she'd been feeling too miserable to get up
and drive them.

"That very night, it happened. She got
her cattle home, turned them into the corral,
and went into the house, into her room behind
the kitchen, and shut the door. There, with-
out calling to anybody, without a groan, she
lay down on the bed and bore her child.

"I was lifting supper when old Mrs. Shi-
merda came running down the basement stairs,
out of breath and screeching: --

"'Baby come, baby come!' she says. 'Am-
brosch much like devil!'

"Brother William is surely a patient man.
He was just ready to sit down to a hot sup-
per after a long day in the fields. Without a
word he rose and went down to the barn and
hooked up his team. He got us over there
as quick as it was humanly possible. I went
right in, and began to do for Antonia; but
she laid there with her eyes shut and took no
account of me. The old woman got a tubful of
warm water to wash the baby. I overlooked
what she was doing and I said out loud: --

"'Mrs. Shimerda, don't you put that
strong yellow soap near that baby. You'll
blister its little skin.' I was indignant.

[[358]]

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