Table Of Content
After that he rubbed and polished the gunstock untilthe wood of it was bright and shining, too. After the bullets were made, Pa would take his gun down from the walland clean it. Out in the snowy woods all day, it might have gathered alittle dampness, and the inside of the barrel was sure to be dirty frompowder smoke. Laura loved to look at the lamp, with its glass chimney so clean andsparkling, its yellow flame burning so steadily, and its bowl of clearkerosene colored red by the bits of flannel.
The Story of Grandpa's Sled and the Pig.
So as much food as possible must be stored away in the little housebefore winter came. Adaptations include a 1982 Broadway musical, Prairie, and a popular NBC-TVseries, Little House on the Prairie, which began in 1974, starringMichael Landon as Pa and Melissa Gilbert as Laura. Summer pageants, adaptedfrom the books, are presented in modern-day De Smet and Mansfield. A reading ofLittle House in the Big Woods was recorded by Julie Harris for Pathwaysof Sound in 1976. When Laura and Mary had said their prayers and were tucked snugly underthe trundle bed's covers, Pa was sitting in the firelight with thefiddle. Ma had blown out the lamp because she did not need its light.
WINTER DAYS AND WINTER NIGHTS.
Grandma'seyes were snapping and her cheeks were red, and underneath her skirtsher heels were clicking as fast as the thumping of Uncle George's boots. They were coming on foot through the snowywoods, with their lanterns, and they were driving up to the door insleds and in wagons. Ma was beautiful, too, in her dark green delaine, with the little leavesthat looked like strawberries scattered over it. The skirt was ruffledand flounced and draped and trimmed with knots of dark green ribbon, andnestling at her throat was a gold pin. The pin was flat, as long and aswide as Laura's two biggest fingers, and it was carved all over, andscalloped on the edges. Ma looked so rich and fine that Laura was afraidto touch her.
Little House Books
"Good-by! Good-by!" they called, and off they went, the horses trottinggaily and the sleigh bells ringing. So they all got into the big bobsled, cosy and warm, and Pa tucked thelast robe well in around them. They all admired Ma's beautiful bracket, and Aunt Eliza said that UnclePeter had made one for her—of course, with different carving. Ma said, "Laura, aren't you going to let the other girls hold yourdoll?" She meant, "Little girls must not be so selfish." The room was still and warm and full of firelight.
I Grew Up With Laura Ingalls Wilder But Won't Read Her Books To My Son - Book Riot
I Grew Up With Laura Ingalls Wilder But Won't Read Her Books To My Son.
Posted: Thu, 24 Jan 2019 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Setting
The powder horn and a small sharphatchet hung at his belt and he carried the gun ready loaded on hisshoulder. Laura handed him the smooth, polished cow-horn full of gunpowder. Pa filled this cap full of thegunpowder and poured the powder down the barrel of the gun. Then heshook the gun a little, and tapped the barrel, to be sure that all thepowder was together in the bottom. The bullet was too hot to touch, but it shone so temptingly thatsometimes Laura or Mary could not help touching it. But they did not say anything, because Pa had told themnever to touch a new bullet.
Aunt Docia's dress was a sprigged print, dark blue, with sprigs of redflowers and green leaves thick upon it. The basque was buttoned down thefront with black buttons which looked so exactly like juicy bigblackberries that Laura wanted to taste them. It was a dark green, with a littlepattern all over it that looked like ripe strawberries. A dressmaker hadmade it, in the East, in the place where Ma came from when she marriedPa and moved out west to the Big Woods in Wisconsin.
GOING TO TOWN.
Standing among the stumps, there were more houses thanLaura could count. They were not made of logs, either; they were made ofboards, like the store. Right on the edge of the lake, there was one great big building. It was made ofwide, gray boards, running up and down.
The Story of Pa and the Bear in the Way.
She divided their long hairinto wisps, combed each wisp with a wet comb and wound it tightly on abit of rag. There were knobby little bumps all over their heads,whichever way they turned on their pillows. "Nor its Ma, nor its Pa. No more hunting, now,till all the little wild animals have grown up. We'll just have to dowithout fresh meat till fall." They all ate till they could hold no more, and then they began to danceagain. Many times she tooka little of it out into a saucer, and stirred it round and round. Thenshe shook her head and poured the syrup back into the kettle.
For dinner they all had as much of the delicious honey as they couldeat, and Pa told them how he found the bee tree. They liked to eat the curd thatsqueaked in their teeth and they liked to eat the edges Ma pared off thebig, round, yellow cheeses to make them smooth, before she sewed them upin cloth. With a long knife Ma cut this mass into little squares, and let it standwhile the curd separated from the whey. Then she poured it all into acloth and let the thin, yellowish whey drain out. At last, when it was getting dark, Pa said again, "Come here, Laura."His voice was kind, and when Laura came he took her on his knee andhugged her close.
Laura Ingalls Wilder's story begins in 1871 as a four-year-old girl living with her Ma, Pa, older sister Mary, and baby sister Carrie. In the course of this story, she celebrates Christmas with her family, Aunt Eliza, Uncle Peter, and three cousins Alice, Peter, and Ella. She and her family go to a sugar-off dance at her grandparents' house. Ma and Pa even take her and Mary on a trip to the town of Pepin, seven miles away from their house. Pa hunts for the family and sometimes brings home some meat for them to eat, while Ma makes cheese, maple sugar, hats, and clothes. At night, Pa plays the fiddle for Laura and Mary to send them off to sleep (except in summer, and as for Sundays, he does not play the weekday songs).
The woods were dark, but there was a graylight on the snowy path, and in the sky there were a few faint stars.The stars did not look as warm and bright as the little lights that camefrom the lantern. The little log house was almost buried in snow. Great drifts were bankedagainst the walls and windows, and in the morning when Pa opened thedoor, there was a wall of snow as high as Laura's head.
"But when the sun went down and the Sabbath day was over, their fathertook them out to the woodshed and tanned their jackets, first James,then George, then Grandpa. "At the bottom of the hill they stopped. The hog jumped off James andran away into the woods, still squealing. "They must walk slowly and solemnly, looking straight ahead. They mustnot joke or laugh, or even smile. Grandpa and his two brothers walkedahead, and their father and mother walked behind them.
Sundays are especially difficult for the youngest girl because there’s not much to do and she must be quiet. One Monday, Laura has a birthday, turning five years old. All day Pa was busy, banking the little house and the barn with deadleaves and straw, held down by stones, to keep out the cold. The weathergrew colder all day, and that night there was once more a fire on thehearth and the windows were shut tight and chinked for the winter. Sometimes they had hulled corn for breakfast, with maple syrup, andsometimes Ma fried the soft kernels in pork drippings. "I think people say that, because it looks like a green cheese," shesaid.
