In June, Ambrosch went to work at Mr. Bushy's for a week, and took Marek
with him at full wages. Mrs. Shimerda then drove the second cultivator;
she and Antonia worked in the fields all day and did the chores at night.
While the two women were running the place alone, one of the new horses got
colic and gave them a terrible fright.
Antonia had gone down to the barn one night to see that all was well before
she went to bed, and she noticed that one of the roans was swollen about
the middle and stood with its head hanging. She mounted another horse,
without waiting to saddle him, and hammered on our door just as we were
going to bed. Grandfather answered her knock. He did not send one of his
men, but rode back with her himself, taking a syringe and an old piece of
carpet he kept for hot applications when our horses were sick. He found
Mrs. Shimerda sitting by the horse with her lantern, groaning and wringing
her hands. It took but a few moments to release the gases pent up in the
poor beast, and the two women heard the rush of wind and saw the roan
visibly diminish in girth.
`If I lose that horse, Mr. Burden,' Antonia exclaimed, `I never stay here
till Ambrosch come home! I go drown myself in the pond before morning.'
When Ambrosch came back from Mr.
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