It'll be dark before she gets
them cattle put into the corral.' I seemed to sense she'd been feeling too
miserable to get up and drive them.
"That very night, it happened. She got her cattle home, turned them into
the corral, and went into the house, into her room behind the kitchen, and
shut the door. There, without calling to anybody, without a groan, she lay
down on the bed and bore her child.
"I was lifting supper when old Mrs. Shimerda came running down the
basement stairs, out of breath and screeching:--
"'Baby come, baby come!' she says. 'Ambrosch much like devil!'
"Brother William is surely a patient man. He was just ready to sit down to
a hot supper after a long day in the fields. Without a word he rose and
went down to the barn and hooked up his team. He got us over there as
quick as it was humanly possible. I went right in, and began to do for
Antonia; but she laid there with her eyes shut and took no account of me.
The old woman got a tubful of warm water to wash the baby. I overlooked
what she was doing and I said out loud:--
"'Mrs. Shimerda, don't you put that strong yellow soap near that baby.
You'll blister its little skin.' I was indignant.
[Illustration: Antonia driving her cattle home]
"'Mrs. Steavens,' Antonia said from the bed, 'if you'll look in the top
tray of my trunk, you'll see some fine soap.
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