Book 2 25. SOLDIERS Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
soldiers
after the indians had gone a great peace
settled on the prairie
and one morning the whole land was green
when did that grass grow ma asked in
amazement
i thought the whole country was black
and now there’s nothing but green grass
as far as the eye can see
the whole sky was filled with lines of
wild ducks and wild geese flying north
crows caught above the trees along the
creek
the winds whispered in the new grass
bringing
sense of earth and of growing things
in the mornings the meadowlarks rose
singing into the sky
all day the curlews and kill deers and
sandpipers
chirped and sang in the creek bottoms
often in the early evening
the mockingbirds were singing
one night paul and mary and laura sat
still on the doorstep
watching little rabbits playing in the
grass in the starlight
three rabbit mothers hopped about with
lopping ears and watched their little
rabbits playing too
in the daytime everyone was busy paw
hurried with his plowing
and mary and laura helped ma plant the
early garden seeds
with the hoe maud dug small holes in the
matted grass roots that the plow had
turned up
and laura and mary carefully dropped the
seeds
then ma covered them snugly with earth
they planted onions
and carrots and peas and beans and
turnips
and they were all so happy because
spring had come
and pretty soon they would have
vegetables to eat
they were growing very tired of just
bread and meat
one evening paul came from the field
before sunset
and he helped ma set out the cabbage
plants and the sweet potato plants
ma had sowed the cabbage seed in a flat
box
and kept it in the house she watered it
carefully
and carried it every day from the
morning sunshine
to the afternoon sunshine that came
through the windows
and she had saved one of the christmas
sweet potatoes and planted it in another
box
the cabbage seeds were now little gray
green plants
and the sweet potato had sent up a stem
and green leaves from
every one of its eyes paw and ma
took each tiny plant very carefully and
settled its roots comfortably in holes
made for them they watered the roots and
pressed earth upon them firmly
it was dark before the last plant was in
its place
and ma and paul were tired but they were
glad
too because this year they’d have
cabbages and sweet potatoes
every day they all looked at that garden
it was rough and grassy
because it was made in the prairie sod
but all the tiny plants were growing
little crumpled leaves of peas came up
and tiny spears of onions
the beans themselves popped out of the
ground but it was a little
yellow bean stem coiled like a spring
that pushed them up
then the beam was cracked open and
dropped by two baby bean leaves
and the leaves unfolded flat to the
sunshine
pretty soon they would all begin to live
like kings
every morning paul went cheerfully
whistling to the field
he had planted some early sod potatoes
and some potatoes were safe to plant
later
now he carried a sack of corn fastened
to his belt
and as he plowed he threw grains of corn
into the furrow beside the plow’s point
the plow turned over a strip of sod on
top of the seed corn
but the corn would fight its way up
through the matted roots
and there would be a cornfield there
would be green corn for dinner someday
and next winter there would be ripe corn
for pat and patty to eat
one morning mary and laura were washing
the dishes
and ma was making the beds she was
humming softly to herself
and laura and mary were talking about
the garden
laura liked pea’s best and mary liked
beans
suddenly they heard pau’s voice loud and
angry
maul went quickly to the door and laura
and mary peeped out on either side of
her
paw was driving pet and patty from the
field dragging the plow
between them mr scott and mr edwards
were with paw
and mr scott was talking earnestly
no scott paul answered him i’ll not stay
here to be taken away by the soldiers
like an outlaw if some blasted
politicians in washington
hadn’t sent out word it would be all
right to settle here
i’d never have been three miles over the
line into indian territory
but i’ll not wait for the soldiers to
take us out we’re going now
what is the matter charles where are we
going
ma asked turned if i know
but we’re going we’re leaving here pau
said
scott and edward say the government is
sending soldiers to take all us settlers
out of indian territory
his face was very red and his eyes were
like blue fire
laura was frightened she had never seen
paul look like that
she pressed close against ma and was
still looking at paw
mr scott started to speak but paul
stopped him save your breath scott it’s
no use to say another word you can stay
till the soldiers come if you want to
i’m going out now mr edwards said he was
going to
he would not stay to be driven across
the line like an honorary yellow hound
right out to independence with us
edwards paul said but mr edwards
answered that he didn’t care to go north
he would make a boat and go on down the
river to some settlement farther south
better come out with us paul urged him
and go down on foot through missouri
it’s a risky trip one man alone in a
boat going down the verdigris among the
wild indian tribes
but mr edwards said he had already seen
missouri
and he had plenty of powder and lead
then pod told mr scott to take the cow
and calf
now we can’t take them with us pau said
you’ve been a good neighbor scott
and i’m sorry to leave you but we’re
going out in the morning
laura had heard all this but she had not
believed it until she saw mr scott
leading away the cow the gentle cow went
meekly away with the rope around her
long horns
and the calf frisked and jumped behind
there went all the milk and butter mr
edwards said he would be too busy to see
them again
he shook hands with paw saying goodbye
ingles
and good luck he shook hands with ma
and said goodbye ma’am i won’t be seeing
y’all again
but i sure will never forget your
kindness
then he turned to mary and laura and he
shook their hands as if they were grown
up
goodbye he said mary said politely
goodbye mr edwards but laura forgot to
be polite
she said oh mr edwards i wish you
wouldn’t go away
oh mr edwards thank you thank you for
going all the way to independence to
find santa claus for us
mr edward’s eyes shone very bright and
he went away without saying
another word paul began to unhitch
pet and patty in the middle of the
morning and laura and mary knew it was
really true
they really were going away from there
ma
didn’t say anything she went into the
house and looked around at the dishes
not washed and the bed only partly made
and she lifted up both hands and sat
down
mary and laura went on doing the dishes
they were careful not to let them make a
sound
they turned around quickly when paul
came in
he looked like himself again and he was
carrying the potato sack
here you are caroline he said and his
voice sounded natural
cook a plenty for dinner we’ve been
going without potatoes saving them for
seed
now we’ll eat them up so that day for
dinner
they ate the seed potatoes they were
very good
and laura knew that paul was right when
he said
there’s no great loss without some small
gang after dinner
he took the wagon bows from their pegs
in the barn
he put them on the wagon one end of each
bow in its iron strap on one side of the
wagon box
and the other end in its iron strap on
the other side
when all the bows were standing up in
their places
paw and ma spread the wagon cover over
them and tied it down
tightly then paul pulled the rope in the
end of the wagon cover
till it puckered together and left only
a tiny round hole in the middle of the
back
there stood the covered wagon all ready
to load in the morning
everyone was quiet that night even jack
felt that something was wrong
and he lay down close to laura when she
went to bed
it was now too warm for a fire but pau
and ma
sat looking at the ashes in the
fireplace
ma sighed gently and said a whole year
gone charles but paul
answered cheerfully what’s a year amount
to
we have all the time there is
you