O Pioneers!

s in the field with a team and cultivator. Carl went about over the farms with Alexandra in the morning, and in the afternoon and evening they found a great deal

en door just as old Ivar was making his morning ablutions at the pump. Carl nodded to him and h

down and waited for the sun to rise. It was just there that he and Alexandra used to do their milking together, he on his side of the fence, she on hers. He could remember exactly how she looked when she came over the close-cropped grass, her skirts pinned up, her head bare, a bright tin pail in either hand, and the milky light of the early morning al

and insects without number began to chirp, to twitter, to snap and whistle, to make all manner of fresh shrill noises. The pasture was flooded with light; eve

together, and Carl knew that they expected to find ducks on the pond. At the moment when they came in sight of the bright spot of water, he heard a whirr of wings and the ducks shot up into the air. There was a sharp crack from the gun, and five of the birds fell to the ground. Emil and his companion laughed delightedly, and Emil ran t

e cried in distress, "

ed indignantly. "Why, Marie, y

k. I hate to see them when they are first shot. They were

going hunting with you any more. You're as bad as Ivar. Her

o kill. You can tell just how they felt when they flew up. They were scared, but

el bad." As he looked down into her tearful eyes, th

of their dialogue, but he felt the import of it. It made him, somehow, unreasonably mournful to find two you