Book 4 16. THE WONDERFUL HOUSE Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder

[Music]

the wonderful house

the creek went down all at once the days

were warm

and early every morning paul went to

work the wheat field with sam and david

the christmas horses

i declare ma said you’re working that

ground to death and killing yourself

but paul said the ground was dry because

there’d not been enough snow

he must plow deep and harrow well and

get the wheat sowed quickly

every day he was working before the sun

came up and he worked till dark

laura waited in the dark till she heard

sam and david splashing into the ford

then she ran into the dugout for the

lantern and she hurried to the stable to

hold it so that park could see to do the

chores

he was too tired to laugh or talk he ate

a supper

and went to bed at last

the wheat was sowed then he sowed oats

and he made the potato patch and the

garden

ma and mary and laura helped plant the

potatoes

and sprinkle little seeds in the garden

rose and they let

carrie think she was helping

the whole world was green with grass now

the yellow green willow leaves were

uncurling

violets and buttercups were thick in the

prairie hollows

and the sorrels clover-like leaves and

lavender blossoms were sour and good to

eat

only the wheat field was bare and brown

one evening par showed laura a faint

green mist

on that brown field the wheat was up

each tiny sprout was so thin you could

hardly see it

but so many of them all together made

that misty green

everyone was happy that night because

the wheat was a good stand

the next day pau drove to town sam and

david could go to town and come back in

one afternoon

there was hardly time to miss paw and

they were not even watching for him when

he came home

laura heard the wagon first and she was

the first one up the path

paul was sitting on the wagon seat his

face was one big

shining of joy and lumber was piled

high in the wagon box behind him he

sang out here’s your new house caroline

but charles ma gasped

laura ran and climbed up over the wheel

up onto that pile of boards

she had never seen such smooth straight

beautiful boards

they had been sawed by machinery

but the wheat’s hardly up yet ma said

that’s all right paul told her they let

me have the lumber

and we’ll pay for it when we sell the

wheat

laura asked him are we going to have a

house made of boards

yes flutter budget said paul we’re going

to have a whole house built of sod

lumber and it’s going to have glass

windows it was really true

next morning mr nelson came to help paw

and they began digging the cellar for

that house

they were going to have that wonderful

house just because the wheat was growing

laura and mary could hardly stay in the

dugout long enough to do their work

but mom made them do it and i won’t have

you giving your work a lick and a

promise

said ma so they washed every breakfast

dish

and put them all away they made their

bed neatly

they brushed the floor with the willow

twig broom

and set the broom in its place then they

could go

they ran down the steps and over the

foot bridge and under the willows up to

the prairie

they went through the prairie grasses

and up to the top of a green knoll

where paul and mr nelson were building

the new house

it was fun to watch them set up the

skeleton house

the timbers stood up slender and gold

and new

and the sky was very blue between them

the hammers made a gay

sound the planes cut long curly shavings

from the sweet smelling boards

laura and mary hung little shavings over

their ears for earrings

they put them around their necks for

necklaces

lara tucked long ones in her hair and

they hung down

in golden curls just the color she had

always wanted her hair to be

up on the skeleton roof paw and mr

nelson

hammered and sawed little blocks of wood

fell

down and laura and mary gathered them in

piles

and built houses of their own they had

never had such a good time

pau and mr nelson covered the skeleton

walls with slanting boards nailed on

they shingled the roof with bottom

shingles

bottom shingles were thin and all the

same

size they were far finer shingles than

even paw could hew with an x

they made an even tight roof with not

one

crack in it then paul laid the floor of

silky smooth

boards that were grooved along the edges

and fitted together perfectly overhead

he lay another floor for the upstairs

and that made the ceiling of the

downstairs

across the downstairs paul put up a

partition

that house was going to have two rooms

one was the bedroom

and the other was only to live in he put

two shining clear glass windows in that

room

one looking toward the sunrise and the

other beside the doorway to the south

in the bedroom walls he set two more

windows

and they were glass windows too laura

had never seen such

