Chapter: Alexandra was to hear more of Ivar's case, however. On Sunday her
married brothers came to dinner. She had asked them for that day
because Emil, who hated family parties, would be absent, dancing
at Amedee Chevalier's wedding, up in the French country. The table
was set for company in the dining-room, where highly varnished
wood and colored glass and useless pieces of china were conspicuous
enough to satisfy the standards of the new prosperity. Alexandra
had put herself into the hands of the Hanover furniture dealer, and
he had conscientiously done his best to make her dining-room look
like his display window. She said frankly that she knew nothing
about such things, and she was willing to be governed by the general
conviction that the more useless and utterly unusable objects
were, the greater their virtue as ornament. That seemed reasonable
enough. Since she liked plain things herself, it was all the more
necessary to have jars and punchbowls and candlesticks in the company
rooms for people who did appreciate them. Her guests liked to see
about them these reassuring emblems of prosperity.

The family party was complete except for Emil, and Oscar's wife
who, in the country phrase, "was not going anywhere just now."
Oscar sat at the foot of the table and his four tow-headed little
boys, aged from twelve to five, were ranged at one side. Neither
Oscar nor Lou has changed much; they have simply, as Alexandra said
of them long ago, grown to be more and more like themselves. Lou
now looks the older of the two; his face is thin and shrewd and
wrinkled about the eyes, while Oscar's is thick and dull. For all
his dullness, however, Oscar makes more money than his brother,
which adds to Lou's sharpness and uneasiness and tempts him to
make a show. The trouble with Lou is that he is tricky, and his
neighbors have found out that, as Ivar says, he has not a fox's face
for nothing. Politics being the natural field for such talents,
he neglects his farm to attend conventions and to run for county
offices.

Lou's wife, formerly Annie Lee, has grown to look curiously like
her husband. Her face has become longer, sharper, more aggressive.
She wears her yellow hair in a high pompadour, and is bedecked with
rings and chains and "beauty pins." Her tight, high-heeled shoes
give her an awkward walk, and she is always more or less preoccupied
with her clothes. As she sat at the table, she kept telling her
youngest daughter to "be careful now, and not drop anything on
mother."

The conversation at the table was all in English. Oscar's wife,
from the malaria district of Missouri, was ashamed of marrying a
foreigner, and his boys do not understand a word of Swedish. Annie
and Lou sometimes speak Swedish at home, but Annie is almost as
much afraid of being "caught" at it as ever her mother was of being
caught barefoot. Oscar still has a thick accent, but Lou speaks
like anybody from Iowa.

"When I was in Hastings to attend the convention," he was saying,
"I saw the superintendent of the asylum, and I was telling him about
Ivar's symptoms. He says Ivar's case is one of the most dangerous
kind, and it's a wonder he hasn't done something violent before
this."

Alexandra laughed good-humoredly. "Oh, nonsense, Lou! The doctors
would have us all crazy if they could. Ivar's queer, certainly,
but he has more sense than half the hands I hire."

Lou flew at his fried chicken. "Oh, I guess the doctor knows his
business, Alexandra. He was very much surprised when I told him
how you'd put up with Ivar. He says he's likely to set fire to the
barn any night, or to take after you and the girls with an axe."

Little Signa, who was waiting on the table, giggled and fled to
the kitchen. Alexandra's eyes twinkled. "That was too much for
Signa, Lou. We all know that Ivar's perfectly harmless. The girls
would as soon expect me to chase them with an axe."

Lou flushed and signaled to his wife. "All the same, the neighbors
will be having a say about it before long. He may burn anybody's
barn. It's only necessary for one property-owner in the township
to make complaint, and he'll be taken up by force. You'd better
send him yourself and not have any hard feelings."

Alexandra helped one of her little nephews to gravy. "Well, Lou,
if any of the neighbors try that, I'll have myself appointed Ivar's
guardian and take the case to court, that's all. I am perfectly
satisfied with him."

"Pass the preserves, Lou," said Annie in a warning tone. She had
reasons for not wishing her husband to cross Alexandra too openly.
"But don't you sort of hate to have people see him around here,
Alexandra?" she went on with persuasive smoothness. "He IS a
disgraceful object, and you're fixed up so nice now. It sort of
makes people distant with you, when they never know when they'll
hear him scratching about. My girls are afraid as death of him,
aren't you, Milly, dear?"

