The House by the Medlar-Tree

cifix were hatching together. On Easter Day Pa-clron ‘Ntoni took out the hundred lire which we

it all her

a hundred lire. But ‘better half a loaf than no bread,’ and ‘paying on account is

w I have nothing more to do with it

it to you, whenever I see you. Cousin Tino won’t say n

ng the money through his fingers. “Go to him yourself and ask

nd after his usual fashion, vowing that he had not bread t

Lord God, “ if you don’t give me at least until Saint Gio-vanni, now that I have to marry my

an manage. Cursed be the day and the hour in which I mixed myself up

ime, but I had to beg him as if I had been praying to God,” and the poor old fellow still trem-bled. But he w

usin Grace, his wife, who went on talking with Cousin Maruzza just as if her husband had nothing on his mind. ‘Ntoni went every evening to have a chat with Barbara, and had confided to her that his grandfather had said, “First we must marry Mena.” “ And I come next,” concluded ‘Ntoni. After this Barbara had given to Mena the pot of basil, all adorned with carnations, and tied up with a fine red ribbon, which was the sign of particular friendship between girls; and ev-erybody made a great deal of Sant’Agata

Cousin Alfio, black and twisted awry, was always shut, an

place.” Meanwhile they had made a new gown for Sant’- Agata, and were only waiting until Saint John’s Day to take the silver dagger ou

is new clothes on; and soon after it was known all over the place that on that Sunday coming Cousin Grace Goosefoot was going herself to part the girl’s hair, and to take out the silver dagger from her braids because Brasi

p with Mena, so much so that she had made up a new jacket for Barbara in a hurry, not expecting such an affront. ‘Ntoni prayed and beg-ged in vain that they would not take it up like that, but pass i

owe her husband. Now they are hand and glove with old Tino since Padron Cipolla made him make it up with Padron ‘Ntoni’s ‘Ntoni after that affair of the fight. They would lick

‘Ntoni, who had come to take her home with him, had to go off alone, quite chap-fallen, looking as if his new coat were too big for him. Mother and daughter stood looking out of the court, where they were p

ve heard a cannonade. Goosefoot went on talking nonsense to the women, and made them laugh as if he had been tickling them; while all the time the lawyer was getting ready the papers, although Uncle Crucifix had said that there was time enough yet to send the sum-mons. Even

l, nodding his head in assent to

your drink to your trousers, which are no

,” said Nunziata, “ but she doesn’t

n which there was still nearly a half-pint of wine, and called out: “ Here’s luck, here

users this time too,” growled Brasi, who, since his m

lready the master, because of that summons he meant to send), and called out, “To-day there’s nobody

efoot could see a group of peop

ious as if the world were coming

each other’s faces, as if they were coming to blows the next minute; while Don Gi

stro and the vicar co

r to have some-thing particular

fuss as if the man with the numbers of the lott

ews; and before Pizzuti’s shop there was a crowd as thick as if an ass had tumbled under his l

what it is,” said Goosefoot, c

get a glass of bitters. They were telling how there had been a great battle at sea, and how ships as big as all Aci Trezza, full as they could hold of soldiers, had gone down just as they were; so that their

e Re d” Italia” observed Don Silvestro, who

a Zuppiddu, “ then she’ll be sure to go to Cousin Maruzz

g about it, and was laughing and amusing

of talking, and gesticulated

r north nor south, and the guns all talk the same language. Brave fellows all, and with strong hearts under their shirts. I can tell you, when one

ut he said it was only becau

g his nose with great delib-eration. “ Would you go and get yourself ki

cks against the wall, some of them singing softly among themselves, they began talking about the story that the two soldiers on leave had been telling. Padron Fortunato had gone away early, taking

affair of his any more. Goosefoot had taken charge of

he turn, as if she expected her father-inlaw and the boys back from the sea before the usual time. Then the neighbors would ask her if she had had a letter from Luca lately, or how long it had been since he had written. In truth she had not thought about the letter, but now she could not sleep nor close her eyes the whole night, thinking always of the sea over tow-ards Trieste, where that dreadful thing had hap-pened; and she saw her son always before her, pale, immovable, with sad, shining eyes, and it seemed as if he nodded his head at her as he had clone when he left her to go for a soldier. A

