Chapter: IT was at the Vannis' tent that Antonia was discovered. Hitherto she had
been looked upon more as a ward of the Harlings than as one of the "hired
girls." She had lived in their house and yard and garden; her thoughts
never seemed to stray outside that little kingdom. But after the tent came
to town she began to go about with Tiny and Lena and their friends. The
Vannis often said that Antonia was the best dancer of them all. I
sometimes heard murmurs in the crowd outside the pavilion that Mrs.
Harling would soon have her hands full with that girl. The young men began
to joke with each other about "the Harlings' Tony" as they did about "the
Marshalls' Anna" or "the Gardeners' Tiny."

Antonia talked and thought of nothing but the tent. She hummed the dance
tunes all day. When supper was late, she hurried with her dishes, dropped
and smashed them in her excitement. At the first call of the music, she
became irresponsible. If she had n't time to dress, she merely flung off
her apron and shot out of the kitchen door. Sometimes I went with her; the
moment the lighted tent came into view she would break into a run, like a
boy. There were always partners waiting for her; she began to dance before
she got her breath.

Antonia's success at the tent had its consequences. The iceman lingered
too long now, when he came into the covered porch to fill the
refrigerator. The delivery boys hung about the kitchen when they brought
the groceries. Young farmers who were in town for Saturday came tramping
through the yard to the back door to engage dances, or to invite Tony to
parties and picnics. Lena and Norwegian Anna dropped in to help her with
her work, so that she could get away early. The boys who brought her home
after the dances sometimes laughed at the back gate and wakened Mr.
Harling from his first sleep. A crisis was inevitable.

One Saturday night Mr. Harling had gone down to the cellar for beer. As he
came up the stairs in the dark, he heard scuffling on the back porch, and
then the sound of a vigorous slap. He looked out through the side door in
time to see a pair of long legs vaulting over the picket fence. Antonia
was standing there, angry and excited. Young Harry Paine, who was to marry
his employer's daughter on Monday, had come to the tent with a crowd of
friends and danced all evening. Afterward, he begged Antonia to let him
walk home with her. She said she supposed he was a nice young man, as he
was one of Miss Frances's friends, and she did n't mind. On the back porch
he tried to kiss her, and when she protested,--because he was going to be
married on Monday,--he caught her and kissed her until she got one hand
free and slapped him.

Mr. Harling put his beer bottles down on the table. "This is what I've
been expecting, Antonia. You've been going with girls who have a
reputation for being free and easy, and now you've got the same
reputation. I won't have this and that fellow tramping about my back yard
all the time. This is the end of it, to-night. It stops, short. You can
quit going to these dances, or you can hunt another place. Think it over."

The next morning when Mrs. Harling and Frances tried to reason with
Antonia, they found her agitated but determined. "Stop going to the tent?"
she panted. "I would n't think of it for a minute! My own father could n't
make me stop! Mr. Harling ain't my boss outside my work. I won't give up
my friends, either. The boys I go with are nice fellows. I thought Mr.
Paine was all right, too, because he used to come here. I guess I gave him
a red face for his wedding, all right!" she blazed out indignantly.

"You'll have to do one thing or the other, Antonia," Mrs. Harling told her
decidedly. "I can't go back on what Mr. Harling has said. This is his
house."

"Then I'll just leave, Mrs. Harling. Lena's been wanting me to get a place
closer to her for a long while. Mary Svoboda's going away from the
Cutters' to work at the hotel, and I can have her place."

Mrs. Harling rose from her chair. "Antonia, if you go to the Cutters to
work, you cannot come back to this house again. You know what that man is.
It will be the ruin of you."

Tony snatched up the tea-kettle and began to pour boiling water over the
glasses, laughing excitedly. "Oh, I can take care of myself! I'm a lot
stronger than Cutter is. They pay four dollars there, and there's no
children. The work's nothing; I can have every evening, and be out a lot
in the afternoons."

"I thought you liked children. Tony, what's come over you?"

"I don't know, something has." Antonia tossed her head and set her jaw. "A
girl like me has got to take her good times when she can. Maybe there
won't be any tent next year. I guess I want to have my fling, like the
other girls."

Mrs. Harling gave a short, harsh laugh. "If you go to work for the
Cutters, you're likely to have a fling that you won't get up from in a
hurry."

Frances said, when she told grandmother and me about this scene, that
every pan and plate and cup on the shelves trembled when her mother walked
out of the kitchen. Mrs. Harling declared bitterly that she wished she had
never let herself get fond of Antonia.

 Until the dances began, Antonia wasn't considered one of the more attractive hired girls. She was just a girl who worked for and lived with the Harlings. But once the dances start, she begins hanging out with Tiny and Lena a lot. Also, she is a great dancer. The boys start to talk about her the same way they talk about Tiny. Antonia is in love with the dances. She becomes a bit irresponsible around the house in her excitement. Everyone always waits to dance with Antonia at the Vannis'. Trouble begins. Delivery boys who come to the Harlings' stay longer because they want to flirt with Antonia. Boys come to visit her to ask for dances. Sometimes the boys who walk her home on Saturday night wake Mr. Harling up with their voices. One Saturday night Mr. Harling hears a scuffle and slap on the porch. It turns out that Antonia was with a boy named Harry Paine. He is engaged to be married on Monday, but Antonia let him walk her home from the dance because she thought he was just a nice guy. When he tried to kiss her she fought and slapped him. Mr. Harling is not happy to hear this. He tells Antonia that she brought this on herself by hanging out with girls like Lena and Tiny who have bad reputations. He tells her that she's not allowed to go to the dances anymore if she wants to live with them. Antonia decides to leave the Harlings' rather than stop going to the dances. Frances and her mother try to get her to change her mind, but Antonia is adamant. She says that she's going to go work for Wick Cutter. Mrs. Harling warns her against this, since Cutter has a reputation for knocking up the girls who work for him. She tells Antonia that if she goes to work for Cutter, she's not allowed to come back to the Harlings'. Antonia argues that she has to take her good times when she can get them. She worries there won't be a dancing tent next year. Mrs. Harling warns her again that she might get pregnant if she works for Cutter. Mrs. Harling is angry at Antonia for her decision. She says she wishes that she had never gotten to like the girl so much.

