Jurgis welcome in his home language, and told him to
come to the kitchen-fire and dry himself. He had no bed
for him, but there was straw in the garret, and he could
make out. The man's wife was cooking the supper, and
their children were playing about on the floor. Jurgis
sat and exchanged thoughts with him about the old coun~
try, and the places where they had been and the work they
had done. Then they ate, and afterward sat and smoked
and talked more about America, and how they found it.
In the middle of a sentence, however, Jurgis stopped,
seeing that the woman had brought a big basin of water
and was proceeding to undress her youngest baby. The
rest had crawled into the closet where they slept, but
the baby was to have a bath, the working-man explained.
The nights had begun to be chilly, and his mother, igno~
rant as to the climate in America, had sewed him up for
the winter; then it had turned warm again, and some
kind of a rash had broken out on the child. The doctor
had said she must bathe him every night, and she, foolish
woman, believed him.

Jurgis scarcely heard the explanation; he was watch~
ing the baby. He was about a year old, and a sturdy
little fellow, with soft fat legs, and a round ball of a stom~
ach, and eyes as black as coals. His pimples did not seem
to bother him much, and he was wild with glee over the
bath, kicking and squirming and chuckling with delight,
pulling at his mother's face and then at his own little toes.
When she put him into the basin he sat in the midst of it
and grinned, splashing the water over himself and squeal~
ing like a little pig. He spoke in Russian, of which Jurgis
knew some; he spoke it with the quaintest of baby accents
-- and every word of it brought back to Jurgis some word
of his own dead little one, and stabbed him like a knife.
He sat perfectly motionless, silent, but gripping his hands
tightly, while a storm gathered in his bosom and a flood
heaped itself up behind his eyes. And in the end he
could bear it no more, but buried his face in his hands
and burst into tears, to the alarm and amazement of his
hosts. Between the shame of this and his woe, Jurgis

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p262 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p263w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p264

v?