Once the Malavoglia were as numerous as the stones on the old road to Trezza; there "were some even at Ognino and at Aci Castello, and good and brave seafaring folk, quite the opposite of what they might appear to be from their nickname of the Ill-wills, as is but right. In fact, in the parish books they were called Toscani; but that meant nothing, because, since the world was a world, at Ognino, at Trezza, and at Aci Castello they had been known as Malavoglia, from father to son, who had always had boats on the water and tiles in the sun. Now at Trezza there remained only Padron 'Ntoni and his family, who owned the Provvidenza, which was anchored in the sand below the washing-tank by the side of Uncle Cola's Concdla and Padron Fortunato Cipolla's bark. The tempests, which had scattered all the other Malavoglia to the four winds, had passed over the house by the medlar-tree.