Three more daughters were born to Umbertina and Serafino in Cato. In the old-country way of name giving, Pina and Anna had been named for deceased grandparents. But when Margherita was born, she was named for no one but Umbertina’s memory of the arrival of daisies, le margherite, the day Rocco died. She was followed by Sara and finally Carla. The last girl was born shortly after Beppino arrived in Cato, bringing Umbertina word of their father’s passing as well as other news.

“Do you remember Giosuè, the charcoal burner from Carlopoli?” he asked, fixing his sister with an ironic smile. Umbertina was now forty, a woman thickened by childbearing and unconcerned with style. But a flush came to her cheeks at Beppino’s words and the image of the tin heart passed through her mind; yes, she remembered Giosuè.

“He is doing well,” Beppino reported. “He inherited a house and land in Castagna and has moved there.”

Umbertina nodded curtly at Beppino. So what does this cretino mean when he gives me such news? she thought. That my life is not set into its own pattern? That I should have regrets? Disgraziato, she muttered silently to this brother of hers who brought the shadows of old rancors into the peacefulness of her life. There was more.

His presence, made commanding by the thick black handlebar mustache that caused the children to call him Zio Moustacchio, reminded them all that she hadn’t let Serafino send the passage money for him years before, and that the two of them had never gotten along anyway. No matter. He was taken into their large new home and given a room. He was still unmarried and they were his family. But it galled Umbertina that he had learned to read and write in Canada, where he first immigrated. “Thank God I’ve got a head on my shoulders and don’t need to scratch marks on paper to remember things,” she’d mutter. But secretly she envied Beppino and disliked him all the more for his being able to go among the americani as she could not without a son or daughter.

The reason for his arrival among them soon came out. Beppino was now thirty-eight. He had saved money working in Canada and it was time for him to marry. A man went home to marry, to be sure of getting a woman from his own area, and since Cato was the place where many castagnesi had settled, one calling another until there were almost as many in Cato as back in Castagna, Beppino was there to find a bride.