It Feels Like "The Long Winter"

I often ask myself, "How did Laura Ingalls Wilder get through hard times?"  The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges.  There were tiresome stories with Pa, forced cheerfulness, and food shortages.  During this period of self-quarantine, I decided to reread The Long Winter to discover - What Would Laura Do?

Chapter 21 kicks off with warmer temperatures and bright sunshine.  The calm weather is a welcomed change.  But somethings never change, Pa heads to Fuller's Hardware after a lunch of brown bread and potatoes.  Pa returns whistling a tune and carrying 4 pounds of beef.  Ma immediately wants to know where Pa found such a treasure.

Mr. Foster (Of Leading-the-Children-Onto-Open-Prairie-During-a-Blizzard AND Scaring-the-Herd-of-Antelope Fame) butchered his oxen and was selling the meat for 25 cents a pound.  In my humble opinion, Mr. Foster should have given the meat away to make-up for the antelope blunder.  It is surprising the townspeople didn't throw him headfirst into a snowbank and call it done.  Ma starts meal planning immediately.  She makes plans to sear the meat while Laura's mind drifts to gravy. 

Bad news follows the good news.  Pa tells the family the train will not be chugging into DeSmet until Spring.  Already two trains are snowed in between the Tracy cut and DeSmet.  The Train Superintendent has run out of patience with blizzards and has given up.  

Gentle, composed Ma reacts in a less than an expected way. She is rocking and rolling her hands in her apron.  "Patience!  What's his patience got to do with it I'd like to know!  He knows we are out here without supplies.  How does he think we are going to live till Spring?"  Pa calms Ma down by reminding her they only have the rest of January, and then the short month of February, and then it will be Spring in March.  (Hmm.  Midwesterners know Spring is temperamental and could wait until May to truly show up.)  

Laura does a mental inventory of the family's food supply:

• 4 pounds of ox meat
• a few potatoes
• a partially filled sack of wheat

I understand making mental food inventories.  I am limiting my grocery store trips to once every two weeks.  The Ingalls could probably live on what I have in my kitchen for months.  Unfortunately, my kids become anxious when we are low on tortilla chips and mineral water.  I have been channeling my inner Ma by asking - "How can I use what I have to make a carb heavy dinner?"  When the pandemic is over, I would like to only visit the grocery store once a week.  Planning ahead will give me extra time to read.

GASP!  The Superintendent is a block of ice!

I, like the Train Superintendent, have run out of patience for what happens next.  Laura panics and asks Pa if he could go and kill a rabbit.  Instead of grabbing his gun, Pa cuddles his daughters and proceeds to tell a tedious 6 1/2 page allegory.  I can summarize the allegory into two sentences. 

• Eastern Train Superintendents are quitters, unlike Westerners who have perseverance.  Take it from Pa, "Well, the Superintendent is an Easterner.  It takes patience and perseverance to contend with things out here in the West."
• Train Superintendents freezing into a block of ice is an exaggeration that makes even Ma smile.

The epic allegory had more effect on Laura than it did on me.  Laura deduced that Pa wanted her to stand by him in hard times, to be cheerful, and to keep up the family's spirits.  So, Laura and Ma dutifully start singing about Canaan to lift the somber mood.  

Laura goes to bed and she can't sleep.  Laura knows the wheat and potatoes won't last until Spring.

WWLD Summary:

• Stand by your family in hard times.
• Sing to both pass time and lift spirits.  
• Know what you have in your pantry.

Smile now because you won't be smiling after chapter 22.

See you soon for Chapter 22 - "Cold and Dark."  

Prairie Eydie