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