you remember how you used to want to run
away and go for ducks with Charley Harling
and me?"

"I know, but I'm afraid to look at a
gun now." She picked up one of the drakes
and ruffled his green capote with her fingers.
"Ever since I've had children, I don't like
to kill anything. It makes me kind of faint to
wring an old goose's neck. Ain't that strange,
Jim?"

"I don't know. The young Queen of Italy
said the same thing once, to a friend of mine.
She used to be a great huntswoman, but now
she feels as you do, and only shoots clay pi-
geons."

"Then I'm sure she's a good mother," An-
tonia said warmly.

She told me how she and her husband had
come out to this new country when the farm
land was cheap and could be had on easy
payments. The first ten years were a hard
struggle. Her husband knew very little about
farming and often grew discouraged. "We'd
never have got through if I hadn't been so
strong. I've always had good health, thank
God, and I was able to help him in the fields
until right up to the time before my babies

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