The House by the Medlar-Tree by Giovanni Verga

Ntoni went out to sea every blessed day, and had to row, tiring his back dreadfully. But when the sea was high, and fit to swallow them all at one gulp -- them, the _Pravvidenza_, and everything else -- that boy had a heart as brave as the sea itself -- "Malavoglia blood! " -- said his grandfather; and it was fine to see him at work in a storm, with the wind whistling through his hair, while the bark sprang over the big waves like a porpoise in the spring.

The _Provvidenza_ often ventured out into blue water, old and patched though she was, after that little handful of fish which was hard to find, now that the sea was swept from side to side as if with brooms. Even on those dark days when the clouds hung low over Agnone, and the horizon to the east was full of black shadows, the sail of the Provvidenza might be seen like a white handkerchief against the leaden-colored sea, and everybody said that Padron 'Ntoni's people went out to look for trouble, like the old woman with a lamp.