She grew up like a flower in the hedge-row, among the simple peasant folk whose manners and spirit she made entirely her own. The villagers, who had a little education, therefore called her, contemptuously, baba vracana (the little old sorceress), but the illiterate peasants lovingly named her nasá baba Eva (our little mother Eve). But for once the villagers were right, my mother is a sorceress; else, how comes it that I so constantly fall under the spell of her enchantments ... I solemnly declare that if there is a true word in metempsychosis, and it is left to our choice to return to the present state of existence, nothing would so sorely tempt me back, no crown, not even that of learning—as the simple assurance of the All-Father that he would give me again the same dear mother, though I were to go begging with her through the world.

L. S. H.

New York, September 1, 1906.

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
I.[The Little Boy and theGrandmother]1
II.[The Mother’s Fête-Day]12
III.[Saturday Afternoon]17
IV.[The Fire of Shavings]31
V.[Frost-Bitten Toes]37
VI.[After Supper]49
VII.[The Snowy Day]60
VIII.[The Election Meeting]70
IX.[Cat and Dog]82
X.[A Pleasant Surprise]88
XI.[The Patient Little Boy]97
XII.[The Sheep-Play]109
XIII.[Getting Ready]128
XIV.[Mother’s-Mother]137
XV.[The Little Boy Homesick]156
XVI.[The Little Boy Sleepless]196
XVII.[Home Again]203
XVIII.[The Betrothal]212
XIX.[In the Fields]228
XX.[Trinity-Monday]242
XXI.[Threshing-Time]262
XXII.[The Korowai]273
XXIII.[The Wedding]283
XXIV.[After the Wedding]298