- Well, it turns out Ivar's problems aren't over. While Emil is away at Amédée's wedding in the French country, Alexandra invites herbrothers over for a family dinner. (Emil hates family gatherings, so it's better that he's away.) Check out what happens.
- But, first things first. The narrator tells us a little about the setting and the characters present at Alexandra's dinner.
- Alexandra had her dining room designed by a Hanover furniture dealer. It looks like a display window, and has enough useless objects and china to satisfy the expectations of society. Alexandra doesn't really see the point, though.
- Oscar's there with his four boys. Oscar and Lou are pretty much unchanged. Lou looks older than his brother and Oscar still doesn't look too bright, even though he makes more money than Lou.
- Something about Lou seems untrustworthy, and people tend to think he's "tricky" (2.3.2). Of course, the narrator notes dryly, that makes him perfect for politics, and he's gotten himself quite involved on that front.
- Lou's wife, Annie, is preoccupied with her appearance and her fine clothes. She's come to look sharper and more aggressive, just like her husband.
- They all speak English at the table, since Oscar's wife doesn't speak Swedish and is ashamed of having married a foreigner. Annie is herself ashamed of speaking the old language. Oscar has an accent, but Lou sounds native.
- Lou says he has spoken with the superintendent of an insane asylum, who claims that Ivar could become dangerous if he's not committed.
- Alexandra dismisses this, saying Ivar probably has "more sense" than her farmhands (2.3.6).
- Lou isn't satisfied with that. He still thinks Ivar could set fire to the barn, or come after the girls with an axe. Alexandra laughs this off.
- Lou reminds her that if one of their neighbors complains, he'll be taken away by force.
- In that case, Alexandra tells him, she'll take them to court.
- Annie takes it up with Alexandra, saying that Ivar makes people keep their distance from Alexandra. Her daughter, Milly, is scared of Ivar.
- Milly, who resembles old Mrs. Bergson, smiles at Alexandra and Alexandra winks back at her.
- Ivar, says Alexandra, has as much a right as anyone to dress and act as he wishes. But she agrees to keep him at home from now on. She changes the subject by asking them about their new bathtub.
- After Annie raves about the tub, Alexandra says she's thinking about getting one for Ivar and putting it in the barn. But not before she buys Milly a piano.
- Oscar gets angry, saying she can just continue playing the organ in church. He's often jealous of the things Alexandra does for Lou's children.
- Alexandra explains that playing the organ all the time is bad news for Milly's technique. So says her piano teacher.
- When Oscar scoffs at this again, Annie announces that Milly wants to play piano at her commencement next year.
- Alexandra agrees that Milly deserves a piano, and remembers when Milly learned all the old Swedish songs that her father used to sing.
- Milly and her younger sister, Stella, both look at a picture of John Bergson hanging on the wall in the sitting room. Alexandra had it made from a photograph taken of her father just before he left Sweden.
- Dinner's over. Lou and Oscar go out to pick cherries (they don't bother to grow an orchard themselves, the narrator tells us) and Annie goes to talk with the maids, to see if she can find out more about how Alexandra keeps up her household.
- Alexandra goes with her three nieces into the flower garden. Just as they're walking among the flowerbeds, a horse drawn buggy pulls up. A smartly dressed man steps out and the young girls are delighted.
- The stranger approaches and asks Alexandra whether she recognizes him or not.
- When Alexandra realizes that it's Carl Linstrum, she throws out her hands and runs toward him.
- Carl steps through the gate. He tells her how little she's changed, and asks for a place to stay overnight. It turns out he's left his stuff in Hanover and is only staying for a few days, before he heads off again for the coast.
- Alexandra "blushes" when she remarks how much different Carl seems with a beard (2.3.27).
- When Alexandra asks whether it's possible for him to stay a bit longer, he admits that he's in a bit of a hurry to find his fortune in Alaska.
- She asks him if he's going to Alaska to "paint the Indians."
- When he reminds her that he's an engraver, not a painting, she recalls the paintings she has of his hanging on her walls.
- He interrupts her, calling those painting "water-color sketches" (2.3.34). As he surveys her rich property, he tells Alexandra how disappointed he is in himself and his lack of imagination, for leaving Nebraska all those years ago.
- Lou and Oscar come up the hill and Alexandra calls them over. They're in no hurry to see who's there.
- When they see that it's Carl, they're hardly any friendlier, and frankly, seem suspicious.
- Alexandra explains that Carl's on his way to Alaska to strike it rich. The brothers ask whether he's gone into business before.
- Carl hasn't, but he's definitely fed up with the engraver's life. He's planning to meet up with a friend of his from New York who's had some success in Alaska.
- As the conversation continues, we find out that Carl is planning to spend the winter in Seattle before heading up to Alaska in the spring. It's been sixteen years since Carl left, and Marie Shabata now lives on his family's old property with her husband Frank. Alexandra never let them plow over the Linstrums' old sod house.
- Annie Lee comes out from the house, wishing she was wearing something nicer, and is excited to see such an urban visitor. She talks loudly and embarrasses Milly by telling Carl he'd better wait to marry her.
- Carl likes Milly, and notices that how much she resembles Mrs. Bergson, her grandmother. He asks whether Milly has the run of the land, like Annie and Alexandra did when they were young.
- Annie explains that Milly has it very different, that she goes to school and that the family is planning to rent the farm and move into town as soon as the girls are old enough to look for husbands. Annie leaves to gather up her things.
- Lou turns to Carl and asks him what his thoughts are on William Jennings Bryan, a politician from the era who championed the wisdom of common people. (See "Shout Outs" for more on this guy.) He starts to get flustered as he talks politics, saying, "the West is going to make itself heard" (2.3.55).
- Carl laughs Lou's seriousness off, but Lou only gets angrier, saying that city people like Carl ought to go down to Wall Street and "dynamite it" (2.3.57).
- At first, Carl is at a loss for words. He asks Lou what he has to complain about, with all the success they're experiencing now.
- Lou sounds threatening but vague when he says that they have a lot more to say now than when they were poor.
- Annie returns with Ivar and a double carriage, and Carl goes to help.
- Lou asks Alexandra why Carl has returned. She figures it's just to pay them a visit, and she admits that he didn't let her know ahead of time.
- Both Lou and Oscar agree that he doesn't seem to have made much of himself.
- Alexandra leaves them to see Annie off. Lou joins her in the wagon and Oscar takes off, too.