My Antonia

was no garden or chicken-house, and very little broken land. Fuchs brought up a sack of potatoes and a piece of cured pork from the cellar, and grandmother packed some loaves of Saturday's bread,

draws, crossing them where they were wide and shallow. And all along it, wherever it looped or ran, the sunflowers grew; some of them were as big as little trees, with[pg 022] great rough leaves and many branches which bore dozens of

imerdas were the first Bohemian family to come to this part of the county. Krajiek was their only interpreter, and could tell them anything he chose. They could not speak enough English to ask for advice, or even to make their most pressing wants known. One son, Fuchs said, was well-grown, and strong enou

jiek's," said grandmother. "It's no better than a badger hole; no proper dugout at all.

good work-teams. I'd have interfered about the horses-the old man can understand some Germa

interested. "Now,

"Well, ma'm, it's politics. It wou

ming. Soon we could see the broken, grassy clay cliffs which indicated the windings of the[pg 024] stream, and the glittering tops of the cottonwoods and ash trees that gr

e. Near it tilted a shattered windmill-frame, that had no wheel. We drove up to this skeleton to tie our horses, and then I saw a door and window sunk deep in the draw-bank. The door stood open, and a woman and a girl of fourteen ran out and looked up at us hopefully. A little girl trailed along behind th

mediately she pointed to the bank out of which she

'll get fixed up comfortable after w

d the friendly intention of our visit, and the Bohemian woman handled the loaves of bread and even smelled them, and

d broad-backed, with a close-cropped, flat head, and a wide, flat face. His hazel eyes were little and shrewd, like his mother's, but

lor. Her brown hair was curly and wild-looking. The little sister, whom they called Yulka (Julka), was fair, and seemed mild and obedient. While I stood awkwardly confronting the two girls, Krajiek came up from the barn to see what was going on. With him was another Shimerda son. Even from a distance one could see that there was something strange about

orn like that. The others are smart. Ambrosch, he make[pg 027] good f

's hand and bent over it. I noticed how white and well-shaped his own hands were. They looked calm, somehow, and skilled. His eyes were melancholy, and were set back deep under his brow. His face was ruggedly formed, but it looked like ashes-like something from which all the warmth and light had died out. Everything about this old man was in keeping with his dignified manner. H

y before us so abruptly that the next step would have been out into the tree-tops. We stood panting on the edge of the ravine, looking down at the trees and bushes that grew below us. The wind was so strong that I had to hold my hat on, and the girls' skirts

me, and she repeated it after me and made Yulka say it. She pointed into th

but she was not satisfied and pointed to my eyes. I told her, and she repeated the word, making it sound like "ice." She pointed up to the sky, then to my eyes, then back to the sky, with movements so quick an

aimed, "blue

sky over us and the gold tree in front of us. It was wonderfully pleasant. After ántonia had said the new words over and over, she wanted to give me a little chased silver ring she wore on her middle finger. When she coaxed and insisted, I repulsed her

ed, and we ran to meet the old man who was coming toward us. ántonia reached him first, took his hand and kissed it. When I came up, he touched my shoul

f his pocket, opened it, and showed me a page with two alphabets, one English and the other Bohemian. He placed this book in my grand

g