Summary

It is 1901 when Ondrej and Jozef arrive in Pastvina, the village of Ondrej's youth. Jozef notes that the villagers are immediately afraid that Ondrej has come from gunfights and killing that seemed prevalent in the Wild West, but his demeanor showed him instead to be more of a broken recluse. Before leaving Pennsylvania, Ondrej had located a priest from the old country that found him a widow to marry, so that Jozef could have a stepmother. Jozef immediately describes her as a harridan, ranting and railing that Ondrej is worthless because he went all the way to America and came back with nothing.

Ondrej spends winter in the mountains hunting and tending sheep, leaving Jozef home with Borka and her sons. The first winter he's gone he returns to find Jozef sickly and undernourished; Ondrej threatens Borka to feed his son equal...