Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [100]
Borth said: “You don’t like yourself much, do you?” Major Joppolo said: “Oh lay off, Borth, sometimes you aren’t funny.”
At 12:25 Zito came running down to the Albergo dei Pescatori to tell the Major that the bell was uncrated. “It looks nice,” he said.
The Major tried to get Borth to go up with him to look at the bell, but Borth said: “This eggplant is so good, I don’t see how I could leave it.”
So the Major went up with Zito. On the way the usher said: “Before I forget it, Mister Major, the officials are very anxious to meet with you at four o’clock. They said it was important.”
A moment of worry showed itself on the Major’s face. “Is it about the fishermen, Zito?”
Zito said: “I am the usher, Mister Major, the officials do not tell me what is on their minds. “ Then Zito seemed to think better of what he had said, and he added: “No, it is not about the fishermen.”
The Major said: “Oh, so the usher has ways of finding out what is on the officials’ minds?”
Zito just smiled.
There were quite a few people standing around watching the Engineers working on the bell. One of them was the ancient Cacopardo. Because he had spoken to the Major about the bell on the very first day of the invasion, he had appointed himself a kind of supervisor of the work, although none of the Engineers could speak Italian.
As soon as the Major came up, Cacopardo said: “I have sent for Guzzo, the bell-ringer at the Church of San Angelo. He will be able to tell just by looking at it whether it is a good bell. If it is not, you will of course have to send it back. “
The bell stood on the sidewalk just where the N avy men had put it down. The crate had been peeled down from around it.
It was bronze, and the men of the Corelli had taken the trouble to polish it, so that it was like gold in the midday sun. On one side there was this inscription:
U.S.S. CORELLI
America ed Italia.
When Cacopardo saw the Major reading the inscription, he asked: “Who is this man Corelli, and how does he happen to get his name on the bell of Adano?”
The Major said: “I will tell you later, when the bell is hung.” Then he got a little stone out of the street and tapped it against the side, but of course there was only a dead sound, since the bell was sitting on wood. “I wonder how the tone is,” the Major said.
“Guzzo will know,” Cacopardo said.
In time the bell-ringer came. He was almost as old as Cacopardo. His hands and forearms looked very strong, but the rest of him looked as if it were long overdue.
Cacopardo called him to the center of the crowd and told him to examine the bell. The old bell-ringer walked round and round the bell, looking at it. Then he leaned over and ran the flat of his hand from top to bottom. Then he stood up and seemed to read the inscription over and over. He looked once up at the top of the clock tower, where some engineers were rigging a hoist. He asked that the bell be turned over and when some of the engineers had turned it up on its side, he looked inside.
He stood up finally and shrugged his shoulders and said: “It is all right.”
Cacopardo was delighted. He said to the Major: “I know old Guzzo. He does not exaggerate. When he says something is fair, he means it is perfect. The bell will be very good.”
“I’m glad,” the Major said.
At a few minutes past one o’clock, Major Joppolo went home to his villa to take a nap. He wanted to save up some strength for the party - but he also wanted to think a little about his speech about the bell.
He lay down on his bed. At first his thoughts were confused, because he was excited. But gradually the thoughts began to sort themselves out, and everything came very straight to Major Joppolo.
He would say a few words, he thought, about the removal of the old bell. Then he would tell about how the people of Adano had interested him in trying to get a new one. Then a few words about Corelli, and what he had done for Italians in the last war, and then the meaning today of the inscription on the bell, America ed Italia, America and Italy,