They were growing prettier every
day, but as they passed us, I used to think with pride that Antonia, like
Snow-White in the fairy tale, was still "fairest of them all."
Being a Senior now, I got away from school early. Sometimes I overtook the
girls downtown and coaxed them into the ice-cream parlor, where they would
sit chattering and laughing, telling me all the news from the country. I
remember how angry Tiny Soderball made me one afternoon. She declared she
had heard grandmother was going to make a Baptist preacher of me. "I guess
you'll have to stop dancing and wear a white necktie then. Won't he look
funny, girls?"
Lena laughed. "You'll have to hurry up, Jim. If you're going to be a
preacher, I want you to marry me. You must promise to marry us all, and
then baptize the babies."
Norwegian Anna, always dignified, looked at her reprovingly.
"Baptists don't believe in christening babies, do they, Jim?"
I told her I did n't know what they believed, and did n't care, and that I
certainly was n't going to be a preacher.
"That's too bad," Tiny simpered. She was in a teasing mood. "You'd make
such a good one. You're so studious. Maybe you'd like to be a professor.
You used to teach Tony, did n't you?"
Antonia broke in. "I've set my heart on Jim being a doctor. You'd be good
with sick people, Jim. Your grandmother's trained you up so nice.
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