Those girls had grown up in the first bitter-hard times, and had got little schooling2 themselves. But the younger brothers and sisters, for whom they made such sacrifices and who have had ‘advantages,’ never seem to me, when I meet them now, half as interesting or as well educated. The older girls, who helped to break up the wild sod, learned so much from life, from poverty, from their mothers and grandmothers; they had all, like Antonia, been early awakened3 and made observant by coming at a tender age from an old country to a new.
I can remember a score of these country girls who were in service in Black Hawk during the few years I lived there, and I can remember something unusual and engaging about each of them. Physically4 they were almost a race apart, and out-of-door work had given them a vigour5 which, when they got over their first shyness on coming to town, developed into a positive carriage and freedom of movement, and made them conspicuous6 among Black Hawk women.
That was before the day of high-school athletics7. Girls who had to walk more than half a mile to school were pitied. There was not a tennis-court in the town; physical exercise was thought rather inelegant for the daughters of well-to-do families. Some of the high-school girls were jolly and pretty, but they stayed indoors in winter because of the cold, and in summer because of the heat. When one danced with them, their bodies never moved inside their clothes; their muscles seemed to ask but one thing—not to be disturbed. I remember those girls merely as faces in the schoolroom, gay and rosy8, or listless and dull, cut off below the shoulders, like cherubs9, by the ink-smeared tops of the high desks that were surely put there to make us round-shouldered and hollow-chested.
The daughters of Black Hawk merchants had a confident, unenquiring belief that they were ‘refined,’ and that the country girls, who ‘worked out,’ were not. The American farmers in our county were quite as hard-pressed as their neighbours from other countries. All alike had come to Nebraska with little capital and no knowledge of the soil they must subdue10. All had borrowed money on their land. But no matter in what straits the Pennsylvanian or Virginian found himself, he would not let his daughters go out into service. Unless his girls could teach a country school, they sat at home in poverty.
The Bohemian and Scandinavian girls could not get positions as teachers, because they had had no opportunity to learn the language. Determined11 to help in the struggle to clear the homestead from debt, they had no alternative but to go into service. Some of them, after they came to town, remained as serious and as discreet12 in behaviour as they had been when they ploughed and herded13 on their father’s farm. Others, like the three Bohemian Marys, tried to make up for the years of youth they had lost. But every one of them did what she had set out to do, and sent home those hard-earned dollars. The girls I knew were always helping15 to pay for ploughs and reapers16, brood-sows, or steers17 to fatten18.
One result of this family solidarity19 was that the foreign farmers in our county were the first to become prosperous. After the fathers were out of debt, the daughters married the sons of neighbours—usually of like nationality—and the girls who once worked in Black Hawk kitchens are to-day managing big farms and fine families of their own; their children are better off than the children of the town women they used to serve.
I thought the attitude of the town people toward these girls very stupid. If I told my schoolmates that Lena Lingard’s grandfather was a clergyman, and much respected in Norway, they looked at me blankly. What did it matter? All foreigners were ignorant people who couldn’t speak English. There was not a man in Black Hawk who had the intelligence or cultivation20, much less the personal distinction, of Antonia’s father. Yet people saw no difference between her and the three Marys; they were all Bohemians, all ‘hired girls.’
I always knew I should live long enough to see my country girls come into their own, and I have. To-day the best that a harassed21 Black Hawk merchant can hope for is to sell provisions and farm machinery22 and automobiles23 to the rich farms where that first crop of stalwart Bohemian and Scandinavian girls are now the mistresses.
The Black Hawk boys looked forward to marrying Black Hawk girls, and living in a brand-new little house with best chairs that must not be sat upon, and hand-painted china that must not be used. But sometimes a young fellow would look up from his ledger24, or out through the grating of his father’s bank, and let his eyes follow Lena Lingard, as she passed the window with her slow, undulating walk, or Tiny Soderball, tripping by in her short skirt and striped stockings.
The country girls were considered a menace to the social order. Their beauty shone out too boldly against a conventional background. But anxious mothers need have felt no alarm. They mistook the mettle25 of their sons. The respect for respectability was stronger than any desire in Black Hawk youth.
Our young man of position was like the son of a royal house; the boy who swept out his office or drove his delivery wagon26 might frolic with the jolly country girls, but he himself must sit all evening in a plush parlour where conversation dragged so perceptibly that the father often came in and made blundering efforts to warm up the atmosphere. On his way home from his dull call, he would perhaps meet Tony and Lena, coming along the sidewalk whispering to each other, or the three Bohemian Marys in their long plush coats and caps, comporting27 themselves with a dignity that only made their eventful histories the more piquant28. If he went to the hotel to see a travelling man on business, there was Tiny, arching her shoulders at him like a kitten. If he went into the laundry to get his collars, there were the four Danish girls, smiling up from their ironing-boards, with their white throats and their pink cheeks.
The three Marys were the heroines of a cycle of scandalous stories, which the old men were fond of relating as they sat about the cigar-stand in the drugstore. Mary Dusak had been housekeeper29 for a bachelor rancher from Boston, and after several years in his service she was forced to retire from the world for a short time. Later she came back to town to take the place of her friend, Mary Svoboda, who was similarly embarrassed. The three Marys were considered as dangerous as high explosives to have about the kitchen, yet they were such good cooks and such admirable housekeepers30 that they never had to look for a place.
The Vannis’ tent brought the town boys and the country girls together on neutral ground. Sylvester Lovett, who was cashier in his father’s bank, always found his way to the tent on Saturday night. He took all the dances Lena Lingard would give him, and even grew bold enough to walk home with her. If his sisters or their friends happened to be among the onlookers31 on ‘popular nights,’ Sylvester stood back in the shadow under the cottonwood trees, smoking and watching Lena with a harassed expression. Several times I stumbled upon him there in the dark, and I felt rather sorry for him. He reminded me of Ole Benson, who used to sit on the drawside and watch Lena herd14 her cattle. Later in the summer, when Lena went home for a week to visit her mother, I heard from Antonia that young Lovett drove all the way out there to see her, and took her buggy-riding. In my ingenuousness32 I hoped that Sylvester would marry Lena, and thus give all the country girls a better position in the town.
Sylvester dallied33 about Lena until he began to make mistakes in his work; had to stay at the bank until after dark to make his books balance. He was daft about her, and everyone knew it. To escape from his predicament he ran away with a widow six years older than himself, who owned a half-section. This remedy worked, apparently34. He never looked at Lena again, nor lifted his eyes as he ceremoniously tipped his hat when he happened to meet her on the sidewalk.
So that was what they were like, I thought, these white-handed, high-collared clerks and bookkeepers! I used to glare at young Lovett from a distance and only wished I had some way of showing my contempt for him.
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1
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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athletics
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| n.运动，体育，田径运动 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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cherubs
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| 小天使，胖娃娃( cherub的名词复数 ) | |
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subdue
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| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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13
herded
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| 群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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reapers
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| n.收割者，收获者( reaper的名词复数 )；收割机 | |
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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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fatten
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| v.使肥，变肥 | |
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solidarity
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| n.团结；休戚相关 | |
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cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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harassed
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| adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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automobiles
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| n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 ) | |
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24
ledger
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| n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿 | |
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mettle
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| n.勇气，精神 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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comporting
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| v.表现( comport的现在分词 ) | |
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piquant
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| adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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housekeepers
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| n.（女）管家( housekeeper的名词复数 ) | |
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31
onlookers
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| n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
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32
ingenuousness
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| n.率直；正直；老实 | |
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33
dallied
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| v.随随便便地对待( dally的过去式和过去分词 )；不很认真地考虑；浪费时间；调情 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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