Milly was fifteen, fat and jolly and pompadoured, with a creamy
complexion, square white teeth, and a short upper lip. She
looked like her grandmother Bergson, and had her comfortable and
comfort-loving nature. She grinned at her aunt, with whom she was
a great deal more at ease than she was with her mother. Alexandra
winked a reply.

"Milly needn't be afraid of Ivar. She's an especial favorite of
his. In my opinion Ivar has just as much right to his own way of
dressing and thinking as we have. But I'll see that he doesn't
bother other people. I'll keep him at home, so don't trouble any
more about him, Lou. I've been wanting to ask you about your new
bathtub. How does it work?"

Annie came to the fore to give Lou time to recover himself. "Oh,
it works something grand! I can't keep him out of it. He washes
himself all over three times a week now, and uses all the hot water.
I think it's weakening to stay in as long as he does. You ought
to have one, Alexandra."

"I'm thinking of it. I might have one put in the barn for Ivar,
if it will ease people's minds. But before I get a bathtub, I'm
going to get a piano for Milly."

Oscar, at the end of the table, looked up from his plate. "What
does Milly want of a pianny? What's the matter with her organ?
She can make some use of that, and play in church."

Annie looked flustered. She had begged Alexandra not to say
anything about this plan before Oscar, who was apt to be jealous
of what his sister did for Lou's children. Alexandra did not get
on with Oscar's wife at all. "Milly can play in church just the
same, and she'll still play on the organ. But practising on it
so much spoils her touch. Her teacher says so," Annie brought out
with spirit.

Oscar rolled his eyes. "Well, Milly must have got on pretty good
if she's got past the organ. I know plenty of grown folks that
ain't," he said bluntly.

Annie threw up her chin. "She has got on good, and she's going to
play for her commencement when she graduates in town next year."

"Yes," said Alexandra firmly, "I think Milly deserves a piano.
All the girls around here have been taking lessons for years, but
Milly is the only one of them who can ever play anything when you
ask her. I'll tell you when I first thought I would like to give
you a piano, Milly, and that was when you learned that book of old
Swedish songs that your grandfather used to sing. He had a sweet
tenor voice, and when he was a young man he loved to sing. I can
remember hearing him singing with the sailors down in the shipyard,
when I was no bigger than Stella here," pointing to Annie's younger
daughter.

Milly and Stella both looked through the door into the sitting-room,
where a crayon portrait of John Bergson hung on the wall. Alexandra
had had it made from a little photograph, taken for his friends
just before he left Sweden; a slender man of thirty-five, with
soft hair curling about his high forehead, a drooping mustache,
and wondering, sad eyes that looked forward into the distance, as
if they already beheld the New World.

After dinner Lou and Oscar went to the orchard to pick cherries--they
had neither of them had the patience to grow an orchard of their
own--and Annie went down to gossip with Alexandra's kitchen girls
while they washed the dishes. She could always find out more about
Alexandra's domestic economy from the prattling maids than from
Alexandra herself, and what she discovered she used to her own
advantage with Lou. On the Divide, farmers' daughters no longer
went out into service, so Alexandra got her girls from Sweden, by
paying their fare over. They stayed with her until they married,
and were replaced by sisters or cousins from the old country.

Alexandra took her three nieces into the flower garden. She was
fond of the little girls, especially of Milly, who came to spend
a week with her aunt now and then, and read aloud to her from the
old books about the house, or listened to stories about the early
days on the Divide. While they were walking among the flower beds,
a buggy drove up the hill and stopped in front of the gate. A man
got out and stood talking to the driver. The little girls were
delighted at the advent of a stranger, some one from very far away,
they knew by his clothes, his gloves, and the sharp, pointed cut
of his dark beard. The girls fell behind their aunt and peeped out
at him from among the castor beans. The stranger came up to the
gate and stood holding his hat in his hand, smiling, while Alexandra
advanced slowly to meet him. As she approached he spoke in a low,
pleasant voice.

"Don't you know me, Alexandra? I would have known you, anywhere."

Alexandra shaded her eyes with her hand. Suddenly she took a quick
step forward. "Can it be!" she exclaimed with feeling; "can it be
that it is Carl Linstrum? Why, Carl, it is!" She threw out both
her hands and caught his across the gate. "Sadie, Milly, run tell
your father and Uncle Oscar that our old friend Carl Linstrum is
here. Be quick! Why, Carl, how did it happen? I can't believe
this!" Alexandra shook the tears from her eyes and laughed.