house to house as if so she hoped to hear of some-thing to ease her mind. “ Did you ever see any-thing so like a cat who has lost her kitten?” asked the neighbors of each other. And Padron ‘

f the port, who would be certain to know all about it. There, after sending them from Pilate to Herod and back again, he began to turn over certain big books and run down the lists of the dead with his finger. W

the clerk, shutting up the list. “ It wa

stretched on the mother’s knees, with blue ribs and bleeding side, was her Luca’s own portrait, and in her own heart she felt the points of the Madonna’s seven sharp swords. Every evening the devotees, when they came to church f

efore long, and there would have been the thirty sous a day more to the

e looks just like an old owl. The house by the medlar is full of cracks and le

ering that now the whole family would be left on ‘Ntoni’s ha

ed ‘Ntoni, “grand-papa will l

hat her own father said to ‘Ntoni, looking about as he walked with him up the lane, “ Barbara is growi

a were once more talking of paying on account because they had not got together the whole sum, and hoped to pick it up at the olive harvest.

ve I touched. Those two hundred lire will hardly cover the expenses. You’ll see that at the time of olives they’ll put you off till Christmas, and then till Easter again. That’s the way people are ruined. But I have made my money by the sweat of my brow. Now one of them is in Paradise, the other wants to marry La

wyer, who took such a time about the

to wait,” suggested Goosefoot. “With an ounce

ir place. Such a mean thing as that he could not bear; La Zuppidda wouldn’t have thought of it if she hadn’t got that pumpkin-head of a ‘Ntoni Malavoglia behind

proved what a miser he was; and how much he was to be trusted when he promised to pay what he owed people. Padron ‘Ntoni went back to the town-clerk and to the lawyer Scipione, but

let them have the house; if not, they’ll take the Provvidenza and everything else, even to the hai

leave you the Provvi-denza^ and you’ll be able to earn your bread and will

ying to him, “ Pardon me, brother, I am more sorry than you are; it goes to my heart to turn you out of your house, but what can I do? I’m only a poor devil; I’m not

left a mark on the wall where it had stood, and the house with-out them looked strange and unlike itself. They carried their things out by night into the sexton’s cottage, which they had hired, as if everybody in the place didn’t know that now the house belonged no more to them but to Goosefoot, and that they had to move away from it. But at all events no one saw them carrying their things from one house to the other. Every time the old man pulled out a nail, or moved a cupboard from the corner where it was used to s

d her boy go off through the rain, with his trousers turned up, and then thought how the oil —skin cape had hidden him from her view. C

old man, in passing out, laid his head softly, in the dark, on the old door, which

sefoot with him, and they talked loud in the empty room

that time upon air, and had sold everythi

is shoulder. “ You know Tin only a poor devil, and can’t spare five

the mason and a lot of people, who ran about the place as if they had been in the public square, and said, “ Here must go bricks, here a new beam, here the

had belonged to Bastianazzo, he flung it out of the window into the garden, saying it was good for manure. The medlar-tree rustled soft

ss, and no one spoke to them any more, not even Padron Cipolla, who went about saying: “ Padron ‘Ntoni had no right to play me s

piddu. “ She says even the dogs in the stre

wanted Mena; she had been promised him, and he would have her, a

y hound, that you .want to fling it away w

if they killed him for it, now that they wouldn’t give him his wife, and they had taken back even his wedding-clothes. Fortunately, Mena couldn’t see him looking as he did now, for the Malavoglia always kept the door shut dow

ca-ress when she said to her, “Give me the scis-sors,” or, “Hold this skein for me”; so that the child felt it in her inmost heart, now that every one turned away from them; but the girl sang like a lark, for she was but eighteen, and at that age, if the sun do but shine, everything seems bright and the singing of the birds is in one’

ard first, and then to the others. Your grandfa-ther gives you nothing; what claim has he on you? If you marry, that means that you must set u

