My Antonia

hich fell due on the first of November; had to pay an exorbitant bonus on renewing it, and to give a mortgage on his pigs and horses and even his milk cow. His creditor was Wick Cutter, the

d, then fifty-that each time a bonus was added to the principal, and the debt gr

fellow-workmen thought he would die on the spot. They hauled him home and put him into his bed, and there he lay, very ill indeed. Misfortune seemed to settle like an evil bird on

rda and his daughter; he had come to fetch them. When ántonia and her father got into the wagon, I entreated grandmother to let me go with them: I would gladly go without my supper, I would sleep in the Shimerdas' barn and run home in the morning.

w and curled up close together, watching the angry red die out of the west and the stars begin to shine in the clear, windy sky. Peter kept sighing and groaning. Tony whispered to me that he was afraid Pavel would never get well. We lay still and did not talk. Up there the stars grew magnificently brig

hat we could not see it as we came up the draw. The ruddy windows gui

, singing through the big spaces. Each gust, as it bore down, rattled the panes, and swelled off like the others. They made me think of defeated armies, retreating; or of ghosts who were trying desperately to get in for shelter, and then went moaning on. Presently, in one of those sobbing intervals between the blasts, the coyotes tuned up with their whining howl; one, two, three, then a

In his country there are very[pg 061] many, and they eat

red with yellow bristle, rose and fell horribly. He began to cough. Peter shuffled to his feet, caught up

grinning disagreeably, as if he had outwitted some one. His eyes followed Peter about the room with a c

tonia took my hand under the table and held it tight. She leaned forward and strained her ears to hear him. He grew more an

mmy," ántonia whispered.

d it to his mouth. Quickly it was covered with bright red spots-I thought I had never seen any blood so bright. When he lay down and turned his face to the wall, all the rage had gone out of him. He lay patiently fighting for breath, like a child with croup. ántonia's father uncov

asleep. Without a word Peter got up and lit his lantern. He was going out to get his team to drive us[pg 063] home.

ttling ántonia told me as much of the story as she could. What she did not

to marry the belle of another village. It was in the dead of winter and the groom's party went over to the wedding i

the parents of the bride said good-bye to her and blessed her. The groom took her up in his arms and carried her out to his sledge and tucked her under the[pg 064] blankets. He sprang in beside her, and Pavel and Peter (our Pavel and Pe

side them. The first howls were taken up and echoed and with quickening repetitions. The wolves were coming together. There was no moon, but the starlight was clear on the

rees, and overturned. The occupants rolled out over the snow, and the fleetest of the wolves sprang upon them. The shrieks that followed made everybody sober.

was happening in the rear; the people who were falling behind shrieked as piteously as those who were already lost. The little bride hid her face on the groom's shoulder and sobbed

ter rose cautiously and looked back. "There

olves?" Pa

nough for

reamed. He saw his father's sledge overturned, with his mother[pg 066] and sisters. He sprang up as if he meant to jump, but the girl shrieked and held him back. It was even then too late. The black gr

horse was failing. Beside a frozen pond something happened to the other sledge; Peter saw it plainly. Three big wolves got abreast o

vel realized that he was alone upon the fami

es

w m

thirty-

and held her tighter. Pavel tried to drag her away. In the struggle, the groom rose. Pavel knocked him over the side of the sledge and threw the girl after him. He said he never remembered exactly how he did it, or what happened afterward. Peter

but when people learned where they came from, they were always asked if they knew the two men who had fed the bride to the wolves. Wherever they went, the story followed them. It took them fi

buried in the Norwegian graveyard. Peter sold off everything, and left the country-

the sale notes at about fifty cents on the dollar. Every one said Peter kissed the cow before she was led away by her new owner. I did not see him do it, but this I know: after all his furniture and his cook-stove and pots and pans had been hauled off by the purchasers, when his ho

is cave. For ántonia and me, the story of the wedding party was never at an end. We did not tell Pavel's secret to any one, but guarded it jealously-as if the wolves of the Ukraine had gathered that night long ago, and the wedding party be

g