So Big

Selina holds a class for Pervus every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. When Pervus comes to the house for the lessons, Roelf glowers and sulks, resenting Pervus for taking away from his time with Selina. During their evenings together in Roelf’s small workshop, Selina has become enthused about Roelf’s “feeling for beauty” (48) and she understands his jealousy. In the chaotic house, however, lessons are difficult. Pervus is a willing but unimpressive student. After lessons, they talk. Pervus talks about his wife and child, as well as the poor conditions of his land, which make farming very difficult. He rebuffs Selina’s suggestion that he might invest money in repurposing and repairing the land. Conscious that their lessons will end when the farming season begins in the spring, Selina tries to control herself. She recognizes that she is falling in love with Pervus. At the beginning of March, he misses several lessons. When he appears at last, Selina is flustered. During their lessons, she feels herself breathing fast. At the end of the lesson, they kiss.

Selina marries Pervus two months later. With the arrival of May, her classes break up so the children can work on their parents’ farms. The arrival of spring also changes Selina’s attitude toward the country, making her wonder more about the “great adventure that her father had always spoken of” (54). The winter, she tells herself, was only an episode in this adventure. Before her marriage to Pervus, Selina speaks to Maartje. The older woman humorously confesses that she ran away before her own wedding to Klaas, but she came back because “you can’t run away from life” (54). Selina also has the difficult job of winning back Roelf’s friendship. Roelf condemns Pervus as a man who will never leave High Prairie. Selina marries Pervus in Maartje’s old family wedding dress. Maartje claims that she looks like “a real Dutch bride” (56). They do not receive many wedding gifts, but Roelf builds Selina a wedding chest of her own. Right after the wedding, Selina moves into Pervus’s house. She has grand plans to redecorate the house and put everything in order. She is surprised to be woken so early the following day, when an amused Pervus wakes her to prepare his breakfast. He reminds her that she is “a farmer’s wife now” (58).

By October, Selina is pregnant with Pervus’s son. Dirk DeJong is born in the house. The narrative moves back to Selina’s pregnancy, as Pervus works hard on the farm. The months following their wedding are the most important for the farming season, but Pervus insists that Selina cannot and should not help him in the fields. Nevertheless, she becomes well acquainted with the rigors of life on the farm. Pervus takes his produce on the cart into Chicago several times a week, often staying in the cart overnight to save money. He struggles to sell his produce, but he rejects any modern, scientific suggestions that Selina offers. He dismisses her suggestions “patronizingly” (61), just as Klaas Pool once did. On one occasion, Selina accompanies Pervus into Chicago, and she is shocked by the “ridiculously haphazard and perilous method of distributing food” (62) for sale. Thinking that they might be able to drain some of their land and make it more productive, Selina tells Pervus about the second diamond left to her by her father. He is dismissive of her ideas. She redecorates the house with help from Roelf, though she often has too many duties and not enough time or money to turn their home into the vision she sees in her mind.

Selina is made to endure “all the drudgery of farm life with none of its bounteousness” (65). During one of Roelf’s visits to the farm, Selina places radishes in her hair. Roelf excitedly declares that she looks like the girl with cherries in her hair depicted on the calendar in the Pool family’s parlor, but Pervus erupts into “one of his rare storms of passion” (66). He criticizes Selina for her behavior, fearing the town gossip. Pervus does not talk often and does not provide much in the way of companionship. Dirk’s arrival helps to alleviate her loneliness, but her second child is stillborn. She suffers intensely. During this time, Selina receives a letter from Julie Hempel. Julie reveals that her now-dead mother hid Selina’s previous letters and barred any correspondence between the two friends. Julie reveals that she is now married and that her father is very wealthy. In the third year of their marriage, Selina ignores Pervus’s protests and works in the fields rather than let the produce rot. She often takes young Dirk with her. In the fourth year of her marriage, Maartje Pool dies. In the aftermath of her death, Roelf—now 16 years old—runs away from home. Before leaving, he visits Selina one final time but refuses to take the money she offers him.