt a lump in his throat too and would not look his daughter-in-law in the face so that it seemed as if he were angry with her so they returned to Aci Trezza silent with bowed heads Bastionato who had unloaded the providenza in a great hurry went to meet them at the top of the street and when he saw them coming sadly with their shoes in their hands the girls had no heart to speak but turned round and went back with them to the house La Longa rushed away to the kitchen longing to find herself alone with the familiar saucepans and Padron Antoni said to his son go and say something to that poor child she can bear it no longer the day after they all went back to the station of Aci Costello to see the train pass with the conscripts who were going to Messina and waited behind the bars hustled by the crowd for more than an hour finally the train arrived and they saw their boys all swarming with their heads out of the little windows like oxen going to a fair the singing, the laughter and the noise made it seem like the fester of Treccastagni and in the flurry and the fuss they got their aching hearts for a while nearby on the margin of the ditch pretending to be cutting grass for the calf was cousin Toda's Sarah but cousin Venra, the zoopida, hobla went on whispering that she had come there to see Padron Antoni's Antoni with whom she used to talk over the wall of the garden she had seen them herself with those very eyes which the worms would one day devour certain it is that Antoni waved his hand to Sarah and that she stood still with the sickle in her hand gazing at the train as long as it was there to la longer it seemed but that wave of the hand had been stolen from her and when she met cousin Toda's Sarah on the piazza the public square or the tank where they washed she turned her back on her for a long time after then the train moved off hissing and screaming so as to drown the adures and the songs and then the curious crowd dispersed leaving only a few poor women and some poor devils that still stood clinging to the bars without knowing why then one by one they also moved away and Padron Antoni, guessing that his daughter-in-law must have a bitter taste in her mouth spent two centimes for a glass of water with lemon juice in it for her cousin Venera, the Zoupida to comfort her gossip la longer, said to her now you may set your heart at rest for, for five years you may look upon your son as dead and think no more about him but they did think of him all the time at the house by the medlar now it would be a plate too many which la longer found in her hand when she was getting supper ready now some not a rather that nobody could die like Antoni in the rigging and when some rope had to be pulled taut or turned some screw the grandfather groaning oh hi, oh hi ejaculated here we want Antoni or do you think I have a wrist like that boys? the mother passing the shuttle through the loom that went one, two, three, thought of the boom, boom of the engine that had dragged away her son which had sounded ever since in her heart one, two, three the grand papa too had certain singular methods of consolation what will you have? a little soldiering will do that boy good he almost liked better to carry his two arms out a walking of a Sunday than to work with them for his bread or when he has learned how salt the bread is that one eats elsewhere he won't growl any longer about the minestra at home minestra being a macaroni of inferior quality finally there arrived the first letter from Antoni which convulsed the village he said that the women oft there swept the streets with their silk petticoats and that on the mole there was bunch of theatre and that they sold those little round cheeses that rich people eat for two centimes and that one could not get along without soldy that did well enough at Trezza where unless one went to Santuzza's at the tavern one didn't know how to spend one's money set him up with his cheeses the glutton said his grandfather he can't help it though he was always like that if I hadn't held him at the font in these arms I should have said Don Giamaria had put sugar in his mouth instead of salt the manja Karube when she was at the tank and cousin Tudda Sarah was by went on saying certainly those ladies with the silk dresses waited on purpose for Padron Antoni's Antoni to steal them away they haven't got any pumpkin heads down there the others held their sides with laughing and henceforth the envious girls called Antoni pumpkin head Antoni had sent his portrait too all the girls at the tank had seen it as Sarah showed it to one after another passing it under her apron and the manja Karube shivered with jealousy he looked like Saint Michael the Archangel with those feet planted on a fine carpet and a curtain behind his head like that of the Madonna at Ognino and he was so handsome, so clean and smooth and neat that the mother that bore him wouldn't have known him and Puola Longa was never tired of gazing at the curtain and the carpet and that pillar against which her son stood up stiff as a post scratching with his hand the back of a beautiful armchair and she thanked God and the saints who had placed her boy in the midst of such splendours she kept the portrait on the puro under the glass globe which covered the figure of the good shepherd so that she said her prayers to it the zoopita said and thought she had a great treasure on the puro and after all sister Marie Angela the Santuzza had just such another anybody that cared too might see it that cousin Mariano Cinchialenta had given her and she kept it nailed upon the tavern counter among the bottles but after a while Antoni got hold of a comrade who could write and then he let himself go in abuse of the hard life on board ship the discipline, the superiors, the thin rice soup and the tight shoes a letter that wasn't worth the twenty cent aims for the postage said Padron Antoni La Longa scolded about the writing that looked like a lot of fish chooks and said nothing worth hearing Bastionato shook his head saying no, it wasn't good at all and that if it had been he he would have always put nice things to please people down there on the paper pointing at it with a finger as big as the pin of a rollock if it were only out of compassion for La Longa since her boy was gone went about like a cat that had lost a kitten Padron Antoni went in secret first to Don Giamaria then to Don Franco, the drugist and got the letter read to him by both of them and as they were of opposite ways of thinking he was persuaded that it was really written there as they said and then he went on saying to Bastionato and to his wife didn't I tell you that boy ought to have been born rich like Padron Chipola's son that he might have nothing to do but lie in the sun and scratch himself meanwhile the year was a bad one and the fish had to be given for the souls of the dead now that Christians had taken to eating meat on Friday like so many Turks besides the men who remained at home were not enough to manage the boat and sometimes they had to take La Longa's manico by the day to help the king did this way you see he took the boys just as they got big enough to earn their living while they were little and had to be fed he left them at home and there was men there too the girl was seventeen and the youths began to stop and stare at her as she went into church so it was necessary to work with hands and feet too to drive that boat at the house by the medlar tree Padron Antoni therefore to drive the bark had arranged with Uncle Crucifix Dumbbell an affair concerning certain lupins or coarse flat beans to be bought on credit and sold again at Riposto where Cousin Cinchialenta Caria said there was a boat loading for Trieste in fact the lupins were beginning to rot but they were all that there were to be hired at Trezza and that old rascal Dumbbell knew that the Providenza was eating her head off and doing nothing so he pretended to be very stupid indeed hey too much is it let it alone then but I can't take a centim less I can't on my conscience I must answer for my soul to God I can't and shook his head till it looked in real earnest like a bell without a