lara whispered, "that's the
way I want to grow old."

VI

On the day of Olaf Ericson's barn-raising, his wife, for once in a way,
rose early. Johanna Vavrika had been baking cakes and frying and boiling
and spicing meats for a week beforehand, but it was not until the day
before the party was to take place that Clara showed any interest in it.
Then she was seized with one of her fitful spasms of energy, and took
the wagon and little Eric and spent the day on Plum Creek, gathering
vines and swamp goldenrod to decorate the barn.

By four o'clock in the afternoon buggies and wagons began to arrive at
the big unpainted building in front of Olaf's house. When Nils and his
mother came at five, there were more than fifty people in the barn, and
a great drove of children. On the ground floor stood six long tables,
set with the crockery of seven flourishing Ericson families, lent for
the occasion. In the middle of each table was a big yellow pumpkin,
hollowed out and filled with woodbine. In one corner of the barn, behind
a pile of green-and-white striped watermelons, was a circle of chairs
for the old people; the younger guests sat on bushel measures or
barbed-wire spools, and the children tumbled about in the haymow. The
box stalls Clara had converted into booths. The framework was hidden by
goldenrod and sheaves of wheat, and the partitions were covered 'With
wild grapevines full of fruit. At one of these Johanna Vavrika watched
over her cooked meats, enough to provision an army; and at the next her
kitchen girls had ranged the ice-cream freezers, and Clara was already
cutting pies and cakes against the hour of serving. At the third stall,
little Hilda, in a bright pink lawn dress, dispensed lemonade throughout
the afternoon. Olaf, as a public man, had thought it inadvisable to
serve beer in his barn; but Joe Vavrika had come over with two demijohns
concealed in his buggy, and after his arrival the wagon shed was much
frequented by the men.

"Hasn't Cousin Clara fixed things lovely?" little Hilda whispered, when
Nils went up to her stall and asked for lemonade.

Nils leaned against the booth, talking to the excited little girl and
watching the people. The barn faced the west, and the sun, pouring in
at the big doors, filled the whole interior with a golden light,
through which filtered fine particles of dust from the haymow, where the
children were romping. There was a great chattering from t