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Page 24
Jake helped grandmother to the ground, saying he would bring the provisions
after he had blanketed his horses. We went slowly up the icy path toward
the door sunk in the drawside. Blue puffs of smoke came from the stovepipe
that stuck out through the grass and snow, but the wind whisked them
roughly away.
Mrs. Shimerda opened the door before we knocked and seized grandmother's
hand. She did not say `How do!' as usual, but at once began to cry,
talking very fast in her own language, pointing to her feet which were tied
up in rags, and looking about accusingly at everyone.
The old man was sitting on a stump behind the stove, crouching over as if
he were trying to hide from us. Yulka was on the floor at his feet, her
kitten in her lap. She peeped out at me and smiled, but, glancing up at
her mother, hid again. Antonia was washing pans and dishes in a dark
corner. The crazy boy lay under the only window, stretched on a gunny-sack
stuffed with straw. As soon as we entered, he threw a grain-sack over the
crack at the bottom of the door. The air in the cave was stifling, and it
was very dark, too. A lighted lantern, hung over the stove, threw out a
feeble yellow glimmer.
Mrs. Shimerda snatched off the covers of two barrels behind the door, and
made us look into them. In one there were some potatoes that had been
frozen and were rotting, in the other was a little pile of flour.
Grandmother murmured something in embarrassment, but the Bohemian woman
laughed scornfully, a kind of whinny-laugh, and, catching up an empty
coffee-pot from the shelf, shook it at us with a look positively
vindictive.
Grandmother went on talking in her polite Virginia way, not admitting their
stark need or her own remissness, until Jake arrived with the hamper, as if
in direct answer to Mrs. Shimerda's reproaches. Then the poor woman broke
down. She dropped on the floor beside her crazy son, hid her face on her
knees, and sat crying bitterly. Grandmother paid no heed to her, but
called Antonia to come and help empty the basket. Tony left her corner
reluctantly. I had never seen her crushed like this before.
`You not mind my poor mamenka, Mrs. Burden. She is so sad,' she whispered,
as she wiped her wet hands on her skirt and took the things grandmother
handed her.
The crazy boy, seeing the food, began to make soft, gurgling noises and
stroked his stomach. Jake came in again, this time with a sack of
potatoes. Grandmother looked about in perplexity.
`Haven't you got any sort of cave or cellar outside, Antonia? This is no
place to keep vegetables. How did your potatoes get frozen?'
`We get from Mr. Bushy, at the post-office what he throw out. We got no
potatoes, Mrs. Burden,' Tony admitted mournfully.
When Jake went out, Marek crawled along the floor and stuffed up the
door-crack again. Then, quietly as a shadow, Mr. Shimerda came out from
behind the stove. He stood brushing his hand over his smooth grey hair, as
if he were trying to clear away a fog about his head. He was clean and
neat as usual, with his green neckcloth and his coral pin. He took
grandmother's arm and led her behind the stove, to the back of the room.
In the rear wall was another little cave; a round hole, not much bigger
than an oil barrel, scooped out in the black earth. When I got up on one
of the stools and peered into it, I saw some quilts and a pile of straw.
The old man held the lantern. `Yulka,' he said in a low, despairing voice,
`Yulka; my Antonia!'
Grandmother drew back. `You mean they sleep in there--your girls?' He
bowed his head.
Tony slipped under his arm. `It is very cold on the floor, and this is
warm like the badger hole. I like for sleep there,' she insisted eagerly.
`My mamenka have nice bed, with pillows from our own geese in Bohemie.
See, Jim?' She pointed to the narrow bunk which Krajiek had built against
the wall for himself before the Shimerdas came.
Grandmother sighed. `Sure enough, where WOULD you sleep, dear! I don't
doubt you're warm there. You'll have a better house after while, Antonia,
and then you will forget these hard times.'
Mr. Shimerda made grandmother sit down on the only chair and pointed his
wife to a stool beside her. Standing before them with his hand on
Antonia's shoulder, he talked in a low tone, and his daughter translated.
He wanted us to know that they were not beggars in the old country; he made
good wages, and his family were respected there. He left Bohemia with more
than a thousand dollars in savings, after their passage money was paid. He
had in some way lost on exchange in New York, and the railway fare to
Nebraska was more than they had expected. By the time they paid Krajiek
for the land, and bought his horses and oxen and some old farm machinery,
they had very little money left. He wished grandmother to know, however,
that he still had some money. If they could get through until spring came,
they would buy a cow and chickens and plant a garden, and would then do
very well. Ambrosch and Antonia were both old enough to work in the
fields, and they were willing to work. But the snow and the bitter weather
had disheartened them all.
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