Book 3 8. SUNDAY Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
sunday when almanzo trudged into the
kitchen next morning with
two brimming milk pails mother was
making stacked
pancakes because this was sunday
the big blue platter on the stove’s
hearth was
full of plump sausage cakes eliza jane
was cutting apple pies
and alice was dishing up the oatmeal as
usual
but the little blue platters stood hot
on the back of the stove
and 10 stacks of pancakes rose in tall
towers on it
10 pancakes cooked on the smoking
griddle
and as fast as they were done mother
added another cake to each stack
and buttered it lavishly and covered it
with maple sugar
butter and sugar melted together and
soaked the fluffy pancakes and dripped
all down their crisp edges
that was stacked pancakes almanzo liked
them better than any other kind of
pancakes
mother kept on frying them till the
others had eaten their oatmeal
she could never make too many stacked
pancakes
they all ate pile after pile of them and
almanzo was still eating
when mother pushed back her chair and
said mercy on
us eight o’clock i must fly
mother always flew her feet went
pattering
her hands move so fast you can hardly
watch them
she never sat down in the daytime except
at her spinning wheel or loom
and then her hands flew her feet tapped
the spinning wheel was a blur or the
loom was clattering
thump thud clickety-clack but on sunday
morning she made everybody else hurry
too
father curried and brushed the sleek
brown driving horses till they shone
almanzo dusted the sleigh and royal
wiped the silver mounted harness
they hitched up the horses and then they
went to the house to put on their sunday
clothes
mother was in the pantry setting the top
crust
on the sunday chicken pie three fat hens
were in the pie
under the bubbling gravy mother spread
the crust
and crimped the edges and the gravy
showed through the two pine trees she
had cut in the dough she put the pie
in the heating stove’s oven with the
beans and the ryan engine bread
father filled the stove with hickory
logs and closed the dampers
while mother flew to lay out his clothes
and dress herself
that mother had made of store bottom
cloth woven by machines
she had made father’s suit a fine black
broadcloth
the coat had a velvet collar and his
shirt was made of french calico
his stock was black silk and on sundays
he did not wear boots he wore shoes
of thin calf skin mother was dressed in
brown moreno
with a white lace collar and white lace
frills at her wrists
under the big bell-shaped sleeves
she had knitted the lace of finest
thread
and it was like cobwebs there were rows
of brown
velvet around her sleeves and down the
front of her bask
and she had made her bonnet of the same
brown velvet
with brown velvet strings tied under her
chin
almanzo was proud of mother in her fine
sunday clothes
the girls were very fine too but he did
not feel the same about them
their hoop skirts were so big that royal
and almanzo could hardly get into the
sleigh
they had to scrooge down and let those
hoops bulge over their knees
and if they even moved eliza james would
cry out
be careful clumsy and alice would mourn
oh dear me my ribbons are must
but when they were all tucked under the
buffalo skin robes
with hot bricks at their feet father let
the prancing horses go
and almanzo forgot everything else the
sleigh
went like the wind the beautiful horses
shone in the sun
their necks were arched and their heads
were up
and their slender legs spurned the snowy
road
they seemed to be flying their glossy
long manes and tails
blowing back in the wind of their speed
father sat straight and proud holding
the reins and letting the horses go as
fast as they would
he never used the whip his horses were
gentle
and perfectly trained he had only to
tighten or slack in the reins
and they obeyed him his horses were the
best horses in new york state
or maybe in the whole world
malone was five miles away but father
never started
till thirty minutes before church time
that team would trot the whole five
miles
and he would stable them and blanket
them and be on the church steps
when the bell rang when almanzo thought
that it would be
years and years before he could hold
reins and drive horses like that
he could hardly bear it in no time at
all father was driving into the church
sheds him alone
the sheds were one long low building
all around the four sides of a square
you drove into the square through a gate
every man who belonged to the church
