Chapter 9 - Blackbirds

I often ask myself, "How did Laura Ingalls Wilder get through hard times?" The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges.  Today we learn about destructive blackbirds, horrid corsets, and the uncertainty surrounding hoop skirts. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to reread Little Town on the Prairie to discover - What Would Laura Do?

After months of dreaming and saving money, it is finally happening. Mary is going to college in the Fall! Pa earned 100 dollars as a carpenter and the grains Pa planted are thriving. The oats and corn will be sold for cash to both buy coal and pay taxes. Plus, Ma's vegetable garden is going gangbusters! LIW writes, "There were little new potatoes for dinner, creamed with green peas, and there were string beans and green onions."

In order to "shock oats" you need to first tie bundles of oats with bands of oats. Then you must balance five bundles together and cover those bundles with two additional bundles. The stalks are spread to shelter the original five bundles. Easy Peasy!

Unfortunately, when the sun is shining on the Ingalls you can expect a plague of locust or a seven month blizzard to descend upon them. This time blackbirds beset the family. The pesky birds are eating the oats and leaving straw behind. Pa seems only mildly concerned about the birds. He says, "Never mind, there's a good crop of straw, and soon as I get the oats cut and shocked I'll clear out the blackbirds with a shotgun."  Ma sums it up by saying, "This earthly life is a battle." Can I hear an "Amen"?

Laura and Ma are making Mary's winter dress, along with six petticoats and three flannel union suits. Sewing is a complicated process involving newspaper patterns, dress maker charts, and lots of math. Laura realizes Ma hates sewing as much as she does. Bummer since women have to sew everything the family wears. If I had to sew everything for my family we would become minimalists with a capsule wardrobe of three items each. Or maybe two items. Do we really need more than a shirt and some pants?

Hand colored fashion plates from the Fall 1881 issue of Godey's Lady's book. During the "Little House" years a magazine subscription cost between 2 to 3 dollars. Ma never had a subscription and had to look at friends' magazines. 

Ma is worried. Rumors are circulating that hoop skirts are coming back into fashion. She has no way to verify fashion trends unless she walks miles to look at Mrs. Boast's Godey's Lady's book. Ma decides to cut the dress to accommodate hoops. I love how Ma and Laura want Mary to be fashionable at college. Ma's heart probably ached, knowing her sheltered, blind daughter would soon be living in a different state for seven years.   

Catch-stitching

LIW devotes pages of Chapter 9 to the tedious sewing process. Using all the pretty yarns and threads she received for Christmas, Laura is catch-stitching the hems of Mary's petticoats. Laura feels smug, knowing no one at college will have prettier underwear than Mary. 

For a tense moment, it appears Mary's dress doesn't fit. Ma, who faces every calamity head-on, seems ready to "end it" over Mary's dress. Luckily, Laura figures out that Mary's corsets are loose. The corset is tightened and the dress fits beautifully. Ma, not even caring about the sin of vanity, says "No matter where you go, you will be a pleasure to every eye that sees you. And, I am thankful to say, you may be sure your clothes are equal to any occasion."

Would Mary and Ma still wear their corsets during a pandemic?

Mary's loose corset ushers in a discussion of corsets. Ma and Mary wear their corsets 24/7. Laura cannot aide wearing her corsets to bed since she values taking full breaths of oxygen. Ma worries about Laura's figure and brags that Pa was once able to span her waist with his two hands. Laura gets a little saucy and retorts, "He can't now and he seems to like you." Laura is excited she will get to escape both her corset and sewing to help Pa with haying. 

Pa interrupts his farm work  in order to kill blackbirds. The birds have finished their first course of oats and have moved onto the second course of corn. Pa shoots so many birds that he runs out of cartridges. While Pa runs into town to buy more catridges, Ma and the girls run up and down the rows of corn SCREAMING. "And always the swirling wings rose and settled again. Always scores of blackbirds were clinging to the ears, and sharp beaks were tearing and pecking." Unfortunately, the blackbirds weren't scared and more uncommon blackbirds with red heads and yellow heads joined the common blackbirds in decimating the corn crop.

Clever Pa comes up with the idea of eating the blackbirds. Surprisingly, "Everyone agreed that they sere the tenderest, most delicious meat that had ever been on that table." One evening Ma even surprises the family with blackbird pie. As Ma always said - "There's no great loss without some small gain." Which makes me remember Prairie Pa's pandemic post - check out the link below if you happened to miss it.

