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Then Uncle Henry's horses would be hungry all winter. After all the grain was cut, they must go over the field again. Thistime they would stoop over each pile, and taking up a handful of thestalks in each hand they would knot them together to make a longerstrand.
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Everyday housework is also described in detail. It is fall, and the snug Ingalls home bursts with harvest foods, colorfullycataloged. The themes of family safety and self-reliance emerge as central tothis book and to the whole series.
THE SUGAR SNOW.
Aunt Polly's yard was a fineplace to play, because the stumps were so thick. The cousins playedjumping from stump to stump without ever touching the ground. But Pa said there was lots of honey left for the bees, and there wasanother large, hollow tree near by, into which they could move. "Well, Charles, even a pail of honey is something." Then she looked intothe wagon and threw up her hands. The first day Ma made cheese, Laura tasted the whey. She tasted itwithout saying anything to Ma, and when Ma turned around and saw herface, Ma laughed.
DANCE AT GRANDPA'S.
All the water and the juice must be boiled away, and the pumpkinmust never burn. With the butcher knife Ma cut the big, orange-colored pumpkins intohalves. She cleaned the seeds out of the center and cut the pumpkin intolong slices, from which she pared the rind. Laura and Mary went with Ma to gather walnuts and hickory nuts andhazelnuts.
Laura and Clarence ran and shouted and climbed trees, while Mary and Evawalked nicely together and talked. Ma and Mrs. Huleatt visited andlooked at a Godey's Lady's Book which Mrs. Huleatt had brought, and Paand Mr. Huleatt looked at the horses and the crops and smoked theirpipes. Mary was a good little girl whoalways kept her dress clean and neat and minded her manners. Mary hadlovely golden curls, and her candy heart had a poem on it. The storekeeper said to Pa and Ma, "That's a pretty little girl you'vegot there," and he admired Mary's golden curls. But he did not sayanything about Laura, or about her curls.
Now Maand Laura saw her behind the bars, waiting for them. Laura and Mary had never seen a town.They had never seen a store. They had never seen even two housesstanding together.
They brought the big,long-handled spoon, and the box full of bits of lead, and thebullet-mold. Then while he squatted on the hearth and made the bullets,they sat one on each side of him, and watched. When Pa told this story, Laura and Mary shivered and snuggled closer tohim.
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Pa would run his fingers throughhis thick, brown hair, standing it all up on end. Then he dropped on allfours and, growling, he chased Laura and Mary all around the room,trying to get them cornered where they couldn't get away. The doors and windows were tightly shut, and the cracks of the windowframes stuffed with cloth, to keep out the cold. But Black Susan, thecat, came and went as she pleased, day and night, through the swingingdoor of the cat-hole in the bottom of the front door. She always wentvery quickly, so the door would not catch her tail when it fell shutbehind her.
GOING TO TOWN.
8 Pioneering Facts About Little House on the Prairie Author Laura Ingalls Wilder - Mentalfloss
8 Pioneering Facts About Little House on the Prairie Author Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Posted: Mon, 08 Feb 2021 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Autumn finds her among the extendedfamily again as they do the harvesting and canning. Constantly alert, Lauratakes in all her surroundings, but she seems content when winter closes in onceagain. Most of all, she seems to love the warm house with her father, mother,and sisters around her. Apparently this place is the secure, dependable corefor her life as well as for the novel.
She lookedat Pa sitting on the bench by the hearth, the firelight gleaming on hisbrown hair and beard and glistening on the honey-brown fiddle. In the early morningseverything sparkled with frost. The days were growing short and a littlefire burned all day in the cookstove to keep the house warm.
Then Aunt Ruby and Aunt Docia put on their flannel petticoats and theirplain petticoats and their stiff, starched white petticoats with knittedlace all around the flounces. "Pull, Ruby, pull!" Aunt Docia said, breathless. "Pull harder," so AuntRuby braced her feet and pulled harder. Aunt Docia kept measuring herwaist with her hands, and at last she gasped, "I guess that's the bestyou can do." He wore his blue army coat with thebrass buttons, and he had bold, merry blue eyes.
Pa took theshovel and shoveled it away, and then he shoveled a path to the barn,where the horses and the cows were snug and warm in their stalls. Ma sat in her rocking chair, sewing by the light of the lamp on thetable. There was salt in the bottom ofits glass bowl with the kerosene, to keep the kerosene from exploding,and there were bits of red flannel among the salt to make it pretty. All alone in the wild Big Woods, and the snow, and the cold, the littlelog house was warm and snug and cosy. Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura andBaby Carrie were comfortable and happy there, especially at night.
It ran wild in the Big Woods, living on acorns and nutsand roots. Now he caught it and put it in a pen made of logs, to fatten.He would butcher it as soon as the weather was cold enough to keep thepork frozen. "Run over to the chopping block and fetch me some of those green hickorychips—new, clean, white ones." All around the house was a crooked rail fence, to keep the bears and thedeer away.
She put them in a tub of water,to soften them and keep them soft. Then she sat in the chair by the sideof the tub, and braided the straws. When Mary and Laura pressed their noses against the cold window panethey could see the drip of water from the eaves and the bare branches ofthe trees. The snow did not glitter; it looked soft and tired. Under thetrees it was pitted where the chunks of snow had fallen, and the banksbeside the path were shrinking and settling.
On the floor along the sidesof the plank counters there were kegs of nails, and kegs of round, grayshot, and there were big wooden pails full of candy. There were sacks ofsalt, and sacks of store sugar. They could eat all they wanted, for maple sugar never hurt anybody.There was plenty of syrup in the kettle, and plenty of snow outdoors. Assoon as they ate one plateful, they filled their plates with snow again,and Grandma poured more syrup on it. Grandma stood by the brass kettle and with the big wooden spoon shepoured hot syrup on each plate of snow. It cooled into soft candy, andas fast as it cooled they ate it.
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Laura Ingalls Wilder and One of The Greatest Natural Disasters in American History.
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His eyes were swollenshut and his nose was a funny shape. Ma and Aunt Polly covered his wholeface with mud and tied the mud on with cloths. Pa and Uncle Henry took him by the arms and ran him away from the yellowjackets' nest. They undressed him, and his clothes were full of yellowjackets and their stings were swelling up all over him. They killed thebees that were stinging him and they shook the bees out of his clothesand then they dressed him again and sent him to the house. Now Mary was oldest, and she wanted to play a quiet, ladylike play.