wonderful windows they were in halves

there were six panes of glass in each

half and the bottom half

would push up and stay up when a stick

was set under it

opposite the front door paul put a back

door

and outside it he built a tiny room that

was a lean

to because it leaned against the house

it would keep out the north winds in the

winter time

and it was a place where mark could keep

her broom and mop and washtub

now mr nelson was not there and laura

asked questions all the time

paul said the bedroom was for ma and

carrie and him

he said the attic was for mary and laura

to sleep in and to play in

laura wanted so much to see it that he

stopped work on the lean-to

and nailed strips of board up the wall

to make the attic ladder

lara skipped quickly up that ladder till

her head came up through the hole in the

attic floor

the attic was as big as both rooms

downstairs

its floor was smooth boards its slanting

roof

was the underside of the fresh yellow

shingles

there was a little window at each end of

that attic

and those windows were glass windows

at first mary was scared to swing off

the ladder to the attic floor

then she was scared to step down through

the floor hole onto the ladder

laura felt scared too but she pretended

she didn’t

and they soon got used to getting on and

off the ladder

now they thought the house was done but

paw nailed black tar paper all

over the outside of the house walls then

he nailed more boards over that paper

they were long smooth boards one lapping

over the other

all up the sides of the house

then around the windows and the doorways

paul nailed flat frames this house is

tight as a drum he said there was not

one single crack in the roof

or the walls or the floor of that house

to let in

rain or cold winds then paw put in the

doors

and they were bottom doors they were

smooth

and far thinner than slab doors hewed

with an

axe and even thinner panes were set into

them

above and below their middles their

hinges were bottom hinges

and it was marvelous to see them open

and shut

they did not rattle like wooden hinges

or let the door drag like leather hinges

into those doors paw set bottom locks

with keys that went into small

shaped holes and turned and clicked

these locks had white china doorknobs

then one day paul said laura and mary

can you keep a secret oh yes paw

they said promise you won’t tell ma

he asked and they promised he opened the

lean two door

and there stood a shiny black cook stove

paw had brought it from town and hidden

it there

to surprise ma on top

that cook stove had four round holes

and four round lids fitted them each lid

had a grooved hole in it

and there was an iron handle that fitted

into the holes

to lift the lid by in front

there was a long low door there were

slits in this door

and a piece of iron would slide back and

forth to close these slits or open them

that was the draft under it a shelf like

an

oblong pan stuck out that was to catch

ashes and keep them from dropping on the

floor

a lid swung flat over this hollowed-out

shelf

and on the lid were raised iron letters

in

rows mary put her finger on the bottom

row and spelled out

p a t

1 7 7 art

she asked pah what’s that spell paw

it spells pat pau said

laura opened a big door on the side of

the stove

and looked into a big square place with

a shelf across it

paw what’s this for she asked him

it’s the oven part told her he lifted

that marvelous stove and set it in the

living room and put up the stovepipe

piece by piece the stovepipe went up

through the ceiling

and the attic and through a hole he

sawed in the roof

then park climbed onto the roof and he

set a larger tin pipe over the stove

pipe

the tin pipe had a spread out flat

bottom that covered the hole in the roof

not a drop of rain could run down the

stove pipe into the new house

that was a prairie chimney

well it’s done pause said

even to a prairie chimney there was

nothing more that a house could possibly

have

the glass windows made the inside of

that house so light

that you would hardly know you were in a

house it smelled clean

and piney from the yellow new board

walls and floor

the cook stove stood lordly in the

corner by the lemtu door

a touch on the white china doorknob

swung

the bottom door on its bottom hinges

and the doorknob’s little iron tongue

clicked

and held the door shut we’ll move in

tomorrow morning paul said this is the

last night we’ll sleep in a dugout

laura and mary took his hands and they

went down the knoll

the wheat field was a silky shimmery

green

rippling over a curve of the prairie its

sides were straight and its corners

square

and all around it the wild prairie

grasses looked coarser and darker green

lara looked back at that wonderful house

in the sunshine on the knoll its sod

lumber walls and roof were as

golden as a straw stack