believe it's you, sitting here, in my own kitchen. You would n't
have known me, would you, Jim? You've kept so young, yourself. But it's
easier for a man. I can't see how my Anton looks any older than the day I
married him. His teeth have kept so nice. I have n't got many left. But I
feel just as young as I used to, and I can do as much work. Oh, we don't
have to work so hard now! We've got plenty to help us, papa and me. And
how many have you got, Jim?"

When I told her I had no children she seemed embarrassed. "Oh, ain't that
too bad! Maybe you could take one of my bad ones, now? That Leo; he's the
worst of all." She leaned toward me with a smile. "And I love him the
best," she whispered.

"Mother!" the two girls murmured reproachfully from the dishes.

Antonia threw up her head and laughed. "I can't help it. You know I do.
Maybe it's because he came on Easter day, I don't know. And he's never out
of mischief one minute!"

I was thinking, as I watched her, how little it mattered--about her teeth,
for instance. I know so many women who have kept all the things that she
had lost, but whose inner glow has faded. Whatever else was gone, Antonia
had not lost the fire of life. Her skin, so brown and hardened, had not
that look of flabbiness, as if the sap beneath it had been secretly drawn
away.

While we were talking, the little boy whom they called Jan came in and sat
down on the step beside Nina, under the hood of the stairway. He wore a
funny long gingham apron, like a smock, over his trousers, and his hair
was clipped so short that his head looked white and naked. He watched us
out of his big, sorrowful gray eyes.

"He wants to tell you about the dog, mother. They found it dead," Anna
said, as she passed us on her way to the cupboard.

Antonia beckoned the boy to her. He stood by her chair, leaning his elbows
on her knees and twisting her apron strings in his slender fingers, while
he told her his story softly in Bohemian, and the tears brimmed over and
hung on his long lashes. His mother listened, spoke soothingly to him, and
in a whisper promised him something that made him give her a quick, teary
smile. He slipped away and whispered his secret to Nina, sitting close to
her and talking behind his hand.

When Anna finished her work and had washed her hands, she came and stood
behind her mother's chair. "Why don't we show Mr. Burden our new fruit
cave?" she asked.

We started off across the yard with the chil