Peter Krajiek

Krajiek is the Shimerdas' only countryman in the neighborhood, which makes him both their translator and their exploiter — he sold them a dugout farm for far more than it was worth and pockets the difference. His loneliness is real: he left Russia over a 'great trouble,' and he wistfully tells the Burden children he might have had a daughter of his own. His mixture of hospitality and petty predation shows how isolation on the prairie could make even a kind man dangerous to those more vulnerable than himself.