Book I -- The Shimerdas

I-I

I first heard of Antonia [1] on what seemed
to me an interminable journey across the
great midland plain of North America. I was
ten years old then; I had lost both my father
and mother within a year, and my Virginia
relatives were sending me out to my grand-
parents, who lived in Nebraska. I traveled
in the care of a mountain boy, Jake Marpole,
one of the "hands" on my father's old farm
under the Blue Ridge, who was now going
West to work for my grandfather. Jake's ex-
perience of the world was not much wider than
mine. He had never been in a railway train
until the morning when we set out together
to try our fortunes in a new world.

[[3]]

p002 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p003w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p004

v?