clapper this conversation took place at the door of the church at Oninno on the first Sunday in September which was the feast of our lady there was a great concourse of people from all the neighbourhood and there was present also Cousin Agostino Gusfutt who by talking and joking managed to get them to agree upon two scuddy and ten the bag to be paid by the month it was always so with Uncle Crucifix he said because he had that cursed weakness of not being able to say no as if you couldn't say no when you likes near Cousfutt you're like that and he told him what he was like when La Longa heard of the business of the Lupins she opened her eyes very wide indeed as they sat with their elbows on the tablecloth after supper and it seemed as if she felt the weight of that sum of 40 scuddy on her stomach but she said nothing because women have nothing to do with such things and Padron Antoni explained to her how if the affair was successful there would be bread for the winter and earrings for men and Bastiano could go and come in a week from reposto with La Locas Menico Bastiano, meantime, snuffed the candle and said nothing so the affair of the Lupins was arranged and the voyage of the Providenza which was the oldest boat in the village but was supposed to be very lucky Maruzza had a heavy heart but did not speak he went about indefatigably preparing everything putting the boat in order and filling the cupboard with provisions for the journey fresh bread, the jar with oil, the onions and putting the fur-lined coat under the deck the men had been very busy all day with that usurer Uncle Crucifix who had sold a pig in a poke and the Lupins were spoiling Dumbbell swore that he knew nothing about it in God's truth bargaining is no cheating was he likely to throw his soul to the pigs and Gusfut scolded and blasphemed like one possessed to bring them to agreement swearing that such a thing had never happened to him before and he thrust his hands among the Lupins and held them up before God and the Madonna calling them to witness at last, red, panting, desperate he made a wild proposition and flung it in the face of Uncle Crucifix who pretended to be quite stupefied and of the Malavolia with the sacks in their hands there, pay it at Christmas instead of paying so much a month and you will gain too salty the sack now make an end of it, Holy Devil and he began to measure them in God's name one the Providenza went off on Saturday towards evening when the Ave Maria should have been ringing only the bell was silent because Master Cirino the Sacristan had gone to carry a pair of new boots to Don Silvestro the town clerk at that hour the girls crowded like a flight of sparrows about the fountain the evening star was shining brightly already just over the mast of the Providenza like a lamp Maruzza with her baby in her arms stood on the shore without speaking while her husband loosed the sail and the Providenza danced on the broken waves by the Farilioni like a duck the Farilioni were rocks rising straight out of the sea, separate from the shore clear south wind and dark north go fiercely forth said Padron and Tony from the landing looking towards the mountains dark with clouds La Loca's Menico who was in the Providenza Bastionazzo called out something which was lost in the sound of the sea he said you may give the money to his mother for his brother is out of work called Bastionazzo and that was the last word that was heard End of chapter 1 Recording by Tom Denham Chapter 2 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 in the whole place nothing was talked of but the affair of the Lupins and as La Longa returned with Lea from the beach the Gossips came to their doors to see her pass Oh, a regular golden business! shouted Goosefoot as he hitched along with his crooked leg behind Padron and Tony who went and sat down on the church steps with Padron Fortunato Cipolla and La Loca Menico's brother who were taking the air there in the cool of the evening Uncle Crucifix screamed as if you had been pulling out his quill feathers but you needn't mind that he has plenty of quills, the old boy Oh, we had a time of it you can say as much for your part too can't you Padron and Tony but for Padron and Tony, you know I'd throw myself off the cliffs any day so I would before God and Uncle Crucifix listens to me because he knows what a big ladle means a big ladle, you know that stirs a big pot where there's more than 200 skuddea yurra boiling why old Dumbbell wouldn't know how to blow his nose if I wasn't by to show him La Loca's son hearing them talk of Uncle Crucifix who was really his uncle because he was La Loca's brother felt his heart swelling with family affection We are relations, he repeated when I go there to work by the day he gives me only half wages and no wine because we are relations old Goosefoot sneered he does it for your good so that you shouldn't take to drinking and that he may have more money to leave you when he dies then old Goosefoot went on amusing himself by speaking ill now of one now of another as it happened but so good humbly without malice that no one could catch him in anything actionable he said to La Loca's son your uncle wants to knobble your cousin Vespa wasp out of a garden trying to get her to let him have it for half what it's worth making her believial maria but if La Vespa succeeds in drawing him on you may go whistle for your inheritance and you lose the wages he hasn't given you and the wine you didn't drink then they began to dispute for Padron and Tony insisted upon it that after all Uncle Dumbell was a Christian and hadn't quite thrown his brains into the gutter to go and marry his brother's daughter what has Christian to do with it or turkey there? growled Goosefoot he's mad you mean he's rich as a pig you wonder that little garden of Vespa's as big as a nose rag and she has nothing but that I ought to know how big it is it lies along my vineyard said Padron Cipolla puffing himself like a turkey you call that a vineyard for prickly pears sneered Goosefoot between the prickly pears the vines grow if St. Francis will send us a good shower of rain you'll see if I don't have some good wine today the sun went to bed loaded with rain or with wind when the sun goes to bed heavy one must look for a west wind said Padron and Tony Goosefoot couldn't hear Cipolla's sententious way of talking thinking because he was rich he must know everything make the poor people swallow whatever nonsense he chose to talk one wants rain and one wants wind he wound up Padron Cipolla wants rain for his vines and Padron and Tony wants a wind to push the poop of the providenza you know the proverb curly is the sea a fresh wind there'll be tonight the stars are shining at midnight the wind will change don't you hear the ground swell on the road there was heard the sound of heavy carts slowly passing night or day somebody's always going about the world said Cipolla a little later on now that they could no longer see the sea or the fields it seemed as if there were only trezza in the world and everybody wondered where the carts could be going at that hour before midnight the providenza will have rounded the Cape of the Mills and the wind won't trouble her any longer Padron and Tony thought of nothing but the providenza and when they were not talking of her he said nothing and sat like a post among the talkers you ought to go across the street to the drugists where they're talking politics you'd make a fine figure among them listen how they shout that's Don Giamaria said la loca son disputing with Don Franco the drugist was holding a conversation at the door of his shop with the vicar and two or three others as he was a cultured person he got the newspaper and read it too and let others read it and he had the history of the French Revolution which he kept under the glass mortar because he quarrelled about it every day with Don Giamaria, the vicar to pass the time and they got positively bilious over it but they couldn't have lived a day without seeing each other on Saturdays when the paper came Don Franco went so far as to burn a candle for half an hour or even for a whole hour at the