Chapter 6-12 Summaries:

Chapter 6:
One afternoon, Jim is giving Antonia a reading lesson outside on the grass. By now she can speak English well. They are sitting by the badger holes and Antonia is talking about how the badger is highly esteemed where she's from, and how the men hunt him using a special kind of dog. Antonia captures a small green insect and listens to him chirp. She tells Jim how it reminded her  about an old beggar woman named Old Hata who used to live in her village and how all the children loved her. If you took her in and let her sit by the fire she would sing you songs. They see a man walking along with a gun. He looks sad, and it turns out to be Antonia's father. She explains to Jim that he is sick all the time. When they run to meet him, Mr. Shimerda shows them a rabbit he just shot. Antonia explains that they will eat the meat and use the skin to make hats for the winter. Then Antonia talks to her father in Bohemian and shows him the little green insect. Meanwhile Jim checks out his gun. Antonia translates from her father, who tells Jim that when he's older he will give him that gun as a present. Jim notes that the Shimerdas are poor but like to give away everything they own. Antonia and her father go home, and Jim goes back to his own farm.

Chapter 7: 
Jim likes Antonia, but he doesn't like her superior attitude over him. She is older than him and so she treats him like a child sometimes. One day Jim rides over to the Shimerdas and finds Antonia getting ready to go to Russian Peter's house to borrow a spade for Ambrosch. He ends up taking her there on his pony. On there way back, Antonia gets him to stop at the prairie-dog town and dig into one of the holes to see what they look like. The dogs scurry underground as Jim approaches. Antonia and him check out a big hole with two entrances. Then Antonia screams, and Jim spots the biggest rattlesnake he's ever seen. She starts yelling in Bohemian. The snake rattles, and Jim sees that he is about to strike. He starts jabbing at the snake with his spade until it's dead. Antonia was very impressed with how brave Jim was and decided to take the snake back home. When they arrive home, Antonia goes around telling everybody how Jim killed the snake. 

Chapter 8:
As fall comes to an end the Russians start having some trouble. Peter tells Mr. Shimerda that he had to mortgage all his stuff to pay a bill to a terrible moneylender who lives in town who took advantage of Peter on interest rates. Then Pavel hurt himself while working and is now laid up in bed. Soon, everyone started to say that  the Russians have bad luck. One day Antonia and her father come to the Burdens' to get some buttermilk. Before they leave, Russian Peter drives up. He says Pavel is very sick and wants to see Mr. Shimerda and Antonia. Antonia and Jim ride together in the back of the wagon and huddle for warmth. Peter groans that Pavel might die. Jim looks up at the stars and wonders what influence they have on earthly events. When they arrive, Pavel seems to be asleep. Jim can't stop looking at the ghastly sight of Pavel. Peter mixes the sick man some water and whiskey. Pavel drinks it. Finally Pavel tells Mr. Shimerda a long story in Russian which Jim cannot understand. Antonia listens and holds Jim's hand the whole time. She tells Jim that the story is about wolves. Pavel gets all worked up as he tells it. He coughs up blood and then falls asleep. Peter drives the guests home. On the way back, Antonia repeats the story to Jim. When Peter and Pavel were young men in Russia they were groomsmen for a friend getting married. After the wedding everyone had to travel by sledge over to the after-party. After the party everyone had to go home by sledge; by then it was late at night. It was winter and there were lots of wolves everywhere. On the way home all the sledges were attacked by a huge pack of wolves. Peter and Pavel were driving the sledge with the groom and bride in it, and they tried to get the groom to throw the bride over so as to lighten their load and let them outrun the wolves. When the groom refused, they threw both him and the bride overboard to save their own lives. Peter and Pavel ended up being the only survivors, but they were then pariahs in their town and so they left and came to America. Pavel dies several days later. Peter buries him, sells all their stuff, and goes off to work as a cook. The Burdens buy some of the stuff he auctions off. Peter looks depressed the whole time. Afterwards, Mr. Shimerda gets very depressed now that his two friends are gone. He often goes out to the empty log house and sits in it alone. Jim and Antonia never repeat the story of the wolves to anyone; they get a strange sense of pleasure out of this. Jim often dreams that he is in a sledge pulled by horses, just like in the story.

Chapter 9 & 10:
The first snow comes in December. The pond freezes and the red grass pales. Jim looks at a circle in the grass where the Indians used to ride around and torture prisoners, according to Otto. But his grandfather says that they probably just trained their horses there. Jim brings two hot bricks with him for warmth. The girls wear rabbit-skin hats. On the way, Jim looks at the landscape. The sky is blue and the prairie completely white. The trees are mostly dead. The girls are cold but enjoying themselves; they make Jim drive all the way to Russian Peter's old house and joke about how they should all live there together. It was  cooler on the way home so Jim gave his comforter to Yulka. He drops the girls off at their house and goes straight home. Jim ends up getting sick with quinsy and having to stay inside for two weeks. While sick, Jim starts reading The Swiss Family Robinson aloud to his grandmother, but he thinks his own adventurous life is more exciting than the fictional novel. Few days later, the Burdens don't hear anything from the Shimerdas for several weeks after the sleigh ride. One night, Otto tells them that he saw Mr. Shimerda out hunting, wearing his rabbit-skin hat and collar. The next morning Jim's Grandmother and Jake pack a basket of food to bring over to the Shimerdas. Grandmother wants him to bring an old dead rooster. While at the Shirmeda's house, Mrs. Shirmeda's breaks down and is very emotional. Antonia says to ignore her and Jim's Grandma talks to Mr. Shirmeda about his country. 

Chapter 11 & 12:
Jake is assigned to do all the Christmas shopping in the family, but there is problem. A snow storm came, and Jake is unable to leave the house. Jim's Grandfather then gets an idea to do a country Christmas, without presents and such. On Christmas eve they all gather around tree and decorate it with their homemade items. It's Christmas morning and Jim wakes up to see all the working men come in. The family starts the day saying prayers and thanking God.