Gracia Deledda - Reeds in the Wind

“Of course I'm happy. It had to happen that way. "

"He is a good boy. He will surely make his fortune. One should buy him a horse. But ... "

"But?"

“But you can't give him too much freedom from the start . The young people are all the same. I still remember: when someone gave me their little finger in my youth, I immediately took the whole hand. And then - you know, Miss Esther - the Pintors are an imperious family ... "

“When my nephew comes, Efix, I'll say to him as if to a guest: Sit down and pretend you're at home . Even so, he'll notice that he's just a guest. «

Efix got up and shook the shavings of the stake from his sleeves. Everything was going well, and yet he felt uneasy; he had something else on his mind, but didn't dare speak.

Slowly he followed the mistress, took off his cap in order to be able to drive the stake in better, and again waited patiently until Miss Esther came back to draw water from the well.

"Come on, give it to me!" He said, and took the bucket from her; and while he was scooping up the water, he looked steadfastly into the well so as not to have to look his mistress in the face; for he was ashamed to ask for the wages she still owed him.

“Tell me, Miss Esther - I don't see the bundles of reeds any more. Did you sell them? "

“Yes, I sold some of it to a dealer in Nuoro. We used the rest to repair the roof, and also to pay for theMason. You know, the storm stole the clapboard on the last day of Lent. "

And so he didn't press her any further. There are so many ways you can put things in order without hurting the people you love. So he went to the usury Kallina and on the way greeted the grandmother of the young lad who had stayed behind to guard the small estate. Tall and thin, with a withered face framed by a black cloth, the old woman sat on the steps in front of her weathered little house, knitting. A coral necklace hung from her long, yellow, wrinkled neck, two gold earrings glittered like shining drops of water on her ears, and it almost seemed as if she had completely forgotten to take off these jewelry from her girlhood as she grew older.

“Greetings from God, Auntie Pottoi! How are we The boy stayed on the estate, but is coming back tonight. "

“Ah - it's you , Efix! The Lord be with you. Well, who was the letter from? From young Mr. Giacinto? Receive him well when he comes. After all, he returns home to his fathers' house, is Don Zame's soul, because the souls of the old live on in the young. Just look at Grixenda, my granddaughter! She was born sixteen years ago, on Ascension Day, while her mother died. Well, look at her, isn't it like the mother's face? There she's just coming ... "

And rightly Grixenda comes up there from the river ,with a laundry basket on his head: tall, slender, the skirt pulled up over the shimmering legs, which are narrow and straight as a deer. And from a deer, she also has the oblong eyes, which gleam moistly in the pale, even face . A red ribbon presses the delicate bosom under the bodice cut out over the shirt.

"Hey - look at it, my dear Efix!" She cried, friendly and rough at the same time, put the basket on his head and rummaged through his pockets. “Oh - how nasty! I think about you all day and you haven't brought me anything - not even an almond. "

Efix let her go and enjoyed her grace. But the old woman with the rigid face and the glass eyes said gently:

"The good Don Zame blissfully returns."

Suddenly Grixenda froze, and her pretty face and beautiful eyes were now almost like those of her grandmother.

"Don Zame returns?"

"Oh, enough with this nonsense," said Efix, and put the basket at the girl's feet; but this one listened as if spellbound to the words of the ancients, and he too believed, as he walked further down the street, to see the past looming from every corner of the wall. Back there on the stone bench in front of Milese's gray house sits a fat man in a velvet jacket, the light brown of which clearly highlights the red face and black beard.

Isn't that Don Zame? How he throws himself in his chest, thumbs in his vest pockets, the othersred fingers cramped around the gold watch chain! He sits there all day to watch and mock passers-by. For fear of his evil tongue, some people take a different path, including Efix, to reach the usury's house unnoticed.

A hedge of figs surrounded Aunt Kallina's courtyard like a mighty wall. She sat by the distaff: small, with bare feet in embroidered felt shoes, with an ash-gray face and golden eyes of birds of prey that sparkled in the shadow of the pulled-back headscarf.

“Oh, dear Efix! How are you? What are your ladies doing And what brings you to me Come on, take a seat, take a breather! "

Sleepy hens scratching their plumage, lively cats chasing after a couple of pink pigs, white and blue-gray pigeons, a tethered donkey and the swallows in the air gave the courtyard something of a Noah's ark. The little house snuggled up against the old, newly repaired house of Milese, which probably had a new roof, but whose walls had crumbled here and there as if under the claws of time, which did not want its prey stolen with impunity.

"The estate?" Said Efix, who leaned against the wall next to the old woman. “It blooms and thrives. This year we will have more almonds than leaves. And then I'll pay you everything, Kallina. Don't worry ... "

She furrowed her browbones and followed the thread of her loin with her eyes.

“Look, I didn't even think of that! If everyone were like you, the seven thalers you owe me would be a hundred in no time. "

Let the cuckoo get you! D eight Efix. For Christmas you lent me four talers, and now it's seven!

"Well, Kallina," he added softly, and bowed his head as if he were talking to the little pigs who were obtrusively sniffing his feet, "give me another thaler. Then there will be eight in total, and in July I will pay you back, as much as the sun is shining, in pennies ... "

The usurer gave him no answer; but she looked him over from head to toe and clenched her fist defensively against him.

Efix winced and grabbed her wrist while the pigs fled from the cats and the chickens fluttered excitedly at the noise.

“Hell, Kallina! If there weren't such owls in the world like me, you could quit your usury and go fishing for leeches. «

“Better to catch leeches than let yourself be sucked out by a drip like you are! Yes, you fool, I'll lend you the taler. Ten or a hundred if you want. I also lend them to other, more respected people than you, your mistresses for example. But I will always curse you as long as you remain such a fool - within other words until your death. Wait, I'll get the money now ... "

And she went into the house and got five silver lire.

Efix went away with the tinkling coins in his fist, while the old woman waved mockingly after him.

"Greet your ladies and say I wish them everlasting youth."

But he was willing to bear all the ridicule in order to look neat and clean when young Mr. Giacinto arrived. He wanted to buy a new hat in his honor, so he went down to Milese's shop and even came over to greet the man who was sitting on the bench. It was Don Predu, the rich relative of his mistresses.

Don Predu only paid a contemptuous nod of his head, but pricked up his ears curiously to hear what the servant was buying.

“I want a pointed hat, Antonio. But it has to be long and not full of moth holes. "

"I didn't take her out of your ladies' house," replied Milese, who was notorious for his sharp tongue. And Don Predu cleared his throat outside as a token of approval, while the merchant climbed a small ladder.

"Everything ages and everything can be renewed - like the year," replied Efix, who followed the emaciated figure of Mileses with his eyes, who was still wearing a goatskin vest according to the old custom.