risk of a scolding from his wife so as to explain his ideas properly and not go to bed like a brute as Uncle Cipolla and old Malavolia did in the summer besides there was no need of a candle for they could stand under the lamp at the door when Mastro Cirino lighted it and sometimes Don Michelli the brigadier of the customs guard joined them and Don Silvestro the town clerk too coming back from his vineyards stopped for a moment then Don Franco would say rubbing his hands that they were quite a parliament and go off behind his counter passing his fingers through his long beard like a comb with a shrewd little grin as if he were going to eat somebody for his breakfast and would let slip broken phrases under his breath full of hidden meaning so that it was plain enough that he knew more than all the world put together and Don Giamaria couldn't bear the sight of him and grew yellow with fury and spit Latin at him Don Silvestro for his part was greatly amused to see how he poisoned his blood trying to straighten out a dog's legs he said without a chance of making a centime by it he at least didn't lose his temper as they did and for that reason they said in the place that he had the best farms in Trezza that he had come to a barefooted ragamuffin at an old goosefoot he would set the disputants at each other as if they had been dogs and laughed fit to split his eyes with shrill cries of like a cuckling hen goosefoot went off again with the old story that if Don Silvestro had been willing to stay where he belonged it would be a spade he'd be wielding now and not a pen would you give him your granddaughter Mena? said Cipolla at last turning to Padron Antoni each to his own business leave the wolf to look after the sheep Padron Cipolla kept on nodding his head all the more that there had been some talk between him and Padron Antoni of marrying Mena to his son Brassi if the lupin business went on well the dowry would be paid down in cash and the affair settled immediately the girl as she has been trained and the tow as it has been spun said Padron Malavogna at last and Padron Cipolla agreed that everybody in the place knew that La Longa had brought up her girl beautifully that anybody who passed through the alley behind the house at the hour at which they were talking could hear the sound of Sant'Agata's loom cousin Marutza didn't waste her oil after dark that she didn't he said La Longa just as she came back from the beach sat down at the window to prepare the thread for the loom cousin Mena is not seen but heard and she stays at the loom day and night like Sant'Agata said the neighbours that's the way to bring up girls replied Marutza instead of letting them stay gaping out the window don't go after the girl at the window says the proverb some of them though staring out of window managed to catch the foolish fish that pass said her cousin Anna from the opposite door cousin Anna really her cousin this time not only called so by way of good fellowship reason and to spare for this speech for that great hulking fellow her son Rocco had tacked himself on to the man Giacarube's petticoat tail and she was always leaning out of the window toasting her face in the sun gossip, Grazia Gusfoud hearing that there was a conversation going on came to her door with her apron full of the beans she was shelling and railed about the mice who had made her sacked like a sieve eating holes all over it as if they had had wits like Christians so the talk became general because those accursed little brutes had done Marutza all sorts of harm too cousin Anna had her house full of them too since she had lost her cat a beast worth its weight in gold who had died of a kick from Uncle Tino the grey cats are the best to catch mice they'd go after them into a needle's eye one shouldn't open the door to the cat by night for an old woman Archie Sant'Antonio got killed that way by thieves who stole her cat three days before and then brought her back half-staffed to mew at the door and the poor woman couldn't bear to hear the creature out in the street at that hour and opened the door and so the wretches got in nowadays the rascals invent all sorts of tricks to gain their ends Marutza once saw faces now that nobody had ever seen on the coast coming, pretending to be fishing and catching up the clothes that were out to dry if they could manage it they had stolen a new sheet from poor Nunciata that way poor girl robbing her who worked so hard to feed those little brothers that her father left on her hands when he went off seeking his fortune in Alexandria in Egypt Nunciata was like what Cousin Anna herself had been when her husband died and left her with that house full of little children and rock all the biggest of them no higher than her knee then after all the trouble of rearing him great lazy fellow she must stand by and see the mangia carube carry him off into the midst of this gossiping came Venera Lazupida wife to Bastiano the coca she lived at the foot of the lane and always appeared unexpectedly like the devil at the litany who came from nobody knew where to say his say like the rest for that matter she muttered your son Rocco never helped you a bit if he got hold of a soldo he spent it at the tavern Lazupida knew everything that went on in the place and for this reason they said she went about all day barefoot with that disc staff that she was always holding over her head to keep the thread off the gravel playing the spy she was the spinning was only a pretext she always told gospel truth that was a habit of hers and people who didn't like to have the truth told about them accused her of being a wicked slanderer one of those whose tongues dropped gall bitter mouth spits galls at the proverb and a bitter mouth she had for that Barbara of hers that she had never been able to marry so naughty and rude she was and with all that she would like to give her victor a manual son for her husband a nice one she is the manja Karube she went on a brazen faced hussy that has called the whole village one after another under her window she used no woman at the window says the proverb and Vanny Pizzotti gave her the figs he stole from Mastro Philippe the Otolano and they ate them together in the vineyard under the almond tree I saw them myself and Pepe, Joe, Nassau the butcher after he began to be jealous of Mariano Cingallenta the Carter used to throw all the horns of the beast he killed behind her door so that they said he combed his head under the manja Karube's window that good-natured cosnana instead took it easily don't you know Don Giamaria says it is a mortal sin to speak evil of one's neighbours Don Giamaria had better preached to his own sister Donna Rosalina replied the Zoupida and not let her go playing off the airs of a young girl at Don Silvestro when he goes past the house and with Don Michelli the brigadier she's dying to get married with all that fat too and at her age she ought to be ashamed of herself the lords will be done said cosnana in conclusion when my husband died Rocco wasn't taller than this spindle and his sisters were all younger than he perhaps I've lost my soul for them grief hardens the heart they say and hard work the hands but the harder they are the better one can work with them my daughters will do as I have done and while there are stones in the Washington we shall have enough to live on look at Nunziata she's as wise as an old grand damn and she works for those babies as if she had borne them herself and where is Nunziata that she doesn't come back asked the longer of a group of ragged little fellows who sat whining on the steps of the tumbledown little house on the opposite side of the way when they heard their sister's name they began to howl in chorus I saw her go down to the beach after broom to burn said cosnana and your son Alessio was with her too the children stopped howling to listen then began to cry again all at once and the biggest one perched like a little chicken on the top step said gravely after a while I don't know where she is the neighbors all came out like snails in a shower and all along the little street was heard a perpetual chatter from one door to another