THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

Tina you shall have enough!” And now, Tina (or Nettie, Mary, Sara, Justina, etc.) get at it! And she did. Yes, our fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers 89 worked hard, many of them too early in life and too hard. Many choleric fourteen to sixteen year-olds ruined themselves for life, and many of us, Documentary Supplement 179 their descendants, have inherited their weaknesses and gained dull teeth from the sour grapes our fathers ate. This is the darker side of the “good old days” of our colonies! But Tina and John did not t hink about such things. It was a matter of pride if father “with his Annie,” or "Henry with Nettie” had “cut and bound a whole dessiatine!” This was as honorable then as getting the top grade in school today. And then there was the annual fair in Alexandrovsk, Prischib or Tokmak, at which Henry would get a new cap and Nettie a colorful new kerchief. "Yes, father, you will not forget to bring me back kerchiefs for Nettie and a nice cap for Henry! The children have worked so conscientiously during harvest and threshing-time.” “Well, well, Mother, do you think that I do not love my girl 90 and boy just as much as you do? I won’t forget! We could not wish for a better hired hand and maid.” And Henry and Nettie in the “little room” hear this through the open door and glance happily at each other. “Nobody’s parents are as good as ours, right, Henry?” “Of course, I have known that for a long time.” (Henry always gets a little irritated when Nettie explains things to him he already knows.) The following Sunday Henry and Nettie are especially inclined to go to church, leaving for the service quite early: the new kerchief and the new cap would also like to see a Mennonite church for a change, and be seen in turn. Here one meets his comrades and friends, and then the latest news is discussed: “Seeds (sunflower seeds which were roasted and cracked in all of Russia), nuts and ginger-snaps for fifty kopeks, and for Nettie just as much” says Henry, likewise Nettie and the others. But at night, after her usual evening prayer, Nettie had had, in her poor high German, to ask God's forgiveness for thinking so much about her kerchief during the sermon. Henry did not know what to say about his cap, but three times he turned around in his bed before he could fall asleep— which seldom happened— sighing each time in the hope that “the dear Lord will probably forgive me.” Twenty years later when he was a minister, the respected "Ohm” Heinrich Janzen, the young people wondered how it came that “Ohmke Janze always knew exactly what went through their heads during the service, so that one sometimes felt like creeping under the bench.” And Nettie, later "Mumke Niefeldsche,” had to smile at times, in spite of all the respect she now bore for “Ohm Hendrik,” of whom she would never have expected this since he had never been able to speak as a boy, always only replying to her wise speeches: “I