lis, while I was still sitting in Black Hawk,
answering to my name at roll-call every morn-
ing, rising from my desk at the sound of a bell
and marching out like the grammar-school
children. Mrs. Harling was a little cool toward
me, because I continued to champion Antonia.
What was there for me to do after supper?
Usually I had learned next day's lessons by
the time I left the school building, and I
couldn't sit still and read forever.

In the evening I used to prowl about, hunt-
ing for diversion. There lay the familiar
streets, frozen with snow or liquid with mud.
They led to the houses of good people who
were putting the babies to bed, or simply sit-
ting still before the parlor stove, digesting
their supper. Black Hawk had two saloons.
One of them was admitted, even by the
church people, to be as respectable as a saloon
could be. Handsome Anton Jelinek, who had
rented his homestead and come to town, was
the proprietor. In his saloon there were long
tables where the Bohemian and German farm-
ers could eat the lunches they brought from
home while they drank their beer. Jelinek
kept rye bread on hand, and smoked fish and
strong imported cheeses to please the foreign

[[247]]

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v?