it's awful hard work for break sod. I milk the
cow for you tomorrow, if you want."

Mrs. Shimerda turned quickly to me.
"That cow not give so much milk like what
your grandpa say. If he make talk about
fifteen dollars, I send him back the cow."

"He doesn't talk about the fifteen dollars,"
I exclaimed indignantly. "He doesn't find
fault with people."

"He say I break his saw when we build, and
I never," grumbled Ambrosch.

I knew he had broken the saw, and then hid
it and lied about it. I began to wish I had not
stayed for supper. Everything was disagree-
able to me. Antonia ate so noisily now, like
a man, and she yawned often at the table and
kept stretching her arms over her head, as if
they ached. Grandmother had said, "Heavy
field work'll spoil that girl. She'll lose all her
nice ways and get rough ones." She had lost
them already.

After supper I rode home through the sad,
soft spring twilight. Since winter I had seen
very little of Antonia. She was out in the
fields from sun-up until sun-down. If I rode
over to see her where she was ploughing, she
stopped at the end of a row to chat for a

[[143]]

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