condition, disappeared on the second round.
They talked excitedly about where they
should bury Mr. Shimerda; I gathered that
the neighbors were all disturbed and shocked
about something. It developed that Mrs.
Shimerda and Ambrosch wanted the old man
buried on the southwest corner of their own
land; indeed, under the very stake that
marked the corner. Grandfather had ex-
plained to Ambrosch that some day, when the
country was put under fence and the roads
were confined to section lines, two roads would
cross exactly on that corner. But Ambrosch
only said, "It makes no matter."

Grandfather asked Jelinek whether in the
old country there was some superstition to the
effect that a suicide must be buried at the
cross-roads.

Jelinek said he didn't know; he seemed to
remember hearing there had once been such
a custom in Bohemia. "Mrs. Shimerda is
made up her mind," he added. "I try to per-
suade her, and say it looks bad for her to
all the neighbors; but she say so it must be.
'There I will bury him, if I dig the grave
myself,' she say. I have to promise her I help
Ambrosch make the grave tomorrow."

[[129]]

p128 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p129w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p130

v?