Chapter Five Several other German immigrant families were building homes in the area close by Karolina and Stanislaus’ cabin. One such family was the Bauer’s, who had a teenage daughter named Clara, turning eighteen later that summer. She had a boyfriend named Peter, who lived in Delphos and helped his father run the general store. Peter was madly in love with Clara and visited her as often as he could when he was not working at the store or on the canal docks unloading his father’s cargo. He would often visit Clara at her home, and then they would have a picnic near a small pond close to her home. They would lay on the grass and watch the clouds go by in the sky and dream of their future together. Peter told her “I plan on opening my own store someday. I want to go to a big city and I want you to come with me!” Clara would laugh, squeeze his hand and then give him a kiss. Peter would be overjoyed at this and would skip all the way back to his home despite dreading his father’s angry words when he arrived “Where were you. Don’t you know we have a general store to run! Mother was worried sick”. Peter would apologize and then help his father close the store for the evening all the while dreaming of going away with Clara …show more content…
It was like a huge force was unleashed, as the hard-working German immigrants would go from farm to farm, all helping each other to chop down trees, and build their log cabin homes. The sound of men sawing wood and pounding nails was all one could hear in the surrounding area. The ice had finally broken on the canal earlier that spring and canal boats were loading and unloading cargo on the docks in town. Stanislaus helped the canal boatmen unload their cargoes in order to earn extra money for his family. Karolina was busy sewing new clothing for her fast growing children, and helping other newly arrived women in town get food and provisions for their