For Paul was a dreamer, always reading, and filled with ambitions for himself that had nothing to do with the kind of hard work and drudgery the rest of his family engaged in. He was different in everything, not only in his attitude toward work. He could not be commanded as the others were; without ever outwardly disagreeing with or angering his mother, he managed to elude her as well as he did the others.

Things had been comfortable enough by the time he was in high school so that unlike his brothers, who had been made to leave school and start work, he was allowed to finish and even take some extra courses—not in business subjects, as Jake and Ben did, but in the arts and literature, which he passionately enjoyed. He was the exception to the family unity of hard work and cooperation. Umbertina said it was because of his health, which had been damaged when he was an infant in New York; and though she was indefatigable herself and demanded as much of others, including her daughters, Umbertina not only let Paul get away without contributing his time or his physical strength to the family enterprises, but also managed to make the others feel guilty if they questioned Paul’s privileges.

Jake, like his father, was the plodder; and like Serafino he was of an open and simple nature, his full face smiling and jovial. He was a good front-man, for he inspired trust in all his dealings; with the young he kidded around in American slang, and with the old paesani he reminisced of his early childhood in Castagna, when he remembered riding a donkey out to the fields bringing water to his father.

Ben was like his mother had been in the early days, dour and suspicious; he was keen on systems and he was the one who insisted on installing books in the business and keeping records. With Ben in charge of the office, the family was no longer allowed to help themselves from the great big handsome brass National cash register that sat like a golden idol adorned with ornate scrolls and festoons on a counter of the grocery store. Even as a young man Ben had been painstaking and pedantic; he took a night course in calligraphy to improve his penmanship and insisted that the girls do nightly practice in making circles and up-and-down strokes to prepare them for working later in the Wholesale office as secretaries. He himself was in demand to write letters back to the old country in his flowing hand, and he became secretary of finance for the Mount Carmel congregation. He was efficient, intelligent, systematic, and fair. And yet, like Umbertina, he had a streak in him that held grudges and fed on resentment—especially, in his case, toward Paul.

Still, it was as much a surprise to Ben as to the others when Serafino finally put Paul out of the house.