winter! They ain't to be trusted. I don't
want to see you get too thick with any of 'em."

"I'll never be friends with them again,
Jake," I declared hotly. "I believe they are
all like Krajiek and Ambrosch underneath."

Grandfather heard our story with a twinkle
in his eye. He advised Jake to ride to town
tomorrow, go to a justice of the peace, tell
him he had knocked young Shimerda down,
and pay his fine. Then if Mrs. Shimerda was
inclined to make trouble -- her son was still
under age -- she would be forestalled. Jake
said he might as well take the wagon and
haul to market the pig he had been fattening.
On Monday, about an hour after Jake had
started, we saw Mrs. Shimerda and her Am-
brosch proudly driving by, looking neither to
the right nor left. As they rattled out of sight
down the Black Hawk road, grandfather
chuckled, saying he had rather expected she
would follow the matter up.

Jake paid his fine with a ten-dollar bill
grandfather had given him for that purpose.
But when the Shimerdas found that Jake
sold his pig in town that day, Ambrosch
worked it out in his shrewd head that Jake
had to sell his pig to pay his fine. This theory

[[149]]

p148 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p149w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p150

v?