paid rent for a shed
according to his means and father had
the best one
it was so large that he drove inside it
to unhitch
and there was a manger with feed boxes
and space for hay and oats
father let almanzo help put blankets on
the horses
while mother and the girls shook out
their skirts
and smoothed their ribbons then they all
walked sedately into the church
the first clang of the bell rang out
when they were on the steps
after that there was nothing to do but
sit still
till the sermon was over it was two
hours long almanzo’s legs
ached and his jaw wanted to yawn
but he dared not yawn or fidget he must
sit
perfectly still and never take his eyes
from the preacher’s solemn face or
wagging beard almanzo couldn’t
understand how father knew that he
wasn’t looking at the preacher
if father was looking at the preacher
himself
but father always did know
at last it was over in the sunshine
outside the church
almanzo felt better boys must not
run or laugh or talk loudly on sunday
but they could talk quietly and
almanzo’s cousin frank was there
frank’s father was uncle wesley he owned
the potato starch mill
and lived in town he did not have a farm
so frank was only a town boy and he
played with town boys
but this sunday morning he was wearing a
store bottom cap
it was made of plaid cloth machine woven
and it had ear flaps that buttoned under
the chin
frank unbuttoned them and showed almanzo
that they would turn up and button
across the cap’s top
he said the cap came from new york city
his father had bought it in mr case’s
store
almanzo had never seen a cap like that
he wanted one royal said it was a silly
cap
he said to frank what’s the sense of ear
flaps that button over the top
nobody has ears on the top of his head
so almanzo knew that royal wanted a cap
like that too
how much did it cost almanzo asked
50 cents frank said proudly
almanzo knew he could not have one the
caps that mother made were snug and warm
and it would be a foolish waste of money
to buy a cap
50 cents was a lot of money
you just ought to see our horses he said
to frank
huh they’re not your horses frank said
they’re your father’s horses you haven’t
got a horse
nor even a colt i’m going to have a cult
said almanzo when frank
asked just then eliza jane called over
her shoulder
come almanzo father’s hitching up
he hurried away after eliza jane but
frank called after him low
you are not either going to have a cult
almanzo got soberly into the sleigh
he wondered if he would ever be big
enough to have anything he wanted
when he was younger father sometimes let
him hold the ends of the reins while
father drove
but he was not a baby now he wanted to
drive the horses himself
father allowed him to brush and curry
comb and rub down the gentle
old workhorses and to drive them on the
harrow
but he could not even go into the stalls
with the spirited driving horses or the
colts
he hardly dared stroke their soft noses
through the bars and
scratch a little on their foreheads
under the forelocks
father said you boys keep away from
those colds
in five minutes you can teach them
tricks it will take me months to gentle
out of them
he felt a little better when he sat down
to the good sunday dinner
mother sliced the hot ryan engine bread
on the breadboard by her plate
father’s spoon cut deep into the chicken
pie
he scooped up big pieces of thick crust
and turned up their fluffy yellow
undersides on the plate
he poured gravy over them he dipped up
big
pieces of tender chicken dark meat and
white meat
sliding from the bones he added a mound
of baked beans
and topped it with a quivering slice of
fat pork
at the edge of the plate he piled dark
red beet pickles
and he handed the plate to almanzo
silently almanzo ate it all then he ate
a piece of pumpkin pie
and he felt very full inside but
he ate a piece of apple pie with cheese
after dinner eliza jane and alice did
the dishes
but father and mother and royal and
almanzo did nothing at all
the whole afternoon they sat in the
drowsy warm dining room
mother read the bible and eliza jane
read a book
and father’s head nodded till he woke
with a jerk
and then it began to nod again
royal fingered the wooden chain that he
could not whittle
and alice looked for a long time out of
the window
but almanzo just sat
he had to he was not allowed to do
anything else
for sunday was not a day for working or
playing
it was a day for going to church and for
sitting still
almanzo was glad when it was time to do
the chores