Prairie Pa: Pandemic Musings

Laura begins to worry Mary will no longer be able to attend college. The corn and oats are gone. Pa will have to use his savings to buy coal and pay taxes.  But Pa surprises the family by saying to Ma, "Tomorrow's Saturday. If you'll plan to go to town with me, we can pick out Mary's trunk." 

Wait? What?!

 Pa is going to sell the heifer calf for 15 dollars and Mary will be off to college. Mary is worried that Pa is going to be set back an entire year, but intrepid Pa answers, "Now we've made up our minds you're going. A flock of pesky blackbirds can't stop us."

What Would Laura Do?

• Do her very best, even when it involves sewing
• Be generous with her sister
• Scream, wave arms, and run to save crops
• Try new foods
• Worry about finances

Okay Bonnetheads - see you soon for Chapter 10: Mary Goes to College. (Get your tissues ready.)

Prairie Eydie

Chapter 7 - Laura earns "Nine Dollars"

I often ask myself, "How did Laura Ingalls Wilder get through hard times?" The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges.  Today we learn about Laura and Pa being laid off on the same day. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to reread Little Town on the Prairie to discover - What Would Laura Do?

The chapter begins with Mrs. White laying Laura off from her job of basting collars and whip stitching buttonholes. The Spring rush of bachelors needing shirts is over. Laura has earned nine dollars for her six weeks of work. Rather than celebrating the nine dollars, Laura feels hollow and wishes she made even more money for Mary's college fund. Once again, Laura's generous heart wanted more for others than for herself. I wish I could say the same for my children.

Currently, my boys are saving up for a Nintendo Switch. They never even mentioned buying me a outdoor rug for the deck! My daughter spends all her money on wigs and eye shadow. She shows no interest in funding her own mother's neck serum dream.   

NOTE: The following paragraph explains what actually happened. In a letter, to her daughter, Rose, Laura admits she only worked three weeks for Mr. Clancy and Mrs. White. Pa didn't like all the quarreling that happened in the Clancy household. Also, Laura boarded with the family and didn't walk back and forth with Pa. Laura was paid 75 cents the first week and, due to excellent work, $1.50 the second and third weeks. Her wages equaled 3.75, but she purchased the following items: a thimble, cloth shoes, four yards of calico, 1/2 yard silk, a plume, and a charms - so, her take home pay was only 1.09.

Mrs. Boast had her chicken game dialed in!

Now - back to the book. Laura's sagging spirits lift when she sees Pa waiting for her. He calls out, "Look what we've got, to take home to your Ma!" Pa has a bushel basket full of 14 cheeping chicks. Just as Mrs. Boast promised, at the end of The Long Winter, she has given Ma a brood of chicks. (In case you're wondering - brood means a group of chicks hatching at the same time.) 

Pa and Laura walk home, each holding one handle of the bushel basket. Pa tells Laura the, he too, has been laid off from his carpentry job. Laura sadly admits she only earned nine dollars. Luckily, Pa knows the right thing to say to cheer up his unemployed daughter. "Nine dollars is nothing to sneeze at. You've done good work, too, and fully satisfied Mrs. White, haven't you?" Laura admits she has. So Pa wraps it up with a bow by saying, "Then it's a job well done." 

Wow. How does Pa always know the right thing to say? Would it be safe to assume Pa's dad, Lansford Whiting Ingalls, always said the right thing to Pa?

Pepper, added to bran mash, was supposed to warm up the chicks and increase egg production.

Ma is delighted with the chicks and carefully lifts each chick into her apron and carries them to the coop Pa built in his spare time. Ma makes the chicks a well peppered bran mash. As an eight year old, I reread these paragraphs, enchanted by the image of Ma with an apron full of bright eyed peeping chicks. Or maybe I was curious why she didn't carry them to the coop in the bushel basket?

In the evening, Laura checks on the chicks. She is gone so long that Ma comes and joins her. Laura blurts out her wish that Mary could go to college in the Fall. Ma surprises her by saying, "It may be that she can. Your Pa and I have been talking of it." Mary's education will take seven years. Ma explains that Laura's wages will purchase materials to make Mary's best dress and maybe some velvet for a hat.

What Would Laura Do:

• Feel guilty about not earning enough money
• Look to her pa for encouragement
• Enjoy surprising her ma
• Blurt out thoughts without thinking

See you soon for chapter 8 - Fourth of July.

