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O Pioneers! Willa Cather 6930K 2023-09-02

"Alexandra," he said suddenly, "that old walnut secretary you use for a desk was father's, wasn't it?"

Alexandra went on stitching "Yes It was one of the first things he bought for the old log house It was a great extravagance in those days But he wrote a great many letters back to the old country He had many friends there, and they wrote to hirandfather's disgrace I can see hi pages and pages, so carefully He wrote a fine, regular hand, al like his, when you take pains"

"Grandfather was really crooked, was he?"

"He married an unscrupulous woman, and then--then I'm afraid he was really crooked When we first careat fortune and going back to Sweden to pay back to the poor sailors the e "I say, that would have been worth while, wouldn't it? Father wasn't a bit like Lou or Oscar, was he? I can't reot sick"

"Oh, not at all!" Alexandra dropped her sewing on her knee "He had better opportunities; not toof hient You would have been proud of him, Emil"

Alexandra felt that he would like to know there had been a man of his kin whom he could admire She knew that Eoted and self-satisfied He never said ust His brothers had shown their disapproval of hi that would have satisfied them would have been his failure at the University As it was, they resented every change in his speech, in his dress, in his point of view; though the latter they had to conjecture, for E to them about any but family matters All his interests they treated as affectations

Alexandra took up her sewing again "I can reed to some kind of a oing withThereblack coats and white neckties I was used to seeing father in a blue coat, a sort of jacket, and when I recognized him on the platforht you, about the ship boy?"