Book 4 9. GRASSHOPPER WEATHER Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
grasshopper weather
now plums were ripening in the wild plum
thickets all along
plum creek plum trees were low trees
they grew close together with many
little scraggly branches all strung with
thin-skinned
juicy plums around them the air was
sweet and
sleepy and wings hummed
paul was plowing all the land across the
creek where he had cut the hay
early before the sun came up when laura
went to drive spot to meet the cattle at
the gray boulder
pete and bright were gone from the
stable
paw had yoked them to the plow and gone
to work
when laura and mary had washed the
breakfast dishes
they took ten pails and went to pick
plums
from the top of their house they could
see paw plowing
the oxen and the plow and paw crawled
slowly along a curve of the
prairie they looked very small
and a little smoke of dust blew away
from the plow
every day the velvety brown dark patch
of plowed land grew bigger
it ate up the silvery gold stubble field
beyond the haystacks
it spread over the prairie waves it was
going to be a very big wheat field
and when someday paul cut the wheat he
and ma
and laura and mary would have everything
they could think of
they would have a house and horses and
candy every day when paul made a wheat
crop
laura went wading through the tall
grasses to the plum thickets by the
creek
her sun bonnet hung down her back and
she swung her tin pail
the grasses were crisping yellow now and
dozens of little grasshoppers jumped
crackling away from laura’s swishing
feet
mary came walking behind in the path
laura made and she kept her sun bonnet
on
when they came to a plum thicket they
set down their big pails
they filled their little pails with
plums and emptied them into
the big pails till they were full then
they carried the big pails back to the
roof of the dugout
on the clean grass moss spread clean
cloths
and laura and mary laid the plums on the
cloths
to dry in the sun next winter they would
have dried plums to eat
the shade of the plum thickets was a
thin shade
sunshine flickered between the narrow
leaves overhead
the little branches sagged with their
weight of plums and plums had fallen and
rolled together between drifts of long
grass underfoot
some were smashed some were smooth and
perfect
and some had cracked open showing the
juicy yellow inside
bees and hornets stood thick along the
cracks
sucking up the juices with all their
might
their scaly tails wiggled with joy
they were too busy and too happy to
sting when laura poked them with a blade
of grass
they only moved a step and did not stop
sucking up the good plum juice
lara put all the good plums in her pail
but she flicked the hornets off the
cracked plums with her fingernail
and quickly popped the plum into her
mouth
it was sweet and warm and juicy
the hornets buzzed around her in dismay
they did not know what had become of
their plum
but in a minute they pushed into the
crowds sucking at another one
i declare you eat more plums than you
pick up mary said
i don’t either any such a thing laura
contradicted
i pick up every plum i eat you know very
well what i mean
mary said crossley you just play around
while i work
but laura filled her big pail as quickly
as mary filled hers
mary was crossed because she would
rather sew or read than pick
plums but laura hated to sit still
she liked picking plums she liked to
shake the trees
you must know exactly how to shake a
plum tree
if you shake it too hard the green plums
fall
and that wastes them if you shake it too
softly
you do not get all the right plums in
the night they will fall
and some will smash and be wasted
laura learned exactly how to shake a
plum tree
she held its scaling rough bowl and
shook it
one quick gentle shake every plum
swung on its stem and all around her
they fell
pattering then one more jerk while the
plums were swinging and the last ripe
ones fell
there were many kinds of plums when the
red ones were all picked
the yellow ones were ripe then the blue
ones
the largest of all were the very last
they were the frost plums that would not
ripen until after frost
one morning the whole world was
delicately silvered
every blade of grass was silvery and the
path had a
thin sheen it was hot like fire under
laura’s bare feet
and they left dark footprints in it the
air was
cold and her nose and her breath steamed
so did spots when the sun came
up the whole prairie sparkled millions
of
tiny tiny sparks of color blazed on the
grasses
that day the frost plums were ripe
they were large purple plums and all
over their purple
was a silvery thin sheen like frost
the sun was not so hot now and the
nights were chilly
the prairie was almost the tawny color
of the haystacks
the smell of the air was different and
the sky was not so sharply blue
still the sunshine was warm at noon
there was no rain
and no more frosts it was almost
thanksgiving time
and there was no snow i don’t know what
to make of it
paul said i never saw weather like this
nelson says the old-timers call it
grasshopper weather
or whatever do they mean by that ma
asked him
pau shook his head you can’t prove it by
me
grasshopper weather was what nelson said
i couldn’t make out what he meant by it
likely at some old norwegian saying ma
said
laura liked the sound of the words and
when she ran through the crackling
prairie grasses and saw the grasshoppers
jumping she sang to herself
grasshopper weather grasshopper weather