Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXXI. The Regatta
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
down in his masseria sitting on his usual stone
looking out over the sea as was his wont. I
told him I was ashamed of having raised my
hand to strike him. It was all the fault of the
parroco. I did not care a d—n about the new
sails, the old ones were good enough for me. I
meant to be off for a long cruise on the morrow,
he was to come with me and we would forget
all about it. He knew I had always disliked
his grave-digging, better hand this job over to
his brother and return to the sea. From to-day
he was promoted to become my sailor in charge
of the cutter. Gaetano had been blind drunk
twice in Calabria and nearly made us go to the
bottom, I meant to dismiss him in any case.
When we came home I made him put on the new
jersey just arrived from England with LADY
VICTORIA R.C.Y.C. in red letters over the
breast. He never took it off, he lived in it, he
died in it. When I first came across Pacciale
he was already an old man, how old he did not
know, nor did his daughters, nor did anybody
else. I had in vain tried to trace his birth in
the Official Register of the Municipio. He had
been forgotten from the very beginning. But he
shall never be forgotten by me. I shall always
remember him as the most honest, the most
clean-minded, the most guileless man I have ever
met in any land and in any station of life,
gentle as a child. His own children had told
me they had never heard him say a rash or
unkind word to their mother or to them. He was
even kind to animals, he used to take down
pocketfuls of breadcrumbs to feed the birds in
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
