never had another interest, and if I went over
at night she always looked dead weary. She
was afflicted with toothache; one tooth after
another ulcerated, and she went about with
her face swollen half the time. She wouldn't
go to Black Hawk to a dentist for fear of
meeting people she knew. Ambrosch had got
over his good spell long ago, and was always
surly. Once I told him he ought not to let
Antonia work so hard and pull herself down.
He said, 'If you put that in her head, you
better stay home.' And after that I did.

"Antonia worked on through harvest and
thrashing, though she was too modest to go
out thrashing for the neighbors, like when
she was young and free. I didn't see much
of her until late that fall when she begun to
herd Ambrosch's cattle in the open ground
north of here, up toward the big dog-town.
Sometimes she used to bring them over the
west hill, there, and I would run to meet her
and walk north a piece with her. She had
thirty cattle in her bunch; it had been dry,
and the pasture was short, or she wouldn't
have brought them so far.

"It was a fine open fall, and she liked to be
alone. While the steers grazed, she used to

[[356]]

p355 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p356w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p357

v?