Mrs. Shimerda had been to our house, and she ran
about examining our carpets and curtains and furniture, all the while
commenting upon them to her daughter in an envious, complaining tone.
In the kitchen she caught up an iron pot that stood on the back of
the stove and said: 'You got many, Shimerdas no got.' I thought it
weak-minded of grandmother to give the pot to her.

After dinner, when she was helping to wash the dishes, she said, tossing
her head: 'You got many things for cook. If I got all things like you, I
make much better.'

She was a conceited, boastful old thing, and even misfortune could not
humble her. I was so annoyed that I felt coldly even toward Antonia and
listened unsympathetically when she told me her father was not well.

'My papa sad for the old country. He not look good. He never make music
any more. At home he play violin all the time; for weddings and for
dance. Here never. When I beg him for play, he shake his head no. Some
days he take his violin out of his box and make with his fingers on
the strings, like this, but never he make the music. He don't like this
kawntree.'

'People who don't like this country ought to stay at home,' I said
severely. 'We don't make them come here.'

'He not want to come, never!' she burst out. 'My mamenka make him come.
All the time she say: "America big country; much money, much land for
my boys, much husband for my girls." My papa, he cry for leave his old
friends what make music with him. He love very much the man what play
the long horn like this'--she indicated a slide trombone. "They go
to school together and are friends from boys. But my mama, she want
Ambrosch for be rich, with many cattle."'

'Your mama,' I said angrily, 'wants other people's things.'

"Your grandfather is rich," she retorted fiercely. 'Why he not help my
papa? Ambrosch be rich, too, after while, and he pay back. He is very
smart boy. For Ambrosch my mama come here.'

Ambrosch was considered the important person in the family. Mrs.
Shimerda and Antonia always deferred to him, though he was often surly
with them and contemptuous toward his father. Ambrosch and his mother
had everything their own way. Though Antonia loved her father more than
she did anyone else, she stood in awe of her elder brother.

After I watched Antonia and her mother go over the hill on their
miserable horse, carrying our iron pot with them, I turned to
grandmother, who had taken up her darning, and said