My Antonia

hearted and never complained. They were always ready to forget their troubles at home,

orth, with Russian mans. Last night he take me for see, and I can understand very much talk. Nice mans, Mrs. Burden. O

e among the first settlers, those two men were the strangest and the most aloof. Their last names were unpronounceable, so they were called Pavel and Peter. They went about making signs to people, and until the Shimerdas came they had no friends. Krajiek could understand them a little, but he had cheated them in a trade, so they avoided him. Pavel, the tall one, was said to be an anar

every one, men as well as women. At a distance, on his wagon, he looked like an old man; his hair and beard were of such a pale flaxen color that they seemed white in[pg 038] the sun. They

to go home at night to milk his cow. Other bachelor homesteaders used canned milk, to save trouble. Sometimes Peter came to church at the sod schoolh

he said they came from a part of Russia where the language was not very different from Bohemian, and if I wanted to go to th

down as he rubbed, and he was a funny sight from the rear, with his shaggy head and bandy legs. When he straightened himself up to greet us, drops of perspiration were rolling from his thick nose down on to his curly beard. Peter dried his hands and seemed glad to leave his washing. He took us down to see his chickens, and his cow that was grazing on the hillside. He tol

s the kitchen, there was a living-room, with a wide double bed built against the wall, properly made up with blue gingham sheets and pillows. There was a little storeroom, too, with a window, where they kept guns and saddles and tools, and old coats and

le was soon swimming with juice and seeds. I had never seen any one eat so many melons as Peter ate. He assured us that they were good for one-better than medicine; in his country people lived on them at this time of year. He was very hospitable and jolly.[pg 041

oreroom and brought out a gaudily painted harmonica, sat down on a bench, and spreading his fat legs apart began

l full of milk to cook them in. I had never heard of cooking cucumbers, but ántonia assured m

g