"It's wolves, Jimmy," Antonia whispered.
"It's awful, what he says!"

The sick man raged and shook his fist. He
seemed to be cursing people who had wronged
him. Mr. Shimerda caught him by the shoul-
ders, but could hardly hold him in bed. At last
he was shut off by a coughing fit which fairly
choked him. He pulled a cloth from under his
pillow and held 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 pa-
tiently fighting for breath, like a child with
croup. Antonia's father uncovered one of his
long bony legs and rubbed it rhythmically.
From our bench we could see what a hollow
case his body was. His spine and shoulder-
blades stood out like the bones under the hide
of a dead steer left in the fields. That sharp
backbone must have hurt him when he lay
on it.

Gradually, relief came to all of us. What-
ever it was, the worst was over. Mr. Shimerda
signed to us that Pavel was asleep. Without
a word Peter got up and lit his lantern. He
was going out to get his team to drive us

[[62]]

p061 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p062w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p063

v?