Prairie Eydie

  

Chapter 5 - Laura is "Working in Town"

The happy chapters are coming to an end. In chapter five, Laura leaves her "happy place" to earn money for the family. Will she be able to cope with long work days, buttonholes, and hot-tempered bosses? 

Chapter 5 - "Working in Town"

Ma wonders what work there could possibly be in town for a girl that doesn't involve working in a hotel. Pa explains that Mr. Clancy (Real name: Chauncy L. Clayson) is opening a store only for dry goods. Imagine that, only dry goods! Pa explained how Mr. Clancy's mother-in-law, Mrs. Martha White, will be starting a business sewing shirts for settlers who are "baching" it and don't have a woman to do their sewing. Pa volunteered Laura to help Mrs. White sewing shirts. 

Pa says, "There's no flies on Clancy.  He's got a machine to sew the shirts." Pa then describes how the sewing machine works using words like "contraption" and "greased lightening." Laura knows Ma yearns for a sewing machine. It would save her SO much time. (Spoiler:  Pa buys Ma a sewing machine in the next book, These Happy Golden Years.) Laura is relived to find out she will not be operating the costly sewing machine. 

My current favorite "contraption" is my zucchini spiralizer.  I am making zoodles for family, friends, and people who walk by my house. My goal is to not waste produce from my garden. Keeping up with a zucchini plant is almost as challenging as keeping up with a two year old.

Laura learns, from Pa, that she will earn 25 cents a day PLUS a free lunch. Laura does the math and swoons about making a little more than six dollars a month. All the money can be used to send Mary to college. When I was Laura's age, I spent all my money on clothes, from Village Fashions, and make-up, from Holt Drug. Laura's open heart and wallet are commendable.

DeSmet, South Dakota in 1881

The big day arrives.  Laura and Pa walk to town, after Laura finishes her chores of carrying water and milking Ellen. Pa drops Laura off at Mr. Clancy's dry goods store. Mrs. White "welcomes" Laura by saying, "I hope you're a fast, neat sewer. Can you baste bias facings and make good firm buttonholes?" Laura is overwhelmed by her new surroundings and responsibilities. "The racketing hum of the machine filled Laura's head like the buzzing of a gigantic bumblebee. The wheel was a blur and the needle was a streak of light."

Before lunch, Mr. Clancy and Mrs. White begin quarreling over a shirt order.  Laura, who leads an extremely sheltered life, listens to her bosses shout and swear at each other. Mrs. White shrieks, "I'll not be driven and hounded! Not by you nor any other shanty Irishman!" Laura is so upset she can't eat and returns to her work. After dinner Mr. Clancy and Mrs. White act as if the argument never even happened.  Laura remembers Ma saying, "It takes all kinds of people to make a world." (Ain't that the truth?)

Laura spends the remainder of her 11+ hour work day basting collars, setting cuffs, and hemming shirt bottoms. She frets over spacing the button holes the exact same distance. "It is not easy to space buttonholes exactly the same distance apart, and it is very difficult to cut them precisely the right size." 

I am in awe of people who can sew. I made a pair of stretchy green shorts in 8th grade Home Economics.  Part of the grade was modeling your shorts for the class. My stretchy shorts were obscenely tight. Modeling them in front of teenage peers was out of the question. I took the zero and threw the shorts away in the bathroom.

The chapter calmly ends with Pa and Laura walking home. Pa asks Laura how her day was. Laura answers, "Mrs. White spoke well of my buttonholes." 

What Would Laura Do?

• Refuse to embrace new technology
• Use her wages to help family
• Avoid conflict
• Do the job right

Carrie volunteered to do extra chores so Laura could work in town. I am pretty sure I have never volunteered to do extra chores - unless it was a photo opportunity. 

See you soon for Chapter 6 - "The Month of Roses."
Prairie Eydie 

Chapter 4 - "The Happy Days" Are Here Again for the Ingalls

I am loving all the happy chapters in Little Town on the Prairie. Get ready because chapter 4 is delivering more fields of green, cat adventures, and cozy family moments. 

Fun facts. The first religious gathering in the settlement of DeSmet met at the Ingalls house. Later they gathered in an unfinished train depot until the church was built.

DeSmet, South Dakota is growing fast. This has to be irking reclusive Pa. But, he can no longer drag his family further West, since he promised Ma they wouldn't move again. 