The stranger nodded to his driver, dropped his suitcase inside
the fence, and opened the gate. "Then you are glad to see me, and
you can put me up overnight? I couldn't go through this country
without stopping off to have a look at you. How little you have
changed! Do you know, I was sure it would be like that. You
simply couldn't be different. How fine you are!" He stepped back
and looked at her admiringly.

Alexandra blushed and laughed again. "But you yourself, Carl--with
that beard--how could I have known you? You went away a little
boy." She reached for his suitcase and when he intercepted her
she threw up her hands. "You see, I give myself away. I have only
women come to visit me, and I do not know how to behave. Where is
your trunk?"

"It's in Hanover. I can stay only a few days. I am on my way to
the coast."

They started up the path. "A few days? After all these years!"
Alexandra shook her finger at him. "See this, you have walked
into a trap. You do not get away so easy." She put her hand
affectionately on his shoulder. "You owe me a visit for the sake
of old times. Why must you go to the coast at all?"

"Oh, I must! I am a fortune hunter. From Seattle I go on to
Alaska."

"Alaska?" She looked at him in astonishment. "Are you going to
paint the Indians?"

"Paint?" the young man frowned. "Oh! I'm not a painter, Alexandra.
I'm an engraver. I have nothing to do with painting."

"But on my parlor wall I have the paintings--"

He interrupted nervously. "Oh, water-color sketches--done for
amusement. I sent them to remind you of me, not because they were
good. What a wonderful place you have made of this, Alexandra."
He turned and looked back at the wide, map-like prospect of field
and hedge and pasture. "I would never have believed it could be
done. I'm disappointed in my own eye, in my imagination."

At this moment Lou and Oscar came up the hill from the orchard.
They did not quicken their pace when they saw Carl; indeed, they
did not openly look in his direction. They advanced distrustfully,
and as if they wished the distance were longer.

Alexandra beckoned to them. "They think I am trying to fool them.
Come, boys, it's Carl Linstrum, our old Carl!"

Lou gave the visitor a quick, sidelong glance and thrust out his
hand. "Glad to see you."

Oscar followed with "How d' do." Carl could not tell whether their
offishness came from unfriendliness or from embarrassment. He and
Alexandra led the way to the porch.

"Carl," Alexandra explained, "is on his way to Seattle. He is
going to Alaska."

Oscar studied the visitor's yellow shoes. "Got business there?"
he asked.

Carl laughed. "Yes, very pressing business. I'm going there to
get rich. Engraving's a very interesting profession, but a man
never makes any money at it. So I'm going to try the goldfields."

Alexandra felt that this was a tactful speech, and Lou looked up
with some interest. "Ever done anything in that line before?"

"No, but I'm going to join a friend of mine who went out from New
York and has done well. He has offered to break me in."

"Turrible cold winters, there, I hear," remarked Oscar. "I thought
people went up there in the spring."

"They do. But my friend is going to spend the winter in Seattle and
I am to stay with him there and learn something about prospecting
before we start north next year."

Lou looked skeptical. "Let's see, how long have you been away from
here?"

"Sixteen years. You ought to remember that, Lou, for you were
married just after we went away."

"Going to stay with us some time?" Oscar asked.

"A few days, if Alexandra can keep me."

"I expect you'll be wanting to see your old place," Lou observed
more cordially. "You won't hardly know it. But there's a few
chunks of your old sod house left. Alexandra wouldn't never let
Frank Shabata plough over it."

Annie Lee, who, ever since the visitor was announced, had been
touching up her hair and settling her lace and wishing she had worn
another dress, now emerged with her three daughters and introduced
them. She was greatly impressed by Carl's urban appearance, and
in her excitement talked very loud and threw her head about. "And
you ain't married yet? At your age, now! Think of that! You'll
have to wait for Milly. Yes, we've got a boy, too. The youngest.
He's at home with his grandma. You must come over to see mother
and hear Milly play. She's the musician of the family. She does
pyrography, too. That's burnt wood, you know. You wouldn't believe
what she can do with her poker. Yes, she goes to school in town,
and she is the youngest in her class by two years."

Milly looked uncomfortable and Carl took her hand again. He liked
her creamy skin and happy, innocent eyes, and he could see that her
mother's way of talking distressed her. "I'm sure she's a clever
little girl," he murmured, looking at her thoughtfully. "Let me
see--Ah, it's your mother that she looks like, Alexandra. Mrs.
Bergson must have looked just like this when she was a little
girl. Does Milly run about over the country as you and Alexandra
used to, Annie?"

