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So Laura turned around and began to walk toward the house. When they had gone part way, Ma snatched her up, lantern andall, and ran. Ma ran with her into the house, and slammed the door. So Laura put on her coat and Ma buttoned it up. And Laura put her handsinto her red mittens that hung by a red yarn string around her neck,while Ma lighted the candle in the lantern. "Now run along and let Ma put you to bed," said Pa, and he took hisfiddle out of its box.
Little House author Laura Ingalls Wilder moved to Iowa as young girl - Des Moines Register
Little House author Laura Ingalls Wilder moved to Iowa as young girl.
Posted: Thu, 16 Sep 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Setting
Ma scraped and cleaned the head carefully, and then she boiled it tillall the meat fell off the bones. She chopped the meat fine with herchopping knife in the wooden bowl, she seasoned it with pepper and saltand spices. Then she mixed the pot-liquor with it, and set it away in apan to cool.
DANCE AT GRANDPA'S.
Two men were working fast, trampling the straw and building it into astack. One man was working fast, sacking the pouring grain. The grainsof wheat poured out of the separator into a half-bushel measure, and asfast as the measure filled, the man slipped an empty one into its placeand emptied the full one into a sack. He had just time to empty it andslip it back under the spout before the other measure ran over. When at last the corn was done, Ma put all the soft, white kernels in abig jar in the pantry. Then at last, they had hulled corn and milk forsupper.
The Story of Grandpa's Sled and the Pig.
"Listen," Uncle George said, "isn't that pretty?" Laura looked at himbut she did not say anything, and when Uncle George stopped blowing thebugle she ran into the house. The sunshine came inthrough the sparkling window panes, and everything was large andspacious and clean. She said that Grandpa and Uncle George were already at work out in themaple woods. So Pa went to help them, while Laura and Mary and Ma, withBaby Carrie in her arms, went into Grandma's house and took off theirwraps. It did not seem long until they were sweeping into the clearing atGrandpa's house, all the sleigh bells jingling.
She said, "Caroline says Charles could span her waist with his hands,when they were married." The horses shook their heads and pranced, making the sleigh bells ringmerrily, and away they went on the road through the Big Woods toGrandpa's. "Yes," Pa said, "he's very glad. He's going to sugar off again nextMonday, and he says we must all come." "Well, when the maple sap came to the hole in the tree, it ran out ofthe tree, down the little trough and into the bucket."
When Butchering Time was over, there were the sausages and theheadcheese, the big jars of lard and the keg of white salt-pork out inthe shed, and in the attic hung the smoked hams and shoulders. It sizzled and fried, and drops of fat dripped off it and blazed on thecoals. Their hands and their faces got veryhot, and Laura burned her finger, but she was so excited she did notcare. Roasting the pig's tail was such fun that it was hard to playfair, taking turns.
The Story of Grandpa and the Panther.
Standing on end in the yard was a tall length cut from the trunk of abig hollow tree. Pa had driven nails inside as far as he could reachfrom each end. Then he stood it up, put a little roof over the top, andcut a little door on one side near the bottom.
The Story of Pa and the Bear in the Way.
While he greased the traps, Pa told Laura and Mary little jokes andstories, and afterward he would play his fiddle. Cracklings were very good to eat, but Laura and Mary could have only ataste. Uncle Henry went home after dinner, and Pa went away to his work in theBig Woods. But for Laura and Mary and Ma, Butchering Time had onlybegun.
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The hams and the shoulders were put to pickle inbrine, for they would be smoked, like the venison, in the hollow log. Near the pigpen Pa and Uncle Henry built a bonfire, and heated a greatkettle of water over it. When the water was boiling they went to killthe hog. Then Laura ran and hid her head on the bed and stopped her earswith her fingers so she could not hear the hog squeal.
There was a great deal for Ma to do, and Laura and Mary helpedher. They ate every little bit of meat off the bones, and then they gave thebones to Jack. Now the potatoes and carrots, the beets and turnips and cabbages weregathered and stored in the cellar, for freezing nights had come.
After awhile there was sunshine in the woods and the air sparkled. Thelong streaks of yellow light lay between the shadows of the tree trunks,and the snow was colored faintly pink. All the shadows were thin andblue, and every little curve of snowdrifts and every little track in thesnow had a shadow. The delaine was kept wrapped in paper and laid away. Laura and Mary hadnever seen Ma wear it, but she had shown it to them once. "Then he went into the maple woods and with the bit he bored a hole ineach maple tree, and he hammered the round end of the little trough intothe hole, and he set a cedar bucket on the ground under the flat end.
He had beengoing through the woods, with a big bear trap in his hands and the gunon his shoulder, when he walked around a big pine tree covered withsnow, and the bear was behind the tree. Every morning Pa took his gunand his traps and was gone all day in the Big Woods, setting the smalltraps for muskrats and mink along the creeks, the middle-sized traps forfoxes and wolves in the woods. He set out the big bear traps hoping toget a fat bear before they all went into their dens for the winter. The little pieces of meat, lean and fat, that had been cut off the largepieces, Ma chopped and chopped until it was all chopped fine. Sheseasoned it with salt and pepper and with dried sage leaves from thegarden. Then with her hands she tossed and turned it until it was wellmixed, and she molded it into balls.
For supper, now, they often had hulled corn and milk. It was so good that Laura could hardly wait for the corn to beready, after Ma started to hull it. Ma put the cubes into the big iron pot on the stove, poured in somewater, and then watched while the pumpkin slowly boiled down, all daylong.