that my relations are on the street, am I to throw them over? How is my

“I didn’t steal my daughter. You can go on by yourselves, because you are young and strong and can work, and have your trade at your finger-ends all the more now that there are so few young men, with this devil of a conscription sweeping off

uldn’t look at him. The poor fel-low turned yellow and green and all sorts of colors, for she had caught him, like a limed sparrow, with those great black eyes of hers

n!” and tore his hair and thumped himself in the head, but couldn’t come

e, come! each to his own home!” A

u I didn’t choose

k!” replied she. “ You

e that time that his people had asked Goosefoot’s wife to dress Mena’s hair and a fine hair —dressing they’d made of

this way, I suppose you mean, ‘ I do

in the court at Cousin Venera’s, as they had taught her to do in the days when Bar-bara used to give her chestnuts and Indian figs for love of her brother ‘Ntoni, onl

d La Venera did not speak, and turned their

ce, so that Cousin Venera threatened to fling water over him one time or another; and even her

ike a dog always in front of the win-dow, and might stand in the w

e destined for those who shall eat them ‘; let’s m

usin Barbara, but I can’t. Love isn

ing. I wish you all the good in the world, but leave me t

en they took our house, and ever

may come at any minute, and it w

to go to the fountain to fill her pitcher, and she said adieu to him, walking off quickly, swaying lightly as she went; for though they were called hobble

tone over all that had been, and went back to his oar like a gal

with never a dog to be friends with one either, and for that he had had enough of such a life. He preferred rather to do nothing at all, and stay in bed, a

e matter?”

I’m a poor mi

ou are a poor miserable devil? We m

a beast of burden, and the whole day long neve

ves; or else he sat for whole hours on the church steps, with his chin in his hands, watching the peo

e was a soldier, and with the memory of which he amused himself on working-days. He only cared to lie like a lizard basking in the sun. And when the carters passed, sitting on their shafts, he muttered, “They have an easy time of it, dri

r work, my sister; after all, i

we can manage to put the money together for the house you must sell it to us and to nobody else, for it has always belonged to the Malav

se himself, and then would go off and put a new tile or a patch of lime on

’t run away, you know. Only keep an eye upon it. Every one should keep an eye upon wh

God,” replied Padron ‘Ntoni. “ For my part,

ard-working, always looking out for a wife everywhere he goes; it is the only fault he

wanted to marry

at’s all idle chatter. He wants to get hold of her ground, that’s what he wants! A pr

le talking together, broke in with, “ Vespa has Brasi Cipolla in her head just now, since his marriage w

eafness. “ That witch is the devil himself. We must tell Padron F

t witch of a niece of mine will carry off

ed to him, and wasn’t Don Michele paid to look after what belonged to honest men? Everybody laughed to see Padron Cipolla running hither and thither, panting like a dog with his tongue out, after his great lout of a son, and sa

sum-mer evenings, for Saint Francis had sent that year such a provision as never was a passage of ancho-vies such as no one could remember in any past year, enough to enrich the whole plac

ies and jostling and pushing so as no one ever saw the like. In the Malavoglia’s court the lights were burning until midnight, as if there were a festa there. The girls sang, and the neighbors

ake weight, and folding his arms; “ then she would see that we can manage for our

their hands. Goosefoot pulled him by the sleeve, sayin

ean to be tied; I know how things will go.” And he thumped on the barrels with his fist, saying to his grand-children: “ Here is your hou

er-inlaw began once more to count the money in the stocking, and the barrels ranged against the wall of the court, and made their calcu-lations as to what more was needed for the house. Maruzza knew the m

bulation, looking from time to time at Sant’Agata, who deserved, poor child, that they should talk of her, because she had neither word nor will of her own, and attended to her work, singing softly under her breath like a bird on its n

or as he passed, and for a mile away the breath of the gifts of the blessed Saint Francis floated on the breeze; there was nothing talked of but anchovies and brine, even in the drug— store, where all the affairs of all the world were discussed. Don Fr

he has always been syndic; they would be capable of saying that they didn’t want a republic because they had never seen one.” This speech he repeated to Don Silvestro on a certain occasion when they had a conversation without witnesses. That is to say, Don Franco ta