Milly's mother protested. "Oh, my, no! Things has changed since
we was girls. Milly has it very different. We are going to rent
the place and move into town as soon as the girls are old enough
to go out into company. A good many are doing that here now. Lou
is going into business."

Lou grinned. "That's what she says. You better go get your things
on. Ivar's hitching up," he added, turning to Annie.

Young farmers seldom address their wives by name. It is always
"you," or "she."

Having got his wife out of the way, Lou sat down on the step and
began to whittle. "Well, what do folks in New York think of William
Jennings Bryan?" Lou began to bluster, as he always did when he
talked politics. "We gave Wall Street a scare in ninety-six, all
right, and we're fixing another to hand them. Silver wasn't the
only issue," he nodded mysteriously. "There's a good many things
got to be changed. The West is going to make itself heard."

Carl laughed. "But, surely, it did do that, if nothing else."

Lou's thin face reddened up to the roots of his bristly hair. "Oh,
we've only begun. We're waking up to a sense of our responsibilities,
out here, and we ain't afraid, neither. You fellows back there
must be a tame lot. If you had any nerve you'd get together and
march down to Wall Street and blow it up. Dynamite it, I mean,"
with a threatening nod.

He was so much in earnest that Carl scarcely knew how to answer
him. "That would be a waste of powder. The same business would
go on in another street. The street doesn't matter. But what have
you fellows out here got to kick about? You have the only safe
place there is. Morgan himself couldn't touch you. One only has
to drive through this country to see that you're all as rich as
barons."

"We have a good deal more to say than we had when we were poor,"
said Lou threateningly. "We're getting on to a whole lot of things."

As Ivar drove a double carriage up to the gate, Annie came out in
a hat that looked like the model of a battleship. Carl rose and
took her down to the carriage, while Lou lingered for a word with
his sister.

"What do you suppose he's come for?" he asked, jerking his head
toward the gate.

"Why, to pay us a visit. I've been begging him to for years."

Oscar looked at Alexandra. "He didn't let you know he was coming?"

"No. Why should he? I told him to come at any time."

Lou shrugged his shoulders. "He doesn't seem to have done much
for himself. Wandering around this way!"

Oscar spoke solemnly, as from the depths of a cavern. "He never
was much account."

Alexandra left them and hurried down to the gate where Annie was
rattling on to Carl about her new dining-room furniture. "You
must bring Mr. Linstrum over real soon, only be sure to telephone
me first," she called back, as Carl helped her into the carriage.
Old Ivar, his white head bare, stood holding the horses. Lou came
down the path and climbed into the front seat, took up the reins,
and drove off without saying anything further to any one. Oscar
picked up his youngest boy and trudged off down the road, the other
three trotting after him. Carl, holding the gate open for Alexandra,
began to laugh. "Up and coming on the Divide, eh, Alexandra?" he
cried gayly.

