On that very day he began to think seriously about the articles he had read in the Bohemian papers， describing prosperous Czech farming communities in the West. He believed he would like to go out there as a farm hand; it was hardly possible that he could ever have land of his own. His people had always been workmen， his father and grandfather had worked in shops. His mother’s parents had lived in the country， but they rented their farm and had a hard time to get along. Nobody in his family had ever owned any land，—that belonged to a different station of life altogether. Anton’s mother died when he was little， and he was sent into the country to her parents. He stayed with them until he was twelve， and formed those ties with the earth and the farm animals and growing things which are never made at all unless they are made early. After his grandfather died， he went back to live with his father and stepmother， but she was very hard on him， and his father helped him to get passage to London.

就从那一天起，他开始认真考虑他在波希米亚文报纸上读到过的那些文章，那些描述捷克移民在西部建立起富裕农场社区的文章。他当时只想去那里当一个农场工人，因为能拥有一块自己的土地几乎是非分之想。他的父辈都是工人，他父亲和祖父曾在车间里干活。外祖父母倒是生活在乡下，但他们种租来的地，日子过得很艰辛。