Pa and Ma start attending meetings to organize a church. (I am a little surprised Ma is allowed to attend the meetings.) There is even more good news - Pa gets a job building the church! His work hours are from 7 AM to 6:30 PM and he earns 15 dollars a week. 

Laura meditates on the reasons she is happy and grateful.

• The garden is growing well
• They are getting milk from the cow, so they can regularly make butter, buttermilk, and cottage cheese
• PA IS EARNING MONEY!!!

Laura's thoughts turn to Mary attending college for the blind. Laura knows, when she turns 16, she must teach school to earn money for Mary's tuition. 

Then, Laura begins mentally listing the family's needs:

• dresses
• shoes
• flour, sugar, tea
• salt meat (there is no game for Pa to hunt due to the glut of settlers)  
• lumber for the house
• coal for the winter

Even with the oodles of money Pa is earning, it would be difficult to pay Mary's tuition. 

Did you know Laura got her started her writing career by penning articles about chicken rearing?  Her favorite breed with the brown leghorn chicken.

As if we haven't had enough joy, Pa comes home with even more good news. "I saw Boast in town today, and he sent word from Mrs. Boast. She is setting a hen for us! As soon as the chicks are big enough to scratch for themselves, he's going to bring us the whole batch." Mrs. Boast is a gem. Having a flock of chickens was life changing for the Ingalls. Laura day dreams about pullets, eggs to set, cockerels to fry, lots of eggs, and the occasional chicken pie.

Can enough be said about the kindness of friends? Yesterday a friend stopped by with a sweet gift. Cat pens and sticky notes - nestled in a bag decorated with hearts. My friend said, "I thought of you when I saw the pens and couldn't resist." I thought of you are powerful words. The gift made me feel special; plus, the post-its are super sticky. The world would be a better place if we all stopped to think of others. Today I am going to channel my inner Mrs. Boast.

LIW takes us on a tedious, comedic interlude involving the wee kitten wrestling with a rodent. The kitten eventually wins the match. "Then her own little teeth snapped hard, into the mouse's neck.  The mouse squeaked shrilly and went limp." (We do find out that the kitten's name is "Kitty.") I guess the Ingalls rodent infestation has been solved.    

Sadly, dear reader, the chapter ends with Pa asking Laura, "How would you like to work in town?" Drat. I thought he had forgotten about Laura getting a job.  

What Would Laura Do?

• List reasons to be happy and grateful
• Save money for college
• Make mental shopping lists
• Daydream  
• Get a job

See you soon for Chapter 5 - "Working in Town."

Prairie Eydie
      

Chapter 3 - "The Necessary Cat"

I often ask myself, "How did Laura Ingalls Wilder get through hard times?" The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges.  Today we learn about "The Great Rodent Infestation of 1881." During the Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to reread Little Town on the Prairie to discover - What Would Laura Do?

Chapter 3 begins with Pa complaining about gophers eating his corn. (I so prefer light-hearted conflict with gophers over the looming starvation we read about in The Long Winter.) Pa needs to replant the corn.  Before he gets to work, Pa makes up a fun rhyme to entertain his girls:

One for a gopher,
Two for a gopher,
Three for a gopher,  
Four don't go fur.

There are so many, many things to be sad about during a pandemic. But, it is important to laugh during a crisis. Since Pa's rhyme didn't make me laugh, here are some things I am smiling about these days:

A pocket of happiness.

I have rediscovered this comic thanks to Saint Vincent thrift stores.  Now my daughter is reading them, even though I question the content. Cathy comics center around swimsuits, salads, phone calls to her mom, and dull dates with Irving.  

• Cathy comics
• Video - follow the link for some fun - If Birds Had Arms
• Flowers in wall pockets
• Books by Liane Moriarty (I am currently reading Three Wishes)

Pa replants the corn. And again - the gophers strike. The gophers are eating, burying, and nibbling Pa's seed corn. Ma says the mice in her kitchen are as thick as honey. Ick. The Ingalls fondly recall Black Susan, the cat they left behind in Pepin, Wisconsin. They want a cat, but Pa says, "There's not a cat in this whole country, that I know of."  

That very night, Pa wakes up thinking a barber is cutting his hair. (Laura can hear everything through the partition.) Pa throws something against the wall. Ma thinks Pa is delusional.

Pa:  I heard the barber's shears go snip, snip. 

Ma (yawns): Well lie down and go to sleep. 

Pa: In my sleep I put up my hand and - Here. Feel my head."

