- Let's move right along to Part 2, shall we? This one's called "Neighboring Fields."
- It's been sixteen years since John Bergson died. In the meantime, Mrs. Bergson has also passed away. And neither of them would be able to recognize the Divide now.
- Instead of the punishing landscape we got to know in Part I, the Divide is flourishing, the fields are brimming with lush rows of wheat and corn, and the population is booming.
- The chapter begins on a summery day in June.
- A tall, athletic young man, who turns out to be Emil, is using a scythe to cut the grass growing in the Norwegian graveyard.
- As he cuts the grass, he whistles a tune to himself. He can hardly remember the old days, when his sister struggled to make it while all the others chose to abandon the land. Though he seems happy and carefree, occasionally he pauses, with a frown on his face, which seems to indicate that something is weighing on his mind.
- A cart rolls up and a voice calls out to Emil. It's Marie Tovesky, now Marie Shabata, the little girl Emil meets in Chapter 1. She offers to give him a lift, but she sees he hasn't finished up mowing yet.
- They strike up a conversation as Emil mows. They talk about the freethinking Bohemians who, despite being from a Catholic country, are buried in the Norwegian (i.e. Protestant) graveyard and the upcoming marriage of their friend Amédée Chevalier. Marie asks Emil to come mow her orchard, and reminds him to dance with the French girls at the wedding, so they don't get their feelings hurt. It sounds like he spends most of the time dancing with Marie.
- In the course of the conversation, we find out that Emil is studying at the university, and that Marie is married to a man named Frank. Marie mentions that her husband's mad at her for lending their saddle to another man.
- Talk about tension. Marie appears openly flirtatious, while Emil seems to be ignoring it.
- Emil finishes and they ride together toward a large white house that belongs to Alexandra, now a wealthy farmer.
- The narrator clues us in that this is one of the richest farms on the Divide. We also get some details on the house: though stately, the house is only partially finished, with some rooms with wallpaper and filled with furniture, while others are still bare. The kitchen is the nicest room, where three Swedish girls work for Alexandra, and where many of the original things from the Bergson homestead remain.
- The garden around the house is orderly and productive, unlike the unevenly furnished home. As the narrator says, we get the feeling that "it is in the soil that [Alexandra] expresses herself best" (2.1.22).