even Alfio Mosca who had the donkey cart had opened his window and a great smell of broom smoke came out of it menna had left the loom and come out on the doorstep oh, Santa Agata they all cried and made a great fuss over her aren't you thinking of marrying your menna asked Lazupita in a low tone of Marutza she's already 18 come Easter tide I know her age she was born in the year of the earthquake like my Barbara whoever wants my Barbara must first please me at this moment was heard a sound of bows scraping on the road and up came Luca and Nunziata who couldn't be seen under the big bundle of broom bushes they were so little oh Nunziata called out the neighbors were you not afraid at this hour so far from home I was with them said Alessio I was late washing with cousin Anna and then I had nothing to light the fire with the little girl lighted the lamp and began to get ready for supper the children trotting up and down the little kitchen after her so that she looked like a hen with her chickens Alessio had thrown down his faggot and stood gazing out of the door gravely with his hands in his pockets oh Nunziata called out Mena from the doorstep when you've lighted the fire come over here for a little Nunziata left Alessio to look after her fire and run across to perch herself on the landing besides Santa Agatha to enjoy a little rest hand in hand with her friend friend Alfio Mosca is cooking his broad beans now observe Nunziata after a little he is like you poor fellow you'd have neither of you anyone to get the minestra ready by the time you come home tired in the evening yes it is true that and he knows how to sew and to wash and mend his clothes Nunziata knew everything that Alfio did and knew every inch of her neighbor's house as if it had been the palm of her hand now she said he has gone to get wood now he is cleaning his donkey and she watched his light as it moved about the house Santa Agatha laughed and Nunziata said that to be precisely like a woman Alfio only wanted a petticoat so concluded Mena when he marries his wife will go round with the donkey cart and he'll stay at home and look after the children the mother's grouped about the street talked about Alfio Mosca too and how La Vespa swore that she wouldn't have him for her husband so said La Zupita because the wasp had her own nice little property and wanted to marry somebody who owned something better than a donkey cart she has been casting sheep's eyes at her Uncle Dumbell the little rogue the girls for their parts defended Alfio against that ugly wasp and Nunziata felt her heart swell with contempt at the way they scorned Alfio only because he was poor and alone in the world and all of a sudden she said to Mena if I was grown up I'd marry him so I would if they'd let me Mena was going to say something herself but she changed the subject suddenly are you going to town for the All Souls Festa? no I can't leave the house all alone we are to go if the business of the Lupins goes well Grand Papa says so then she thought a minute and added cousin Alfio he's going too to sell his nuts at the fair and the girls sat silent thinking of the feast of all souls and how Alfio was going there to sell his nuts old Uncle Crucifix how quietly he puts Vespa in his pocket began cousin Anna all over again that's what she wants cried Lazupita in her abrupt way to be pocketed La Vespa wants just that and nothing else she's always in his house on one pretext or another slipping in like a cat with something good for him to eat or drink when the old man never refuses what costs him nothing she fattens him up like a pig for Christmas I tell you she asks nothing better than to get into his pocket everyone had something to say about Uncle Crucifix who was always whining when instead he had money by the shovelful for Lazupita one day when the old man was ill had seen a chest under his bed as big as that La Longa felt the weight of the Forty Scoody of debt for the Lupins and changed the subject because one hears also in the dark and they could hear the voice of Uncle Crucifix talking with Don Giamaria who was crossing the piazza close by when Lazupita broke off her abuse of him to wish him good evening Don Silvestro laughed his hands cackle and this fashion of laughing enraged the apothecary who never had any patience for that matter he left that to such asses as wouldn't get up another revolution No, you never had any shouted Don Giamaria to him you have no place to put it and Don Franco who was a little man went into a fury and called ugly names after the priest which could be heard all across the piazza in the dark Old Dumbbell, hard as a stone shrugged his shoulders and took care to repeat that all that was nothing to him he attended to his own affairs as if the affairs of the company of the happy death were not your affairs said Don Giamaria and nobody paying a soldo any more when it's a question of putting their hands in their pockets these people are a lot of protestants worse than that heathen apothecary and let the box of the confraternity become a nest from mice it was positively beastly Don Franco from his shop sneered at them all at the top of his voice trying to imitate Don Silvestro's cackling laugh which was enough to modern anybody but everybody knew that the drugist was a free mason and Don Giamaria called out to him from the piazza you'd find the money fast enough if it was for schools or for illuminations the apothecary didn't answer for his wife just then appeared at the window an uncle crucifix when he was far enough off not to be heard by Don Silvestro the clerk who gobbled up the salary for the master of the elementary school it is nothing to me he repeated in my time there weren't so many lamps nor so many schools and we were a deal better off you never were at school and you can manage your affairs well enough and I know my catechism too said uncle crucifix not to be behind and in politeness in the heat of dispute Don Giamaria lost the pavement which he could cross with his eyes shut and was on the point of breaking his neck and of letting slip God forgive us a very naughty word at least if they light their lamps in these days one must look after one's steps concluded uncle crucifix Don Giamaria pulled him by the sleeve of his coat to tell him about this one and that one in the middle of the piazza in the dark of the lamp lighter who stole the oil and Don Silvestro who winked at it and of the syndic Giofa who let himself be led by the nose Dumbbell nodded his head in ascent mechanically though they couldn't see each other and Don Giamaria as he passed the whole village in review said this one is a thief that one is a rascal the other is a Jacobin so you hear Gus foot there talking with Padron Malavolia and Padron Chipala another heretic that one a demagogue he is with that crooked leg of his and when he went limping across the piazza he moved out of his way and watched him distrustfully trying to find out what he was after hitching about that way he has the cloven foot like the devil he muttered Uncle Crucifix shrugged his shoulders again and repeated that he was an honest man that he didn't mix himself up with it Padron Chipala was another old fool a regular balloon that fellow to let himself be blindfolded by old Gus foot and Padron Antoni too he'll get a fall before long one may expect anything in these days honest men keep to their own business repeated Uncle Crucifix instead Uncle Tino sitting up like a president on the church steps went on uttering wise sentences listen to me before the revolution everything was different now the fish are all adulterated I tell you I know it no the anchovies feel the northeast when 24 hours before it comes resumed Padron Antoni it has always been so the anchovy is a cleverer fish than the Tony now beyond the capo de Molini they sweep the sea with nets fine ones all at once I'll tell you what it is began old fortune auto it is those beastly steamers beating the water with their confounded wheels what will you have of course the fish are frightened and don't come anymore that's what it is the son of La Loca sat listening with his mouth open scratching his head