they must lighten -- and pointed to the bride.
The young man cursed him 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 ex-
actly how he did it, or what happened after-
ward. Peter, crouching in the front seat, saw
nothing. The first thing either of them noticed
was a new sound that broke into the clear air,
louder than they had ever heard it before --
the bell of the monastery of their own village,
ringing for early prayers.

Pavel and Peter drove into the village alone,
and they had been alone ever since. They
were run out of their village. Pavel's own
mother would not look at him. They went
away to strange towns, but when people
learned where they came from, they were al-
ways 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
five years to save money enough to come to
America. They worked in Chicago, Des
Moines, Fort Wayne, but they were always
unfortunate. When Pavel's health grew so
bad, they decided to try farming.

[[67]]

p066 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p067w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p068

v?