ing, when Martha was so happy, and the rest
of us were all glad. Joe certainly was patient
with you, mother."

Antonia nodded and smiled at herself. "I
know it was silly, but I couldn't help it. I
wanted her right here. She'd never been away
from me a night since she was born. If Anton
had made trouble about her when she was a
baby, or wanted me to leave her with my
mother, I wouldn't have married him. I
couldn't. But he always loved her like she
was his own."

"I didn't even know Martha wasn't my
full sister until after she was engaged to Joe,"
Anna told me.

Toward the middle of the afternoon the
wagon drove in, with the father and the eldest
son. I was smoking in the orchard, and as I
went out to meet them, Antonia came run-
ning down from the house and hugged the two
men as if they had been away for months.

"Papa" interested me, from my first glimpse
of him. He was shorter than his older sons; a
crumpled little man, with run-over boot heels,
and he carried one shoulder higher than the
other. But he moved very quickly, and there
was an air of jaunty liveliness about him. He

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p400 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p401w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p402

v?