Book 2 14. INDIAN CAMP Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder

indian camp day after day was hotter

than the day before

the wind was hot as if it came out of an

oven ma

said the grass was turning yellow

the whole world was rippling green and

gold under the blazing sky

at noon the wind died no bird sang

everything was so still that laura could

hear the squirrels chattering in the

trees down by the creek

suddenly black crows flew overhead

coined their rough

sharp cause then everything was still

again

ma said that this was mid-summer

paul wondered where the indians had gone

he said they had left their little camp

on the prairie

and one day he asked laura and mary if

they would like to see that camp

laura jumped up and down and clapped her

hands but ma

objected it’s so far charles she said

and in this heat

pau’s blue eyes twinkled this heat

doesn’t hurt the indians and it won’t

hurt us he said

come on girls please

can’t jack come too laura begged

paul had taken his gun but he looked at

laura

and he looked at jack then he looked at

ma and he put the gun up on its pegs

again

all right laura he said i’ll take jack

caroline and leave you the gun

jack jumped around them wagging his

stump of a tail

as soon as he saw which way they were

going he set off trotting ahead

paul came next and behind him came mary

and then laura

mary kept her son bonnet on but lara let

hers dangle down her back

the ground was hot under their bare feet

the sunshine

pierced through their faded dresses and

tingled on their arms and backs

the air was really as hot as the air in

an oven

and it smelled faintly like baking bread

paul said the smell came from all the

grass seeds parching in the heat

they went farther and farther into the

vast prairie

laura felt smaller and smaller even paul

did not seem as big as he really was

at last they went down into the little

hollow where the indians had camped

jack started up a big rabbit when it

bounded out of the grass laura jumped

pau said quickly let him go jack we have

meat enough

so jack sat down and watched the big

rabbit go bounding away down the hollow

laura and mary looked around them they

stayed close to paw

low bushes grew on the sides of the

hollow buck brush

with sprays of berries faintly pink and

sumac

holding up green cones but showing here

and there

a bright red leaf the golden rod’s

plumes were turning gray

and the oxide daisies yellow petals hung

down from the crown

centers all this was hidden in the

secret little hollow

from the house laura had seen nothing

but grasses

and now from this hollow she could not

see the house

the prairie seemed to be level but it

was not level

laura asked paul if there were lots of

hollows on the prairie like this one

he said there were are indians in them

she almost whispered he said he didn’t

know

there might be she held tight to his

hand

and mary held to his other hand and they

looked at the indians camp

there were ashes where indian campfires

had been

there were holes in the ground where

tent poles had been driven

bones were scattered where indian dogs

had gnawed them

all along the sides of the hollow indian

ponies had bitten the grasses short

tracks of big moccasins and smaller

moccasins were everywhere

and tracks of little bare toes and over

these tracks were tracks of rabbits and

tracks of birds and wolves tracks

paul read the tracks for mary and laura

he showed them tracks of two

middle-sized moccasins by the edge of a

campfire’s ashes

an indian woman had squatted there she

wore a leather skirt with fringes

the tiny marks of the fringe were in the

dust

the track of her toes inside the

moccasins was deeper than the track of

her heels

because she had leaned forward to stir

something cooking in a pot on the fire

then paul picked up a smoke blackened

fork stick

and he said that the pot had hung from a

stick laid across the top of two upright

forked sticks he showed mary and laura

the holes where the forked

sticks had been driven into the ground

then he told them to look at the bones

around that campfire

and tell him what had cooked in that pot

they looked and they said rabbit

that was right the bones were rabbits

bones

suddenly laura shouted look

look something bright blue glittered in

the dust

she picked it up and it was a beautiful

blue bead laura shouted with joy

then mary saw a red bead and laura saw a

green one

and they forgot everything but beads paw

helped them look

they found white beads and brown beads

and more and more red and blue beads

all afternoon they hunted for beads in

the dust of the indian camp

now and then paul walked up to the edge

of the hollow and looked toward home

then he came back and helped hunt for

more beads they looked all the ground

over carefully

when they couldn’t find anymore it was

almost sunset

laura had a handful of beads and so did

mary

part tied them carefully in his hand

could chuff laura’s beads in one corner

and mary’s in another corner he put the

handkerchief in his pocket

and they started home the sun was low

behind their backs when they came out of

the hollow

home was small and very far away

and pau did not have his gun

paul walked so swiftly that laura could

hardly keep

up she trotted as fast as she could but

the sun

sank faster homes seemed farther and

farther away the prairie seemed larger

and a wind ran over it whispering

something

frightening all the grasses shook as if

they were scared

then paul turned around and his blue

eyes twinkled at laura

he said getting tired little half pint

it’s a long way for little legs he

picked her up

big girl that she was and he settled her

safe against his shoulder

he took mary by the hand and so they all

came home together

supper was cooking on the fire mar was

setting the table

and baby carrie played with little

pieces of wood on the floor

pod tossed the handkerchief to ma

i’m later than i meant caroline he said

but look what the girls found he took

the milk bucket

and went quickly to bring pat and patty

from their picket lines and to milk the

cow

ma untied the handkerchief and exclaimed

at what she found

the beads were even prettier than they

had been in the indian camp

laura stirred her beads with her finger

and watched them sparkle and shine

these are mine she said then mary said

carrie can have mine ma waited to hear

what laura would say

laura didn’t want to say anything she

wanted to keep those pretty beads

her chest felt all hot inside and she

wished with all her might

that mary wouldn’t always be such a good

little girl

but she couldn’t let mary be better than

she was

so she said slowly carrie

can have mine too that’s my

unselfish good little girl said ma

she poured mary’s beads into mary’s

hands and laura’s into laura’s hands

and she said she would give them a

thread to string them on

the beads would make a pretty necklace

for carrie to wear around her neck

mary and laura sat side by side on their

bed

and they strung those pretty beads on

the thread that ma gave them

each wet her end of the thread in her

mouth and twisted it tightly

then mary put her end of the thread

through the small hole in each of the

beads

and laura put her end through her beads

one by one

they didn’t say anything perhaps mary

felt sweet and good inside but laura

didn’t

when she looked at mary she wanted to

slap her

so she dared not look at mary again

the beads made a beautiful string carrie

clapped her hands and laughed when she

saw it

then ma tied it around carrie’s little

neck and it glittered there

laura felt a little bit better after all

her beads were not enough beads to make

a whole string and neither were mary’s

but together they made a whole string of

beads for carrie

when carrie felt the beads on her neck

she grabbed at them she was so little

that she did not know any better than to

break the string

so ma untied it and she put the beads

away until carrie should be old enough

to wear them

and often after that laura thought of

those pretty beads and she was still

naughty enough to want her beads for

herself

but it had been a wonderful day she

could always think about that long walk

across the prairie

and about all they had seen in the

indian camp