Make It Happen

The poor old man coughed

ana for Mena’s dowry: then Lia will grow up. and she’ll want a dowry too. and then a bad year will throw us all back into misery. I don’t want to lead this life any longer.want to change my condition and to cnange vours.want tnat we snouia oe ncn mamma, Mena, you, Alessio, all of us’Padron Ntom opened his eyes very wide and listened, pondenng, to this discourse, which he found very hard to understand. ” Rich I” he said, ” rich I And what shall we do when we are rich.’””jwioni scratcnea nis neaa. ana Derail to wonaer himself what he should do m such a case. tm We should do what other people do,” he saidtm go and live m town, ana ao notmng. ana eat meat,”" In town I go and live in town by yourself. I choose to die where I was bornand thinking of tne nouse wnere ne was oorn. wmcn was no longer nis. ne let nis neaa arot> on ms oreast. ” ion are out a dov : vou aom mow wnat it is.” ne saia ;vou don’t know, you don t know! When you can no longer sleep in your own bed. or see the light come in through your own window, you’ll see what it is. I am old, and I know f’ as if he would suffocate, with bent shoulders, shaking his head sadly. ” His own nest every bird likes oest.’ .look at tnose swanows; ao vou see them? They have always made their nest there, and they still return to make it there, and never go awav,” .” But I am not a swallow.” said ‘Ntom. ” I am neitner a Dira nor a oeast i oomt want to nve like a dog on a chain, or like Cousin Alfio s ass, or like a mule in a mill, that goes round and round, turning the same wheel forever. I don’t want to cue ot nunger in a corner, or to oe eaten up oy sharks.’Thank God, rather, that you were born here, and prav tnat vou mav not come to cue iar irom me stones tnat vou Know.wno cnanges tne oia ior the new changes for the worse all through.’ You are afraid of work, are afraid of poverty; I. who have neither your youth nor your strength, fear them notThe good pilot is known in the storm.