Part 2 Chapter 2 Summary

This chapter describes the Bergson household as full of servants and new people. Lou and Oscar have married and left and Emil spends most of the year away at school. Alexandra has three young Swedish servant girls to keep her company. She has taken in Ivar and allows him to live in the barn where he is more comfortable than he would be in a regular house. Ivar lost his land through mismanagement.

At the dinner table Alexandra talks little but listens to her hired men. Barney Flinn is her foreman and has been with her for five years. They talk about how Alexandra put in the first silo in the region and farms in an innovative way. Even her brothers do not agree with her. Alexandra defends them by saying "it's bad if all family members think alike."

After dinner...