Ma:  Charles!  Your hair's been cut! A place as big as my hand, shown clean off.

Pa:  I put up my hand, and I took hold of - something ---

Ma (hopelessly):  I do wish we had a cat.

The conversation continues until Ma declares that a mouse was gathering Pa's hair to make a nest. In the morning the family finds a dead mouse on the bedroom floor. Again - ick.  

Now I would believe a mouse could make a nest in Pa's beard. That seems extremely possible.

Okay.  I don't know about you, but I am not buying this story. Pa must have been a heck of a sound sleeper to let a mouse chew a hand sized chunk of hair off of his head.  If I had a rodent problem that bad, I would walk back East to get a cat. What about you, Bonnetheads? Could this have happened?  

Pa has a County Commissioner meeting to attend. He is the oldest settler and must help form a county. Pa, jokingly, says he will tell the other commissioners that his wife cut his hair. 

This adorable illustration makes up for the fact that Laura forgot to tell us the kitten's name.

When Pa returns from the meeting, he rushes into the house and places a tiny kitten into Mary's hands. Laura describes the kitten to Mary, "Its eyes aren't open yet. its baby fur is blue as tobacco smoke, and its face and its breast and its paws and the very tip of its tail are white. Its claws are the tiniest wee white things."

My cat, Millie.  She earns her keep by being cute.
I agree with Ma - a cat is well worth the price.   

Pa admits the kitten was too small to take from its mom, but he had to buy it before someone else. Pa paid 50 cents for the kitten and Laura freaks out at the cost. (Good thing Laura can't see my grocery store receipts. They would send her into a panic.) Ma quickly backs up Pa. "I don't blame you, Charles. A cat in this house will be well worth it."

Laura makes the kitten a cozy nest in a paste board box and Ma feeds the kitten milk from a teaspoon. Hopefully this young, tiny kitten will be able to single-handedly solve the claim shanty's gopher and mouse infestation.

What Would Laura Do?:

• Eavesdrop on private conversations.
• Lament about the cost of things nowadays.
• Create cozy environments for kittens.

See you soon for Chapter 4 - "The Happy Days."

Prairie Eydie   
  

      

Chapter Two - "Springtime on the Claim"

I often ask myself, "How did Laura Ingalls Wilder get through hard times?" The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to reread Little Town on the Prairie to discover - What Would Laura Do?

Little Town on the Prairie
Chapter 2 - "Springtime on the Claim"

Chapter two starts with a brief review of the previous book, The Long Winter. LIW (Laura Ingalls Wilder) skims over the winter of 1880 - 1881. She mentions the blizzards, twisting hay, and grinding wheat in the coffee mill. 

The Long Winter was painful for LIW to relive. I sense, in her writing, an eagerness to move on cheerful memories filled with family and the prairie's beauty.  I, too, am eager to focus on happier times. Soak up this description:  "Meadow larks were flying, singing, up from the dew-wet grass. Jack rabbits hopped beside the path, their bright eyes watching and their long ears twitching as they daintily nibbled their breakfast of tender grass tips." (Full disclosure. I skipped descriptions as a young reader and love them as an adult. I currently skip text that involves a character's dreams. I don't have time for that.)

This is the first time, in the Little House series, that Laura has her braids pinned up. Our Laura is becoming a woman!

Before breakfast, Laura milks the cow, Ellen, and moves Ellen and her calves' picket lines to fresh grass. Laura also teaches the calves to drink skim milk from a bucket. (I am not sure why this is necessary.) 

Left to right:  Carrie, Mary, and Laura. Notice the added flounce on the bottom of Laura's dress to make it a proper length.

Look closely. Laura already has the determination required of a pioneer woman.

Midway into the chapter, LIW gives a brief history of each sibling, except Grace. (Just so you know, Grace is 4 and asks a lot of questions.)

MARY

Scarlet fever left Mary's clear, blue eyes sightless. She prefers indoor work to outdoor work."I must work where I can see with my fingers. I couldn't tell the difference between a pea vine and a weed at the end of a hoe, but I can wash dishes and make beds and take care of Grace."  Mary is insufferably cheerful and good, which irritates Laura. 

CARRIE

Carrie is a proud 10 year old. She is small for her age, but is able to help Mary with all the housework.

LIW also mentions that many people are arriving from out East to settle the prairie. Ma said there was no time for visiting in the Spring. Poor Ma needed some "Girl Time." It was gossipy Pa, during the long winter, who got all of the daily chit-chat and news at Fuller's Hardware store.

