United States or Republic of the Congo ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
She wears an old white dress which she has made herself and worn to parties for the past five years; it is high-waisted almost under her arms, and not very becoming, but that does not trouble Jadvyga, who is dancing with her Mikolas. She is small, while he is big and powerful; she nestles in his arms as if she would hide herself from view, and leans her head upon his shoulder.
They would have been married in the beginning, only Mikolas has a father who is drunk all day, and he is the only other man in a large family. He is a beef-boner, and that is a dangerous trade, especially when you are on piecework and trying to earn a bride.
Twice now; within the last three years, Mikolas has been lying at home with blood poisoning once for three months and once for nearly seven. The last time, too, he lost his job, and that meant six weeks more of standing at the doors of the packing houses, at six o'clock on bitter winter mornings, with a foot of snow on the ground and more in the air.
He in turn has clasped his arms tightly around her, as if he would carry her away; and so she dances, and will dance the entire evening, and would dance forever, in ecstasy of bliss. You would smile, perhaps, to see them but you would not smile if you knew all the story. This is the fifth year, now, that Jadvyga has been engaged to Mikolas, and her heart is sick.
In the morning, however, he was up and out nearly an hour before the usual time. Jadvyga Marcinkus lived on the other side of the yards, beyond Halsted Street, with her mother and sisters, in a single basement room for Mikolas had recently lost one hand from blood poisoning, and their marriage had been put off forever.
Word Of The Day