Bravo! he said that way they wouldn't find any fish at Messina nor at Syracuse and instead they came from there by the railway by quintals at a time for that matter get out of it the best way you can cried Chipola angrily I wash my hands of it I don't care a fig about it my farm and my vineyards to live upon without your fish Padron Antoni with his nose in the air observed if the northeast wind doesn't get up before midnight the Providenza will have time to get round the Cape from the Campanile overhead came the slow strokes of the deep bell one hour after sunset observed Padron Chipola Padron Antoni made the holy sign and replied peace to the living and rest to the dead Don Giamaria has fried vermicelli for supper observed goose-foot sniffing towards the parsonage windows Don Giamaria passing by on his way home saluted goose-foot as well as the others for in such times as these one must be friends with those rascals and Uncle Tino whose mouth was always watering called after him hey, fried vermicelli, tonight Don Giamaria do you hear him even sniffing at what I have to eat? muttered Don Giamaria between his teeth they spy after the servants of God to count even their mouthfuls everybody hates the church and coming face to face with Don Micaely the brigadier of the Coast Guard who was going his rounds with his pistols in his belt and his trousers thrust into his boots in search of smugglers they don't grudge their suppers to those fellows those fellows I like them cried Uncle crucifix I like those fellows who look after honest men's property if they'd only make it worth his while he'd be a heretic too growled Don Giamaria knocking at the door of his house all a lot of thieves he went on muttering with the knocker in his hand following with suspicious eye the form of the brigadier who disappeared in the darkness towards the tavern and wondering what he was doing at the tavern protecting honest men's goods all the same Daddy Tino knew why Don Micaely went in the direction of the tavern to protect the interests of honest people for he had spent whole nights watching for him behind the big elm to find out and he used to say he goes to talk on the sly with Uncle Santoro Santuz as father those fellows that the king feeds must all be spies and know all about everybody's business in Trezza and everywhere else and old Uncle Santoro blind as he is blinking like a bat in the sunshine at the tavern door knows everything that goes on in the place and could call us by name one after another only by the footsteps Maruzza hearing the bell strike went into the house quickly to spread the cloth on the table the gossips little by little had disappeared and as the village went to sleep the sea became audible once more at the foot of the little street and every now and then it gave a great sigh like a sleepless man turning on his bed only down by the tavern where the red light shone the noise continued and the Rocco spartu who made fester every day in the week was heard shouting "'Cos'n Rocco is in good spirits tonight,' said Alpheo Mosco from his window which looked quite dark and deserted "'Oh, there you are,' Cos'n Alpheo replied Menna who had remained on the landing waiting for her grandfather "'Yes, here I am, Cos'n Menna I am here eating my menestra because when I see you all at table with your light I don't lose my appetite for loneliness "'Are you not in good spirits?' "'Ah, one wants so many things to put one in good spirits.'" Menna did not answer and after a little Cos'n Alpheo added "'Tomorrow I'm going to town for a load of salt.'" "'Are you going for all souls?' asked Menna "'Heaven knows this year my poor little nuts are all bad.'" "'Cos'n Alpheo goes to the city to look for a wife,' said Nunciata from the door opposite. "'Is that true?' asked Menna "'Hey, Cos'n Menna if I had to look for one I could find girls to my mind without leaving home.'" "'Look at those stars,' said Menna after a silence. "'They say they are the souls loosed from purgatory going into paradise.'" "'Listen,' said Alpheo after having also taken a look at the stars. "'You, who are Sant'Agata, if you dream of a good number in the lottery, tell it to me and I'll pawn my shirt to put in for it, and then, you know, I can begin to think about taking a wife.'" "'Good night,' said Menna. The stars twinkled faster than ever. The three kings shone out over the farilioni with their arms out obliquely like Saint Andrew. The sea moved at the foot of the street softly, softly, and at long intervals was heard the rumbling of some cart passing in the dark, grinding on the stones and going out into the wide world. So wide, so wide, that if one could walk forever one couldn't get to the end of it. And there were people going up and down in this wide world that knew nothing of Cosnalpheo, nor of the Providenza out to sea, nor of the Festa of all souls. So thought Menna waiting on the landing for Gran Papa. Gran Papa himself came out once or twice on the landing before closing the door, looking at the stars which twinkled more than their need have done, and then muttered, "'Ogly sea!' Rocco Spattu howled a tipsy song under the red light at the tavern. A careless heart can always sing,' concluded Padron Antoni. End of chapter 2 Recording by Tom Denham Chapter 3 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 After midnight the wind began to howl as if all the cats in the place had been on the roof and to shake the shutters. The sea roared round the farilioni as if all the bows of the fair of St. Alfio had been there, and the day opened as black as the soul of Judas. In short an ugly September Sunday dawned a Sunday in false September which lets loose a tempest on one between the cup and the lip like a shot from behind a prickly pear. The village boats were all drawn up on the peach and well fastened to the great stones under the washing-tank so the boys amused themselves by hissing and howling whenever they're passed by some lonely sail far out at sea, tossed amid mist and foam dancing up and down as if chased by the devil. The women instead made the sign of the cross as if they could see with their eyes the poor fellows who were on board. Maruzza La Longa was silent as behoved her but she could not stand still a minute and went up and down and in and out without stopping like a hen that is going to lay an egg. The men were at the tavern or in Pizzotti's shop or under the butcher's shed watching the rain sniffing the air with their heads up. On the shore there was only Padron Antoni looking out for that load of lupins at his son Bastionazzo and the Providenza all out at sea there and there was La Locca's son too who had nothing to lose only his brother Menico was out at sea with Bastionazzo in the Providenza with the lupins. Padron Fortunato Cipolla getting shaved in Pizzotti's shop said that he wouldn't give too Bayocchi for Bastionazzo and La Locca's Menico with the Providenza and the load of lupins. Now everybody wants to be a merchant and to get rich said he shrugging his shoulders and then when the steed is stolen they shut the stable door. In Santuzza's bar room there was a crowd that big drunken rock spattu shouting and spitting enough for a dozen Daddy Tino Gusfoot Mastrocola Zupidu Uncle Manja Karubi Don Micaely the Brigadier of the Coast Guard with his big boots and his pistols as if he were going to look for smugglers in this sort of weather and Mastro Mariano Cincalenta that great big elephant of a man Mastrocola Zupidu without giving people thumps in fun heavy enough to knock down an ox as if he had his corkers mallet in his hand all the time and then Uncle Cincalenta to show that he was a carrier and a courageous man who knew the world turned round upon him swearing and blaspheming. Uncle Santoro curled all up in the corner of the little porch waited with outstretched hand until someone should pass that he might ask for arms. Between the two father and daughter they must make a good sum on such a day as this said Zupidu when everybody comes to the tavern Bastionato Malavolia is worse off than he is at this moment said Gusfoot Mastro Cirino may ring the bell as much as he likes today the Malavolia won't