Jim has been living with his grandparents for nearly three years when they decide to move into the town of Black Hawk. Jake and Otto help them move, then they leave and go west together; except for a postcard from Otto, the Burdens never hear from them again. By April, Jim feels at home in town. “I could fight, play ‘keeps,’ tease the little girls, and use forbidden words as well as any boy in my class,” he says. But he is restrained from savagery because Mrs. Harling, the Burdens’ nearest neighbor, will not allow him to play with her children unless he behaves. Ambrosch Shimerda comes into town regularly and he puts his horses up in the Burdens’ barn, but he never stays for dinner and won’t talk about his mother and sisters. News about Ántonia comes from the Widow Steavens, who bought the Burden farm and grew fond of the girl. She tells the Burdens about Ambrosch hiring out Ántonia to work like a man.
In August, when the Harlings’ Danish cook leaves them, Grandmother persuades Mrs. Harling to hire Ántonia; then she corners Ambrosch and convinces him that any association with Christian Harling will strengthen his credit. Ántonia fits into the Harling family immediately. Now that she’s in town, she learns English so quickly that by the time school begins, she can speak it as well as any of the other children. Ántonia admires Charley Harling, who is slightly older than Jim, because he’s always first in his class at school and is mechanically inclined. Ántonia’s affection for Charley arouses Jim’s jealousy.
In the autumn, Lena Lingard comes to town to learn dressmaking from Mrs. Thomas. She brings news that Tiny Soderball, another farm girl, has gone to work for Mrs. Gardener at the Boys’ Home Hotel. After Lena leaves, Frances Harling asks Ántonia why she was not more cordial. Ántonia says that she didn’t know if Mrs. Harling would want Lena in her home because Lena has a dubious reputation among her country neighbors. Beautiful, flirtatious Lena drove Ole Benson so out of his mind that his wife, Crazy Mary, used to chase Lena with a corn knife. Through it all, however, Lena remained easygoing and unperturbed. She is determined never to marry and never to live on a farm again.
