Sally always dressed like a boy. Frances
taught us to dance that winter, and she said,
from the first lesson, that Antonia would make
the best dancer among us. On Saturday nights,
Mrs. Harling used to play the old operas for
us, -- "Martha," "Norma," "Rigoletto," --
telling us the story while she played. Every
Saturday night was like a party. The parlor,
the back parlor, and the dining-room were
warm and brightly lighted, with comfortable
chairs and sofas, and gay pictures on the walls.
One always felt at ease there. Antonia brought
her sewing and sat with us -- she was already
beginning to make pretty clothes for her-
self. After the long winter evenings on the
prairie, with Ambrosch's sullen silences and
her mother's complaints, the Harlings' house
seemed, as she said, "like Heaven" to her. She
was never too tired to make taffy or chocolate
cookies for us. If Sally whispered in her ear,
or Charley gave her three winks, Tony would
rush into the kitchen and build a fire in the
range on which she had already cooked three
meals that day.

While we sat in the kitchen waiting for the
cookies to bake or the taffy to cool, Nina used
to coax Antonia to tell her stories -- about the

[[200]]

p199 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p200w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p201

v?