62 THE GARDEN OF A 



Alas, how citizenship and the way it is regarded 

 depends on those whose opinions first tinge the vision 

 of the immigrant, as well as upon the calibre of the 

 woman he marries. Sometimes when I think how 

 far wives often unconsciously warp the husband's 

 point of view, and cramp his worldly attitude, it 

 makes me shiver with fear of the responsibility. 



Father ralked to Peter, good wise talk, and in 

 course of time he took out his naturalization papers. 

 Karen also, who was far more alert than her hus- 

 band, was a perpetual influence goading him to " be 

 American," but for different reasons. 



She had made a friend in the village, a woman who 

 twenty years before, owing to a pertly pretty face, 

 had married far above her station. In consequence 

 her tongue had been since sharpened on the grind- 

 stone of snubbing until she had become a sort of 

 village firebrand whom few could touch and escape a 

 scorching. 



This woman was Karen's instructor in the language 

 of liberty which, according to her reading, was anar- 

 chy, and it was from her standpoint and with her 

 precepts that Karen goaded Peter to "be American." 



In the fifth year a change was perceptible, not yet 

 in the man, but in the woman of the household. Per- 

 haps I should say women, for Marie and Trina (short 