go to church they are angry with our lord because of that load of lupins they've got out at sea the wind swept about the petticoats and the dry leaves so that Vani Pizzotti with the razor in his hand held on to the nose of the man he was shaving and looked out over his shoulder to see what was going on and when he had finished stood with hand on hip in the doorway with his curly hair shining like silk and the druggist stood at his shop door under that big ugly heart of his that looked as if he had an umbrella on his head pretending to have high words with Don Silvestro the town clerk because his wife didn't force him to go to church in spite of himself and laughed under his beard at the joke winking at the boys who were tumbling in the gutters today Daddy Gusfoot went about saying Don and Donny is a protestant like Don Franco the apothecary if I see you looking after that old wretch Don Silvestro our box your ears right here where we are shouted la Zoupida crossing the piazza to her girl that one I don't like La Santuzza at the last stroke of the bell left her father to take care of the tavern into church with her customers behind her Uncle Santoro to her old fellow was blind and didn't go to the mass but he didn't lose his time at the tavern for though he couldn't see who went to the bar he knew them all by the step as one or other went to take a drink the devils are out on the air said Santuzza as she crossed herself with the holy water a day to commit a mortal sin close by La Zoupida muttered Ave Maria's mechanically sitting on her heels shooting sharp glances hither and thither as if she were on evil terms with the whole village whispering to whoever would listen to her there's Maruzal along that doesn't come to church and yet her husband is out at sea in this horrid weather there's no need to wonder what's on us there's even Menico's mother comes to church though she doesn't do anything there but watch the flies one must pray also for sinners said Santuzza that is what good people are for Uncle Crucifix was kneeling at the foot of the altar of the sorrowing mother of God with a very big rosary in his hand and intoned his prayers with a nasal twang which would have touched the heart himself between one Ave Maria and another he talked of the affair of the Lupins and of the Providenza which was out at sea and of La Longa who would be left with five children in these days said Padron Chipola shrugging his shoulders no one is content with his own estate everybody wants the moon and stars for himself the fact is, concluded Daddy Zuppidu that this will be a black day for the malevolia for my part I did goosefoot I shouldn't care to be in Cousin Bacianat so sure the evening came on chill and sad now and then there came a blast of north wind bringing a shower of fine cold rain it was one of those evenings when if the bark lies high and safe with her belly in the sand one enjoys watching the simmering pot with the baby between one's knees and listening to the housewife trotting to and fro behind one's back the lazy ones preferred going to the tavern to enjoy the Sunday which seemed likely to last over Monday as well and the cupboard shone in the firelight until even Uncle Santoro sitting out there with his extended hand moved his chair to warm his back a little he's better off than poor old Bacianat so just now said Rocco Spatu lighting his pipe at the door and without further reflection he put his hand in his pocket and permitted himself to give two centimes in arms you're throwing your arms away thanking God for being in safety from the storm there's no danger of your dying like Bacianatso everybody laughed at the joke and then they all stood looking out at the sea that was as black as the wet rocks Padron and Tony had been going about all day as if he had been bitten by the tarantula and the apothecary asked him if he wanted a tonic and then he said fine providence this they say Padron and Tony but he was a Protestant and a Jew all the world knew that La Loca's son who was out there with his hands and his empty pockets began Uncle Crucifix is gone with all goose-foot to get Padron and Tony to swear before witnesses that he took the cargo of Lupins on credit at dusk Moroza with her little ones went out on the cliffs to watch the sea which from that point could be seen quite well and hearing the moaning waves she felt faint and sick but said nothing the little girl cried and these poor things forgotten up there on the rocks seemed like souls in purgatory the little ones' cries made the mother quite sick it seemed like an evil omen she couldn't think what to do to keep the child quiet and she sang to her song after song with a trembling voice loaded with tears the men, on their way back from the tavern with pot of oil or flask of wine stopped to exchange a few words with La Longa as if nothing had happened and some of Bastionato's special friends Chipola for example or Manja Karube walking out to the edge of the cliff and giving a look out to see in what sort of a temper the old growler was going to sleep in went up to cousin Moroza asking about her husband and staying a few minutes to keep her company pipe in mouth or talking softly among themselves the poor little woman frightened by these unusual attentions looked at them with sad, scared eyes and held her baby tight in her arms as if they had tried to steal it from her at last the hardest or the most compassionate of them took her by the arm and led her home she let herself be led only saying over and over again oh, blessed virgin oh, blessed virgin Mary the children clung to her skirts as if they had been afraid somebody was going to steal something from them too when they passed before the tavern all the customers stopped talking and came to the door in a cloud of smoke gazing at her as if she were already a curiosity requiem eternum mumbled old Santoro under his breath that poor Bastionato always gave me something when his father let him have a soldo to spend for himself the poor little thing who did not even know she was a widow went on crying oh, blessed virgin oh, blessed virgin oh, virgin Mary before the steps of her house the neighbors were waiting for her talking among themselves in a low voice when they saw her coming Mammy Goosefoot and her cousin Anna came towards her silently with folded hands then she wound her hands wildly in her hair and with a distracted screech rushed to hide herself in the house what a misfortune they said among themselves in the street and the boat was loaded forty scuddy worth of lupins End of Chapter 3 Recording by Tom Denham Chapter 4 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 the worst part of it was that the lupins had been bought on credit and Uncle Crucifix was not content with fair words and rotten apples he was called Dumbbell because he was deaf on one side and turned that side when people wanted to pay him with talk saying the payment can be arranged he lived by lending to his friends having no other trade for this reason he stood about all day in the piazza or with his back to the wall of the church with his hands in the pockets of that ragged old jacket that nobody would have given him a soul though for but he had as much money as he wanted and if anyone wanted ten francs he was ready to lend them right off, on pledge of course he who lends money without security loses his friends with the bargain that they should be paid back on Sunday in silver with the account signed and a car li no more for interest as was but right for in affairs there's no friendship that counts he also bought a whole cargo of fish in the lump with discount if the poor fellow who had taken the fish wanted his money down but they must be weighed with his scales that were as false as Judas's so they said to be sure such fellows were never contented and had one arm long and the other short like Saint Francesco and he would advance the money for the port tax as if they wanted it and only took the money beforehand and half a pound of bread per head and a little quarter flask of wine and wanted no more for he was a Christian and he knows who knew that for what one does in this world one must