Read "The House by the Medlar-Tree" by Giovanni Verga online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Padron 'Ntoni, when his grandson came home to him drunk in the evening, did his best to get him off to bed without letting him be seen by the others, because such a thing had never been known among the Malavoglia, and old as he was, it brought the tears to his eyes. When he got up by night to call Alessio to go out to sea, he let the other one sleep; for that matter, he wouldn't have been of any use if he had gone. At first 'Ntoni was ashamed of himself, and went down to the landing to meet them with bent head. But little by little he grew hardened, and said to himself, "So I shall have another Sunday to-morrow, too!"
The poor old man did everything he could think of to touch his heart, and even went so far as to take a shirt of his to Don Giammaria to be exorcised, which cost him thirty centimes.