I-VII

Much as I liked Antonia, I hated a superior
tone that she sometimes took with me. She
was four years older than I, to be sure, and
had seen more of the world; but I was a boy
and she was a girl, and I resented her protect-
ing manner. Before the autumn was over she
began to treat me more like an equal and to
defer to me in other things than reading les-
sons. This change came about from an ad-
venture we had together.

One day when I rode over to the Shimerdas'
I found Antonia starting off on foot for Rus-
sian Peter's house, to borrow a spade Am-
brosch needed. I offered to take her on the
pony, and she got up behind me. There had
been another black frost the night before, and
the air was clear and heady as wine. Within a
week all the blooming roads had been de-
spoiled -- hundreds of miles of yellow sun-
flowers had been transformed into brown,
rattling, burry stalks.

We found Russian Peter digging his pota-
toes. We were glad to go in and get warm

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v?