"Cather, Willa - O Pioneers!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cather Willa Sibert)

work gone out of them. He was ready to give
up, he felt. He did not know how it had come
about, but he was quite willing to go deep un-
der his fields and rest, where the plow could not
find him. He was tired of making mistakes. He
was content to leave the tangle to other hands;
he thought of his Alexandra's strong ones.

"DOTTER," he called feebly, "DOTTER!" He
heard her quick step and saw her tall figure
appear in the doorway, with the light of the
lamp behind her. He felt her youth and
strength, how easily she moved and stooped
and lifted. But he would not have had it again
if he could, not he! He knew the end too well to
wish to begin again. He knew where it all went
to, what it all became.

His daughter came and lifted him up on his
pillows. She called him by an old Swedish name
that she used to call him when she was little
and took his dinner to him in the shipyard.

"Tell the boys to come here, daughter. I
want to speak to them."

"They are feeding the horses, father. They
have just come back from the Blue. Shall I
call them?"

He sighed. "No, no. Wait until they come
in. Alexandra, you will have to do the best you
can for your brothers. Everything will come on
you."

"I will do all I can, father."

"Don't let them get discouraged and go off
like Uncle Otto. I want them to keep the land."

"We will, father. We will never lose the
land."

There was a sound of heavy feet in the
kitchen. Alexandra went to the door and beck-
oned to her brothers, two strapping boys of
seventeen and nineteen. They came in and
stood at the foot of the bed. Their father looked
at them searchingly, though it was too dark to
see their faces; they were just the same boys, he