answer to God in short he was a real providence for all who were in tight places and had invented a hundred ways of being useful to his neighbors and without being a seaman he had boats and tackle and everything for such as hadn't them and lent them contenting himself with the third of the fish and something for the boat that counted as much as the wages of a man and something more for the tackle for he lent the tackle too and the end was that the boat ate up all the profits so that they called it the devil's boat and when they asked him why he didn't go to sea too and risk his own skin instead of swallowing everything at other people's expense he would say, Bravo! and if an accident happened and if I lost my life who would attend my business he did attend to his business and would have hired out his very shirt but he wanted to be paid without so much talk and there was no use arguing with him because he was deaf and more than that wasn't quite right in his head and couldn't say anything but bargaining's no cheating or the honest man is known now his enemies were laughing in their sleeves at him on account of those blessed lupins that the devil had swallowed and he must say a day profundis for bastionats or two when the funeral ceremony took place along with the other brothers of the happy death with the bag over his head the windows of the little church flashed in the sunshine and the sea was smooth and still so that it no longer seemed the same that had robbed Laronga of her husband wherefore the brothers were rather in a hurry wanting to get away each to his own work now that the weather had cleared up this time the Malavolia were all there on their knees before the beer washing the pavement with their tears as if the dead man had been really there inside those four boards with the lupins round his neck that Uncle Crucifix had given him on credit because he had always known Padran and Tony for an honest man but if they meant to cheat him out of his goods on the pretext that bastionats or was drowned they might as well cheat our Lord Christ by the holy devil himself he would put Padran and Tony in the hulks for it there was law even atrezza meanwhile Don Giamaria flung two or three aspergers of holy water on the beer and Mastro Cirino went round with an extinguisher putting out the candles the brothers strode over the benches with arms over their heads pulling off their habits and Uncle Crucifix went and gave a pinch of snuff to Padran and Tony by the way of consolation for after all when one is an honest man he would name behind one and wins paradise and this is what he had said to those who asked him about his lupins with the malevolia I'm safe for they are honest people and don't mean to leave poor bastionats or in the claws of the devil Padran and Tony might see for himself that everything had been done without skimping in honour of the dead so much for the mass so much for the tapers so much for the requiem he counted it all off on his big fingers in their white cotton gloves and the children looked with open mouths at all these things which cost so much and were for papa the catephal the tapers the paper flowers and the baby seeing the lights and hearing the organ began to laugh and to dance the house by the medlar was full of people sad is the house where there is the visit for the husband everybody passing and seeing the poor little orphan malevolia at the door with dirty faces and hands in their pockets shook their heads saying poor cousin Marutza now her hard times are beginning the neighbours brought things as the custom is macaroni eggs, wine all the gifts of God that one could only finish if one was really happy and cousin Alfio Mosca came with a chicken in his hands take this cousin Mena he said I only wish I had been in your father's place I swear it at least I should not have been missed and there would have been none to mourn for me Mena leaning against the kitchen door with her apron over her face felt her heart beat as if it would fly out of her breast like that of the poor frightened bird she held in her hand the dowry of Santa Agata had gone down down in the Providenza and the people who came to make the visit of condolence in the house by the medlar looked round at the things as if they saw Uncle Crucifix's claws already grasping at them some sat perched on chairs and went off without having spoken a word like regular stock fish as they were but whoever had a tongue in their heads tried to keep up some sort of conversation to drive away melancholy and to rouse those poor Malavolia who went on crying all day long like four fountains Uncle Chipol now related how there was a rise of a franc to a barrel in the price of anchovies which might interest Padron and Tony if he still had any anchovies on hand he himself had reserved a hundred barrels which now came in very well and he talked of poor Cousin Bastianato too rest his soul how no one could have expected it a man like that in the prime of life had positively bursting with health and strength poor fellow there was the syndico too master Croce Calta silkworm called also Juffa with Don Silvestro the town clerk and he stood sniffing with nose in the air so that people said he was waiting for the wind to see what way to turn looking now at one who was speaking now at another as if he were watching the leaves in the wind in real earnest and if he spoke he mumbled so no one could hear him and if Don Silvestro laughed he laughed too no funeral without laughter no marriage without tears the drugist's wife twisted about on her chair with disgust at the trifling conversation sitting with her hands in her lap and a long face as is the custom in town under such circumstances so that people became dumb at the sight of her as if the corpse itself had been sitting there and for this reason she was called the lady Don Silvestro strutted about among the women and started forward every minute to offer a chair to some newcomer that he might hear his new boots creak they ought to be burned alive those tax-gatherers muttered la zoopida yellow was a lemon and she said it aloud too right in the face of Don Silvestro just as if he had been one of the tax-gatherers she knew very well what they were after these bookworms with their shiny boots without stockings they were always trying to slip into people's houses to carry off the dowry and the daughters tis not you I want my dear tis your money for that she had left her daughter Barbara at home those faces I don't like it's a beastly shame cried Donna Rosolina the priest's sister read as a turkey fanning herself with her handkerchief and she railed at Garibaldi who had brought in the taxes and nowadays nobody could live and nobody got married any more as if that mattered to Donna Rosolina now murmured goose-foot Donna Rosolina meanwhile went on talking to Don Silvestro of the lot of work she had on her hands thirty yards of warp on the loom the beans to dry for winter all the tomato preserved to be made she had a secret for making it so that it kept fresh all winter she always got the spices from town on purpose and used the best quality of salt a house without a woman never goes on well but the woman must have brains and know how to use her hands as she did not one of those little geese that think of nothing but brushing their hair before the glass long hair, little wit says the proverb especially when the husband like poor bastionato rest his soul blessed that he is side Santuza he died on a fortunate day a day blessed by the church the eve of our lady of sorrows now he's praying for our sinners like the angels and the saints whom the lord loveth he chasteneth he was a good man one of those who mined their own business and don't go about speaking ill of their neighbours as so many do falling into mortal sin Maruzza sitting at the foot of the bed pale and limp as a wet rag looking like our lady of sorrows herself began to cry louder than ever at this and Padron Antoni bowed and stooping looking a hundred years older than he did three days before went on looking and looking at her shaking his head not knowing what to say with that big thorn bastionato sticking in his