You’re the head of the household now. Remember that you have others dependent on you, and do as I have done.’

The women began to cry, with their hands in their hair, hearing such talk, even little Lia, since women have no judgement in such circumstances, and they didn’t notice that the poor man was becoming distressed at seeing them despair, as if he were about to die. But he continued weakly:

‘Don’t spend too much on the funeral when I’m gone. The Lord knows we can’t afford much, and he’ll be satisfied with the rosary that Maruzza and Mena will say for me. You, Mena, always do as your mother has done, for she has been a good woman, and she too has seen her share of troubles; and keep your sister under your wing, as the hen does with her chicks. As long as you help one another, things won’t seem so bad. Now ’Ntoni is a grown man, and soon Alessi will be able to help you, too.’

‘Don’t talk like that,’ the weeping women begged, as though he were dying of his own free will. ‘For pity’s sake don’t talk like that.’ He shook his head sadly, and answered:

‘Now that I’ve said what I wanted to say, my mind is at rest. I’m old. When the oil runs out, the light fades. I’m tired.’

Later he called ’Ntoni again, and said to him:

‘Don’t sell the Provvidenza, old though she is, or you’ll be forced to do day labouring, and you can’t imagine how hard that is, when padron Cipolla and zio Cola say they don’t need anyone for Monday. And the other thing I wanted to say to you, ’Ntoni, is that when you’ve put a few pennies aside the first thing you must do is marry off Mena, and give her a man from the trade her father plied, but a good fellow; and I also wanted to tell you that when you’ve married off Lia, too, if you have any savings, put them aside and buy back the house by the medlar tree. Zio Crocifisso will sell it to you, if he makes a profit, because it has always belonged to the Malavoglia, and your father went from there to die, and Luca too, God bless his soul.’

‘Yes, grandfather, yes,’ promised ’Ntoni weeping. Alessi was listening too, as solemn as though he were a grown man.

The women thought that the sick man was delirious, hearing him talking on like that, and put moistened cloths on his forehead.

‘No,’ said padron ’Ntoni, ‘I’m not delirious. I want to say everything I have to tell you before I go.’

Meanwhile you could hear the fishermen beginning to call one another from one doorway to the next, and the carts started trundling down the road again.

‘In two hours it will be day,’ added padron ’Ntoni, ‘and you can go and call don Giammaria.’

Those poor folk waited for day as you wait for the Messiah, and kept going to the window to see if dawn were breaking. At last the little room began to whiten and padron ’Ntoni said again:

‘Now go and get the priest; I want to confess.’

Don Giammaria came when the sun was already high, and when they heard the bell ringing down the strada del Nero, the neighbourhood women came to see the viaticum being taken to the Malavoglia, and they all went in, because you cannot shut the door in people’s faces where the Lord is walking, so that those poor creatures, seeing the house so full, didn’t even dare to cry and despair, while don Giammaria was muttering away, and mastro Cirino was putting the candle under the sick man’s nose, so stiff and yellow he looked like a candle himself.

‘He looks like the patriarch St. Joseph in person, laid out on that bed with that long beard. Lucky him,’ exclaimed Santuzza, who had set down jugs and all, and always went where she felt the presence of the Lord.

‘Like a crow,’ as the chemist said.

Don Ciccio arrived while the parish priest was still there with the holy oil, and indeed he almost turned his donkey’s head and went off again.

‘Who said there was any need for the priest? Who asked for the viaticum? It’s for us doctors to say when it’s time for that; and I’m surprised at the priest coming without the certificate. Now listen here: there’s no need for any viaticum. He’s better, I tell you!’

‘It’s a miracle worked by our Lady of Sorrows,’ exclaimed la Longa; ‘the Virgin has given us a miracle, because the Lord has visited this house once too often!’ ‘Ah blessed Virgin,’ exclaimed Mena with her hands clasped. ‘Ah holy Virgin, you have shown us mercy.’ And everyone wept with relief, as though the sick man were in a state to step straight back on to the Provvidenza.

Don Ciccio went off grumbling:

‘That’s all the thanks I get. If they survive, it’s the Virgin’s doing; if they croak, it’s my fault!’

The neighbourhood women were waiting at the door to see the dead man pass, because they had been thought to be coming to get him from one moment to the next.

‘Poor thing,’ they muttered too. ‘That man has a tough hide; he’s got nine lives, like a cat. You listen to what I’m telling you,’ said Zuppidda hectoringly. ‘I tell you, he’ll outlive us all.’ The women made as if to touch wood. ‘I’m protected by being a Daughter of Mary,’ and la Vespa even kissed the medal on her scapular. ‘Fee fie foe fum, thunder in the air means sulphurous wine,’ Zuppidda added.

‘At least you have no children to marry off, as I have, which means I would cause serious problems if I were to go under the sod.’ The others laughed, because la Vespa had only herself to marry off, and she couldn’t manage even to do that.

‘As far as that’s concerned, padron ’Ntoni would cause the most problems of all, because he’s the pillar of the household,’ replied cousin Anna.

‘That nincompoop ’Ntoni isn’t a child any longer.’ But they all shrugged. ‘If the old man dies, you’ll see how that household will crumble.’

At this point Nunziata came running up, with her pitcher on her head.

‘Make way, they’re waiting for water at comare Maruzza’s. And if my children start to play around, they’ll leave everything all over the road.’

Lia had taken up a position in the doorway, all proud and saying to the neighbours:

‘Grandfather is better, don Ciccio says he’s not going to die quite yet,’ and she could hardly believe her luck when the women stood there listening to her as though she were a grown women. Alessi too came out and said to Nunziata:

‘Now that you’re here, I’ll go and have a quick look at what’s happening to the Provvidenza.’

‘That lad has more sense than his older brother,’ said cousin Anna.

‘They’ll give don Michele a medal for having thrown a rope to the Provvidenza,’ said the chemist.