One Saturday, Rosicky tells his family that he'd like to lend the car to his eldest son, Rudolph, that night. Ultimately, however, he began to feel stifled by city life and cut off from the natural world, so he decided to find work as a farmhand in one of the Czech settlements out west. He particularly enjoyed going to the opera, even though it meant spending his hard-earned money.

He finds his memories of apprenticeship in London unpleasant, but the time he later spent as a tailor in New York Citywas largely happy. As a result, he spends a good deal of the winter mending and sewing, which gives him time to think back over his life. The couple has also always been in tune with one another, particularly in their determination 'not to hurry through life, not to be always skimping and saving' (for example, by selling cream for a profit, rather than giving it to their children) (Part II, Paragraph 33).Īfter Mary goes to talk to Doctor Burleigh, she and the children go out of their way to prevent Rosicky from doing any hard work. Mary is a 'rough farm girl' who deeply appreciates her husband's 'gentle' nature (Part II, Paragraph 32).

Mary decides to go visit Doctor Burleigh herself, however, and privately thinks about how much she loves her husband. Once Rosicky arrives home, his wife presses him for information on his health, and he good-humoredly scolds her for her anxiety. He spent a pleasant meal talking with the Rosickys and left wondering why the family never seemed to thrive financially, ultimately concluding that it might not be possible to 'enjoy your life and put it into the bank, too' (Part I, Paragraph 44).īack in the present, Rosicky leaves Doctor Burleigh and stops at a store to pick up some fabric for his wife, bantering with the shopgirl, Pearl, as he does so.He then drives home on his wagon, pausing for a while by a cemetery although he doesn't want to die anytime soon, Rosicky likes the 'snug and homelike' feel of the graveyard, as well as its proximity to his farmlands (Part II, Paragraph 13). In contrast to their wealthy but overworked neighbors, the Rosickys had provided him with a hearty breakfast for Mary, Anton Rosicky's wife, 'It was a rare pleasure to feed a young man whom she seldom saw and of whom she was as proud as if he belonged to her' (Part I, Paragraph 26). He begins to think about an incident the previous winter, when he had come straight to the Rosickys after delivering a neighbor's baby. Doctor Burleigh is troubled, because he is very fond of Rosicky.

Willa cather death