 But, first things first. The narrator tells us a little about the setting and the characters present at Alexandra's dinner. Alexandra had her dining room designed by a Hanover furniture dealer. It looks like a display window, and has enough useless objects and china to satisfy the expectations of society. Alexandra doesn't really see the point, though. Oscar's there with his four boys. Oscar and Lou are pretty much unchanged. Lou looks older than his brother and Oscar still doesn't look too bright, even though he makes more money than Lou. Something about Lou seems untrustworthy, and people tend to think he's "tricky" . Of course, the narrator notes dryly, that makes him perfect for politics, and he's gotten himself quite involved on that front. Lou's wife, Annie, is preoccupied with her appearance and her fine clothes. She's come to look sharper and more aggressive, just like her husband. They all speak English at the table, since Oscar's wife doesn't speak Swedish and is ashamed of having married a foreigner. Annie is herself ashamed of speaking the old language. Oscar has an accent, but Lou sounds native. Lou says he has spoken with the superintendent of an insane asylum, who claims that Ivar could become dangerous if he's not committed. Alexandra dismisses this, saying Ivar probably has "more sense" than her farmhands . Lou isn't satisfied with that. He still thinks Ivar could set fire to the barn, or come after the girls with an axe. Alexandra laughs this off. Lou reminds her that if one of their neighbors complains, he'll be taken away by force. In that case, Alexandra tells him, she'll take them to court. Annie takes it up with Alexandra, saying that Ivar makes people keep their distance from Alexandra. Her daughter, Milly, is scared of Ivar. Milly, who resembles old Mrs. Bergson, smiles at Alexandra and Alexandra winks back at her. Ivar, says Alexandra, has as much a right as anyone to dress and act as he wishes. But she agrees to keep him at home from now on. She changes the subject by asking them about their new bathtub. After Annie raves about the tub, Alexandra says she's thinking about getting one for Ivar and putting it in the barn. But not before she buys Milly a piano. Oscar gets angry, saying she can just continue playing the organ in church. He's often jealous of the things Alexandra does for Lou's children. Alexandra explains that playing the organ all the time is bad news for Milly's technique. So says her piano teacher. When Oscar scoffs at this again, Annie announces that Milly wants to play piano at her commencement next year. Alexandra agrees that Milly deserves a piano, and remembers when Milly learned all the old Swedish songs that her father used to sing. Milly and her younger sister, Stella, both look at a picture of John Bergson hanging on the wall in the sitting room. Alexandra had it made from a photograph taken of her father just before he left Sweden. Dinner's over. Lou and Oscar go out to pick cherries (they don't bother to grow an orchard themselves, the narrator tells us) and Annie goes to talk with the maids, to see if she can find out more about how Alexandra keeps up her household. Alexandra goes with her three nieces into the flower garden. Just as they're walking among the flowerbeds, a horse drawn buggy pulls up. A smartly dressed man steps out and the young girls are delighted. The stranger approaches and asks Alexandra whether she recognizes him or not. When Alexandra realizes that it's Carl Linstrum, she throws out her hands and runs toward him. Carl steps through the gate. He tells her how little she's changed, and asks for a place to stay overnight. It turns out he's left his stuff in Hanover and is only staying for a few days, before he heads off again for the coast. Alexandra "blushes" when she remarks how much different Carl seems with a beard . When Alexandra asks whether it's possible for him to stay a bit longer, he admits that he's in a bit of a hurry to find his fortune in Alaska. She asks him if he's going to Alaska to "paint the Indians." When he reminds her that he's an engraver, not a painting, she recalls the paintings she has of his hanging on her walls. He interrupts her, calling those painting "water-color sketches" . As he surveys her rich property, he tells Alexandra how disappointed he is in himself and his lack of imagination, for leaving Nebraska all those years ago. Lou and Oscar come up the hill and Alexandra calls them over. They're in no hurry to see who's there. When they see that it's Carl, they're hardly any friendlier, and frankly, seem suspicious. Alexandra explains that Carl's on his way to Alaska to strike it rich. The brothers ask whether he's gone into business before. Carl hasn't, but he's definitely fed up with the engraver's life. He's planning to meet up with a friend of his from New York who's had some success in Alaska. As the conversation continues, we find out that Carl is planning to spend the winter in Seattle before heading up to Alaska in the spring. It's been sixteen years since Carl left, and Marie Shabata now lives on his family's old property with her husband Frank. Alexandra never let them plow over the Linstrums' old sod house. Annie Lee comes out from the house, wishing she was wearing something nicer, and is excited to see such an urban visitor. She talks loudly and embarrasses Milly by telling Carl he'd better wait to marry her. Carl likes Milly, and notices that how much she resembles Mrs. Bergson, her grandmother. He asks whether Milly has the run of the land, like Annie and Alexandra did when they were young. Annie explains that Milly has it very different, that she goes to school and that the family is planning to rent the farm and move into town as soon as the girls are old enough to look for husbands. Annie leaves to gather up her things. Lou turns to Carl and asks him what his thoughts are on William Jennings Bryan, a politician from the era who championed the wisdom of common people. (See "Shout Outs" for more on this guy.) He starts to get flustered as he talks politics, saying, "the West is going to make itself heard" . Carl laughs Lou's seriousness off, but Lou only gets angrier, saying that city people like Carl ought to go down to Wall Street and "dynamite it" . At first, Carl is at a loss for words. He asks Lou what he has to complain about, with all the success they're experiencing now. Lou sounds threatening but vague when he says that they have a lot more to say now than when they were poor. Annie returns with Ivar and a double carriage, and Carl goes to help. Lou asks Alexandra why Carl has returned. She figures it's just to pay them a visit, and she admits that he didn't let her know ahead of time. Both Lou and Oscar agree that he doesn't seem to have made much of himself. Alexandra leaves them to see Annie off. Lou joins her in the wagon and Oscar takes off, too.

