Book I

Chapter 1

Ten-year-old Jim Burden is sent to live with his grandparents in rural Nebraska when his parents die. Jim and Jake Marpole, one of the Burdens' farm-hands, travel to Nebraska on the railroad together from the hills of Virginia. An immigrant family, the Shimerdas, is traveling to their destination as well. Like most other immigrants, the Shimerdas left their native Bohemia and moved to America for a better life. Like Jim, the Shimerdas have no one to turn to in a new, frightening place.

Chapter 2

The next afternoon, at the farm, Jim’s grandmother, Mrs Burden, awakens him and prepares a bath for him. After his bath, Jim explores his new surroundings while Mrs Burden prepares the evening meal. At supper, Jake discusses Virginia with the Burdens. Later, Otto tells stories of ponies and cattle to Jim, and the evening concludes with some family prayers. In the morning, Jim begins to take in the landscape around the farm. When he accompanies Mrs Burden to the garden to pick potatoes for supper, he stays behind after her and sits quietly among the pumpkins.

Chapter 3

On Sunday, the Burdens head out in the wagon to greet their new Bohemian neighbours. Mrs Burden explains that someone took advantage of the Shimerdas when they decided to move to Black Hawk by overcharging them for a farmhouse not suited to the harsh Nebraska winters. Mrs Shimerda greets the Burdens upon arrival, and Mrs Burden presents her with some loaves of bread. They exchange greetings, and, as the adults begin talking, Jim an Antonia run off to play with her youngest sister, Yulka, trailing behind. As they wander through the grass, Jim teaches Antonia a few English words. When the Burdens prepare to leave, Mr Shimerda entreats Mrs Burden to teach English to Antonia.

Chapter 4

As the autumn season goes on, Antonia and Jim's relationship turns into friendship. The country that Jim first found anxious now "seemed to [him] the roads to freedom." Book 1, Chapter 4, pg.