Finally, "One Bright Day"

I often ask myself, "How did Laura Ingalls Wilder get through hard times?"  The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges.  There were gigantic snow drifts and no laughing allowed at the kitchen table.  During this period of self-quarantine, I decided to reread The Long Winter to discover - What Would Laura Do?

Laura wakes up to stillness in chapter 14.  "There was no noise of winds, no swish! swish! of icy snow scouring the walls and roof and window."  There is even more good news, Laura and Carrie will be able to go to school and there is enough butter for a scraping of butter on every slice of toast.  (Did the Masters get butter on their toast?  Most likely.)

The joke has something to do with a last and an awl.  A last is form shaped like a foot.  Comment below if you "get" the humor.  

Ma's smile is like sunshine and she even cracks a joke.  As she is using the last of the butter Ma says, "This is what the cobbler threw at his wife."  Grace and Carrie don't get the joke and neither do I.  (I reread the joke and Googled it, but am still in the dark.)  Mary and Laura DO get the joke and are having fun with it.  Ma gently reminds the girls not to laugh at the table.  

I am pretty sure Ma would be appalled at my kids' table manners.  Couldn't Ma have let the girls laugh?  Things have been grim lately. 

Only the boys can slide down the snowdrifts.  Laura aptly said, "I don't think it is any fun being a young lady."

Laura and Carrie head out to school.  Surprise!  Ma offered to do the morning chores herself.  Main Street was a huge drift - taller than Laura.  The snow was packed so hard the girls' shoes, not boots, left no dents.     
Soon Laura is reunited with Mary Power and Minnie Johnson.  Minnie is insistent that Laura answer the question, "What would you do if you were caught in a blizzard."  (This is on par with me asking my friends, "What would you do in a pandemic?")  Laura evades the question by saying she wouldn't be caught in a blizzard. 

Dear Mr. Boast - lifelong friend of the Ingalls.  I can just picture him in a buffalo coat.

After a glorious morning at school, Laura and Carrie head home for lunch.  What's for lunch?  Steaming baked potatoes with salt!  What's for dessert?  Hot biscuits with Ma's rich tomato preserves.  The Ingalls are discussing how they don't need butter for their potatoes, when Mr. Boast comes in wearing a buffalo coat and bearing butter.  Truly a magical moment.

This chapter is a welcomed intermission from a sequence of worry, uncertainly, and blizzards.  The Ingalls find respite in sunshine, jokes, and seeing the faces of dear friends.  Laura says it best, "It was good to see the town alive again and to know that again all the weekdays would be school days."  
Laura reminds me to find happiness in little things:  sunshine streaming in the windows, a good book, the face of dear friends on Zoom, and sticks of butter.   

Sadly, the chapter ends with Laura dreaming that "Pa was playing the wild storm-tune on his fiddle and when she screamed to him to stop, the tune was a blinding blizzard swirling around her . . ."  Another blizzard.

WWLD:
Take advantage of people offering to help.
Breathe in fresh air and outdoor beauty.
Laugh - even at the kitchen table.
Talk with friends about cheerful matters.  

Readers have been asking me if the tree I am peeking around is significant.
Why yes it is.  This is one of the Cottonwood trees Pa planted in DeSmet, SD.
He planted one Cottonwood for each of his girls.

See you soon for Chapter 15, "No Trains."

Prairie Eydie