The House by the Medlar-Tree

tent with “fair words and rotten apples.” He was called Dumb-bell because he was deaf on one side,

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 taxes 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 one of those who knew that for what one does in this world one must answer to God. In short, he was a real Prov-idence for all who were in tight places, and had invented a hundred ways of being useful to his neigh-bors; and without being a seaman, he had boats and tackle and everything for such as hadn’t them, and lent them, contenting himself with a third of the fish, and something for

he devil had swallowed; and he must say a De profundis for Bastianazzo too, when the funeral cer

cleared up. This time the Malavoglia were all there on their knees before the bier, 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 a

n honest man one leaves a good name behind one and wins Paradise, and this is what he had said to those who asked him about his lupins: “ With the Malavoglia I’m safe, for they are honest people, and don’t mean to leave poor Bastianazzo in the claws of the devil. Padron ‘Ntoni might see for himself that everything had been done without skimping in honor of the dead s

it’ for the husband.” Everybody passing and seeing the poor little orphaned Malavoglia

za, now her hard t

s really happy and Cousin Alfio Mosca came with a chicken in his hands, “Take this, Cousin Mena,” he said, “ I only wish I’d b

x’s claws already grasping at them; some sat perched on chairs, and went off, without having spoken a word, like regular stockfish as they were; but who-ever had a tongue in their heads tried to keep up some sort of conversation to drive away melan-choly, and to rouse those poor Malavoglia, who went on crying all day long, like four fountains. Uncle Cipolla related how there was a rise of

n 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 wer

reason she was called the Lady. Don Sil-vestro strutted about among the women, and started forward every minute to offer a chair to some new-comer, that he might hear his new boots creak. “They ought to be burned alive, those tax-gather-ers!” muttered La Zuppidda, yellow as a lemon; and she said it aloud, too, right in the face of Don Silvestro, just as if h

, fanning herself with her handkerchief; and she railed at Garibaldi, who had brou

to Donna Rosolina now

, 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 s

d now he’s praying for us sinners, like the angels and the saints. ‘Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.’ He was a good man, one o

at this; and Padron ‘Ntoni, bowed and stooping, looking a hundred years older than he did three days before, went on looking and looking at

hing but honey,” ob-serve

e must be like that; who doesn’t know his trade must

Don Franco saw it in the paper in print. Then they can’t salt th

st and his voice, “ Blessed Lord “ he began, b

ined since Saint Clare, and if it wasn’t for this last storm when the Provvidenza was lost

t drew all the rain to itself and carried it off.” Daddy Tino and Uncle Man-giacarubbe at this stood staring with open mouths, for there was precisely on the road to Trezza one of those very telegraph-wires; but Don Silvestro began to laugh with his hen’s cackle, ah! ah! ah! and Padron Cipolla jumped up from the wall in a fury, and railed at “ ill-mannered brutes with ears as long as an ass’s.” Didn’t everybody know that the telegraph carried the news from

h-posts and burn them!” began Uncle Zuppiddu, but no one liste

ngia-carubbe; “ when it is well worked

w with Bastia-nazzo drowned, and ‘Ntoni gone for a soldier, and Mena to be mar

could it be wo

e, to guess at the value of it, cursorily as it were. Don Silvestro knew more abou

silver piece of money. He knew that there was a mort-gage of two francs the year, so he began to

and they began to wrangle about it until their voices might have been heard even inside, where the family wer

‘Ntoni about the marriage of his son Bras

suffer but Uncle Crucifix, who loses

hat 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 a valua

liff making an inven

iage, said to each other that Maruzza must get through her mourning, and then she could set

a word; and, when everybody was gone, th

ruined, and the best off of us all i

dead. The old man wandered about from place to place, without knowing what he was going to do. But Maruzza never moved from the foot of the bed, as if she h

n’t do to have people saying: Honest men when they grow poor become knaves.” An

eaves, and the wind blew them

fling himself head fore-most from the Fariglione, he would have done it without a word. At least he died while the house and

lls, where the sea 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 Barrabbas, Uncle Cola’s Concetta, Padron Fortunato’s bark that it swung her head to see; and she hear

hat were heaped up in the corner, with trembling hands, as old men do, and seeing Luca at the door, on whom they had put his father’s big jacket, that reac

he landing behind the door, screamed all day long with her cracked maniac’s voice, sa

ow old Crucifix is furious at them all about the lupins, and won’t do anythi

, 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 chil-dren’s lips were pale for hunger. Nunziata came

na to her, “ and you’ll have your dowry