"Jeli il Pastore") is a short story written by Italian author Giovanni Verga as a part of his collection The Life of the Fields[1].
The story focuses on a young horse-herd named Jeli, who, orphaned at a tender age, has always lived alone in the fields.
The first part of the story concentrates on Jeli's childhood in the middle of the Sicilian fields, where he befriends don Alfonso, the son of a bourgeois man.
In time, Mara is ready to marry the son of another well-off farmer in the area, but she is seduced by don Alfonso and the engagement is annulled.
His jealousy reaches a boiling point when, while attending a festival at a farm, Don Alfonso asks Mara to dance.