The newcomers found George every bit as strange as Anna had in the beginning, and Anna took great pleasure in showing them all of the modern conveniences that George’s home had to offer.
George and the Reardons learned bits and pieces of the German language as the year progressed, and the Germans learned English as well, so that by fall and the harvest the babble in George’s house would confuse just about anyone. Still, they communicated well enough, and George found himself relegated more and more to the roll of Grandfather to All.
* * *
Little Jim was serving with the army now, and it was a source of constant worry for all of the Reardons and for one German girl in particular. Anna had a crush on Little Jim, and waited impatiently for his visits. Little Jim, fortunately, had just as big a crush on her and visited as often as he could. This made for some interesting times as the two negotiated. It didn’t help that Jim’s sisters, mother and grandmother were all on Anna’s side.
The time finally came as winter gripped the land that Little Jim, all six feet three inches of him, came hemming and hawing to stand in front of Jurgen Braun.
“Well, Mister Braun, I, well, I would like to have Anna’s hand in marriage,” he finally managed to say, swallowing hard to fight down his nervousness.
Jurgen looked at Jim closely and shook his head. “Anna ist too younk. She ist only sechzehn. Zixteen. And you, younk man. You are but a boy. Too younk. You haff no land or trade off you own.”
Little Jim looked at Jurgen with evident confusion. “Sir, I’m eighteen. I’m legally a man now, and I’m old enough for the army. And as for a trade, I’ve been working for Uncle Ollie in his machine shop off and on for years. The only reason that I wasn’t working there this year was that he didn’t have enough business to keep me busy. But now, with him starting to talk about making cannons and rifled muskets, he’s going to have more business than he can handle.”
Jurgen looked at Jim carefully. The boy was big enough, obviously strong, and even good looking in an overfed, American way. And he was financially well off. His father’s eldest son, he would have land of his own one day.
There was a flicker of sadness at that last thought. His son, born when Anna was three, hadn’t lived through his first year, and Tilda hadn’t quickened again in spite of all of their prayers and efforts. To have this boy as his son, even by marriage—it was a thing worth considering. But still, was he really interested in Anna, or did he wish to marry her to acquire more lands for himself? After all, Anna was his only child, and would one day inherit the farm. There was one way to find out. “You unterstand, younk man, dat Anna hass no mitgift.”
Jim was perplexed by the German word. He had never heard it before, but Grandma Beth quickly looked it up and showed him the page in the dictionary. “If you mean dowry, yes sir, I understand. It don’t bother me none. We can live with my parents until I can get a place of my own.”
Tilda looked at Jim as if she were measuring him for a coffin. “Anna ist a goot girl. Sturdy and strong. She vill make goot wife for ju, even if she ist too younk and comes wit no lands yet.”
“Missus Braun, you’ve got a lovely daughter, and when the time comes I’m sure that we’ll have as much land we’ll need. As I said, I’ll probably be working in Uncle Ollie’s machine shop rather than farming anyway, so land isn’t a big issue for me.”
Elizabeth entered into the negotiations in earnest now that Little Jim had gotten things rolling. “Jurgen, Tilda, Little Jim is a fine young man. He is a skilled machinist, and has been working during his summers since he was twelve. That’s quite a while by our standards. And please remember that we have different assumptions about when it is proper to marry.”