One morning, during this interval4 of fine weather, Antonia and her mother rode over on one of their shaggy old horses to pay us a visit. It was the first time Mrs. Shimerda had been to our house, and she ran about examining our carpets and curtains and furniture, all the while commenting upon them to her daughter in an envious5, complaining tone. In the kitchen she caught up an iron pot that stood on the back of the stove and said: ‘You got many, Shimerdas no got.’ I thought it weak-minded of grandmother to give the pot to her.
After dinner, when she was helping6 to wash the dishes, she said, tossing her head: ‘You got many things for cook. If I got all things like you, I make much better.’
She was a conceited7, boastful old thing, and even misfortune could not humble8 her. I was so annoyed that I felt coldly even toward Antonia and listened unsympathetically when she told me her father was not well.
‘My papa sad for the old country. He not look good. He never make music any more. At home he play violin all the time; for weddings and for dance. Here never. When I beg him for play, he shake his head no. Some days he take his violin out of his box and make with his fingers on the strings9, like this, but never he make the music. He don’t like this kawntree.’
‘People who don’t like this country ought to stay at home,’ I said severely10. ‘We don’t make them come here.’
‘He not want to come, never!’ she burst out. ‘My mamenka make him come. All the time she say: “America big country; much money, much land for my boys, much husband for my girls.” My papa, he cry for leave his old friends what make music with him. He love very much the man what play the long horn like this’—she indicated a slide trombone. “They go to school together and are friends from boys. But my mama, she want Ambrosch for be rich, with many cattle.”’
‘Your mama,’ I said angrily, ‘wants other people’s things.’
“Your grandfather is rich,” she retorted fiercely. ‘Why he not help my papa? Ambrosch be rich, too, after while, and he pay back. He is very smart boy. For Ambrosch my mama come here.’
Ambrosch was considered the important person in the family. Mrs. Shimerda and Antonia always deferred11 to him, though he was often surly with them and contemptuous toward his father. Ambrosch and his mother had everything their own way. Though Antonia loved her father more than she did anyone else, she stood in awe12 of her elder brother.
After I watched Antonia and her mother go over the hill on their miserable13 horse, carrying our iron pot with them, I turned to grandmother, who had taken up her darning, and said I hoped that snooping old woman wouldn’t come to see us any more.
Grandmother chuckled14 and drove her bright needle across a hole in Otto’s sock. ‘She’s not old, Jim, though I expect she seems old to you. No, I wouldn’t mourn if she never came again. But, you see, a body never knows what traits poverty might bring out in ‘em. It makes a woman grasping to see her children want for things. Now read me a chapter in “The Prince of the House of David.” Let’s forget the Bohemians.’
We had three weeks of this mild, open weather. The cattle in the corral ate corn almost as fast as the men could shell it for them, and we hoped they would be ready for an early market. One morning the two big bulls, Gladstone and Brigham Young, thought spring had come, and they began to tease and butt15 at each other across the barbed wire that separated them. Soon they got angry. They bellowed16 and pawed up the soft earth with their hoofs17, rolling their eyes and tossing their heads. Each withdrew to a far corner of his own corral, and then they made for each other at a gallop18. Thud, thud, we could hear the impact of their great heads, and their bellowing19 shook the pans on the kitchen shelves. Had they not been dehorned, they would have torn each other to pieces. Pretty soon the fat steers20 took it up and began butting21 and horning each other. Clearly, the affair had to be stopped. We all stood by and watched admiringly while Fuchs rode into the corral with a pitchfork and prodded22 the bulls again and again, finally driving them apart.
The big storm of the winter began on my eleventh birthday, the twentieth of January. When I went down to breakfast that morning, Jake and Otto came in white as snow-men, beating their hands and stamping their feet. They began to laugh boisterously23 when they saw me, calling:
‘You’ve got a birthday present this time, Jim, and no mistake. They was a full-grown blizzard24 ordered for you.’
All day the storm went on. The snow did not fall this time, it simply spilled out of heaven, like thousands of featherbeds being emptied. That afternoon the kitchen was a carpenter-shop; the men brought in their tools and made two great wooden shovels25 with long handles. Neither grandmother nor I could go out in the storm, so Jake fed the chickens and brought in a pitiful contribution of eggs.
Next day our men had to shovel26 until noon to reach the barn—and the snow was still falling! There had not been such a storm in the ten years my grandfather had lived in Nebraska. He said at dinner that we would not try to reach the cattle—they were fat enough to go without their corn for a day or two; but tomorrow we must feed them and thaw out their water-tap so that they could drink. We could not so much as see the corrals, but we knew the steers were over there, huddled27 together under the north bank. Our ferocious28 bulls, subdued29 enough by this time, were probably warming each other’s backs. ‘This’ll take the bile out of ‘em!’ Fuchs remarked gleefully.
At noon that day the hens had not been heard from. After dinner Jake and Otto, their damp clothes now dried on them, stretched their stiff arms and plunged30 again into the drifts. They made a tunnel through the snow to the hen-house, with walls so solid that grandmother and I could walk back and forth31 in it. We found the chickens asleep; perhaps they thought night had come to stay. One old rooster was stirring about, pecking at the solid lump of ice in their water-tin. When we flashed the lantern in their eyes, the hens set up a great cackling and flew about clumsily, scattering32 down-feathers. The mottled, pin-headed guinea-hens, always resentful of captivity33, ran screeching34 out into the tunnel and tried to poke35 their ugly, painted faces through the snow walls. By five o’clock the chores were done just when it was time to begin them all over again! That was a strange, unnatural36 sort of day.
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1
thaw
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| v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和 | |
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2
broth
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| n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等) | |
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3
guttered
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| vt.形成沟或槽于…（gutter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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4
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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envious
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| adj.嫉妒的，羡慕的 | |
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6
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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7
conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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8
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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9
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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11
deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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12
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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13
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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14
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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16
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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17
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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18
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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19
bellowing
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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20
steers
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| n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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21
butting
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| 用头撞人（犯规动作） | |
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22
prodded
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| v.刺，戳( prod的过去式和过去分词 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳 | |
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23
boisterously
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| adv.喧闹地，吵闹地 | |
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24
blizzard
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| n.暴风雪 | |
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25
shovels
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| n.铲子( shovel的名词复数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份v.铲子( shovel的第三人称单数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份 | |
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26
shovel
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| n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出 | |
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27
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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28
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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29
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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30
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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31
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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32
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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33
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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34
screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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35
poke
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| n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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36
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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