During the Covid pandemic, I talk daily with girlfriends. Sometimes we talk about workouts. One of my friends is training to climb a mountain and carries weighted backpacks on her runs. Another friend is committed to getting in 10,000 steps a day. In my quest to firm up my "bat wings," I have discovered (with a little help from a friend) The Lazy Dancer lean arm workouts on You Tube. 

We also talk about what we are and aren't reading. For now, I have stopped reading books about World War II (The Alice Project, by Kate Quinn, sealed that deal.) Yesterday I finished reading The Hunger Games prequel, so apparently I have no problem reading about fake, future wars. My friend, Prairie Sherry, loans me all her finished books. She devours books like I devour sugar snap peas from my garden.

Sometimes we talk about food. Last night I gave my friend detailed instructions on how to make oatmeal in the microwave. She was still making it on the stove. No one needs an extra pan to wash. I talk about ordinary things everyday with my girlfriends. But it is through the ordinary that lasting friendships are built and maintained.  I wonder what Ma talked about with her girlfriends?

The marvelous invention that saved Pa's aching back.

After breakfast, Pa goes out to break sod since he wants to plant corn. Pa has a new toy - a breaking plow!  LIW jumps into a tedious description of how the breaking plow works. Let's cut to the chase. The blade cuts through the sod and the moldboard flips the 12 inch strip of sod over. Pa is over the moon and jokes, "By jingo, that plow can handle the work by itself. With all these new inventions nowadays, there's no use for a man's muscle." Is this the same man who thought kerosene was "new fangled" a few months ago?

The breaking plow was revolutionary to Pioneer farmers. I started thinking about things that have revolutionized my life.

• The hot glue gun. Just yesterday I glued my house numbers onto freshly painted siding. Now FedEx and UPS workers can stop ringing the doorbell to double check my address.  
• The FriXion erasable pen.  This game changer was shared with me by a 7th grade boy who loved to take perfect notes.
• Enbliss bralettes from Soma. Trust me ladies.  You need a wardrobe of these comfortable beauties.  

Sheep sorrel - Sprintime? Or lemon flavoring?

In the afternoon, Laura took Mary for a walk on the prairie. Laura shows her dreamer side and Mary displays her uptight, realistic side as they discuss the ever controversial - sheep sorrel.  

Laura:  Sheep sorrel tastes like springtime.

Mary (gently correcting):  It really tastes a little like lemon flavoring. 

A buffalo wallow.

During the walk, Laura decides to come clean about wanting to slap Mary in the past.  Laura confesses, "And you always were good.  It made me so mad sometimes, I wanted to slap you. But now you are good without even trying." Mary is shocked at the confession, but Mary also has a confession to make. "I was showing off to myself, what a good little girl I was, and being vain and proud, and I deserved to be slapped for it." Now it is Laura's turn to be shocked. The confessions are soon forgotten once they reach a buffalo wallow full of violets. The violets grew "thick as honey."

Laura and Mary bring violets for Pa, Carrie, and Grace to smell. (Grace will only play in the field behind Pa.) The girls watch as Pa plants four corn kernels in a hole. Curious Grace wants to know why and Pa responds with a catchy rhyme. 

One for the blackbird,

One for the crow,

And that will leave

Just two to grow.

I think of Laura every time I pick flowers from my gardens.  I may need to plant some violets next year.

After the corn is planted, Pa decides to finish building the shanty. He adds two tiny bedrooms, each with a window, onto the main room. Laura marvels how spacious the front room is now that there are no beds in it. More lovely descriptions of home follow:  "The scrubbed board walls and the floor were a soft yellow-gray. A bouquet of grass flowers and windflowers that Carrie had picked and put in the blue bowl on the table, seemed to bring springtime in." 

A replica of Ma's whatnot shelf.

The chapter ends with a lengthy description of Ma's whatnot shelf and with Laura declaring the front room "beautiful." LIW keeps her readers hanging as she does not address what job Pa wants Laura to take in town.  

What Would Laura Do?

• Soak in nature's beauty.
• Teach animals new skills.
• Take afternoon walks, alone or with family.
• Pick flowers.
• Be curious about planting veggies.
• Delight in an orderly, clean house.

Laura had a lot to teach us today! Now, I need to head outside to water my veggies, before taking a brisk walk. . . by myself. See you soon for chapter 3 - "The Necessary Cat".

Prairie Eydie