Simile in My Ántonia

The disease croup affects a breathing because of congestion in the lungs and is most common in infants and young children. It is possibly an older name for whooping cough, a disease that killed many young children in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As Pavel’s rage leaves him, he is left weak and childlike, barely able to draw breath. His decision to tell the story of the wolves and the wedding in this moment indicates that he knows he is going to die and wants to confess to someone before doing so.