breast as if a shark had been knowing at him Santuza's lips dropped nothing but honey observed cousin Grace Goosefoot to be a good tavern keeper said La Zuppida one must be like that who doesn't know his trade must shut his shop and who can't swim must be drowned they're going to put a tax on salt said Uncle Mangiacarube Don Franco saw it in the paper in print then they can't salt the anchovies anymore and we may just use our boats for firewood Master Turi the corker was lifting up his fist and his voice he applauded he began but caught sight of his wife and stopped short with the dear times that are coming added Padron Cipolla this year when it hasn't rained since St. Clair and if it wasn't for this last storm when the Providenza was lost that was a real blessing the famine this year would be solid enough to cut with a knife each one talked of his own trouble and show them that they were not the only ones that had trouble troubles old and new some have had many and some have few and such a stood outside in the garden looked up at the sky to see if there was any chance of more rain that was needed more than bread was Padron Cipolla knew why it hadn't rained any longer as it used to do it rained no longer on account of that cursed telegraph wire that drew all the rain to itself and carried it off Taditino and Uncle Manjacarubia this stood staring with open mouths for there was precisely on the road to Tretza one of those very telegraph wires but Don Silvestro began to laugh with his hen's cackle and Padron Cipolla jumped up from the wall in a fury and railed at ill-mannered brutes with ears as long as an asses didn't everybody know that the telegraph carried the news from one place to another this was because inside the wires there was a certain fluid like the sap in the vines and in the same way it sucked the rain out of the sky and carried it off where there was more need of it they might go and ask the apothecary to carry it himself and it was for this reason that they had made a law that whoever broke the telegraph wire should go to prison then Don Silvestro had no more to say and put his tongue between his teeth saints of paradise someone ought to cut down those telegraph posts and burn them began Uncle Zupidu but no one listened to him and to change the subject looked round the garden a nice piece of ground said Uncle Manjakarubi when it is well worked it gives food enough for a whole year the house of the Malavolia had always been one of the first in Tretza but now with bastionato drowned Tony gone for a soldier and men are to be married and all those hungry little ones it was a house that leaked at every seam in fact what could it be worth the house everyone stretched out his neck from the garden measuring the house with his eye to guess at the value of it cursorily as it were Don Silvestro knew more about it than anyone for he had the papers safe in the Clark's room at Achi Castello we'll bet you five francs that all is not gold that glitters he said showing the shining new silver piece of money he knew that there was a mortgage of two francs the year so he began to count on his fingers what would be the worth of the house with the well and the garden and all neither the house nor the boat can be sold for their security for Marutsas dowry and they began to wrangle about it until their voices might have been heard even inside where the family were mourning for the dead of course cried Don Silvestro like a pistol shot there's the dowry mortgage Padron Chipola who had spoken with Padron Antonio about the marriage of his son Brasi and Mena shook his head and said nothing then said Uncle Cola nobody'll suffer but Uncle Crucifix who loses his lupins that he sold on credit they all turned to look at old Crucifix who had come too for appearance's sake and stood straight up in a corner listening to all that was said with his mouth open and his nose up in the air as if he was counting the beams and the tiles of the roof to make evaluation of the house the most curious stretched their necks to look at him from the door and winked at each other as if to point him out he looks like a bailiff making an inventory they sneered the gossips who had got wind of the talk between Chipola and Padron Antonio about the marriage said to each other that Marutsa must get through her mourning and then she could settle about that marriage of Menas all along I had other things to think of poor dear Padron Chipola turned coolly away without a word and when everybody was gone the Malavolia were left alone in the court now said Padron Antonio we are ruined and the best off of us all is Bastionazzo who doesn't know it at these words Marutsa cried afresh and the boys seeing the grown up people cry began to roar again too though it was three days now since papa was dead the old man wondered about from place to place without knowing what he was going to do but Marutsa never moved from the foot of the bed as if she had nothing left that she could do when she spoke with fixed eyes as if she had no other idea in her head now I've nothing more to do no replied Padron Antonio no we must pay the debt to old Dumbbell it won't do to have people saying honest men when they grow poor become naves and the thought of the Lupins drove the thorn of Bastionazzo deeper into his heart the medlar tree let fall dry leaves and the wind blew them here and there about the court he went because I sent him repeated Padron Antonio as the wind bears the leaves here and there and if I had told him to fling himself head foremost from the Farellione without a word at least he died while the house and the medlar tree even to the last leaf were his own and I who am old I'm still here long are the days of the poor man Marutsa said nothing but in her head there was one fixed idea that beat upon her brains and gnawed at her heart to know if she might what happened on that night that was always before her eyes and if she shut them she seemed to see the providenza out by the cape of the mills where the seam was blue and smooth and sprinkled with boats which looked like gulls in the sunshine and could be counted one by one that of Uncle Crucifix the other of cousin Barabbas Uncle Colas Conchetta Padron Fortunato's bark that it swung her head to see and she heard Colas Zoupidou singing fit to split his throat out of his great bull's lungs while he hammered away with his mallet and the scent of the tar came on the air and cousin Anna thumped her linen on the stone at the washing-tank and she heard men are too crying quietly in the kitchen Poor little thing said the grandfather to himself the house has come down about your ears too and he went about touching one by one all the things that were heaped up in the corner with trembling hands as old men do and seeing Luka at the door on whom they had put his father's big jacket that reached to his heels he said to him that'll keep you warm at your work we must all work now and you must help for we have to pay the debt for the lupins Marutza put her hands to her ears that she might not hear the Loka who perched on the landing behind the door screamed all day long with her cracked maniac's voice saying that they must give her back her son and wouldn't listen to reason from anybody she goes on like that said cousin Anna at last now old crucifixes furious at them all about the lupins and won't do anything for them I'll go and give her something to eat and then she'll go away cousin Anna poor dear had left her linen at her girls to go and help cousin Marutza who acted as if she was sick and if they had left her alone she wouldn't have lighted the fire or anything but would have left them all to starve neighbors should be like the tiles on the roof that carry water for each other meanwhile the poor children's lips were pale for hunger Nunziata came to help too and Alessio with his face black from crying at seeing his mother cry looked after the little boys crowding round him like a brood of chickens that Nunziata might have her hands free you know how to manage said cousin Anna to her and you'll have your dowry ready in your two hands when you grow up End of chapter 4 Recording by Tom Denham