Book 5 11. THE WONDERFUL AFTERNOON Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
[Music]
the wonderful
afternoon early every morning while
laura washed the breakfast dishes
she could look through the open door and
see the men leaving the boarding shanty
and going to the thatch stable for their
horses
then there was a rattling of harness and
a confusion of talking and shouts
and the men and the teams went out to
the job leaving quietness behind them
all the days went by one like another
on mondays laura helped ma do the
washing and bring in the clean scented
clothes that dried quickly in the wind
and sunshine
on tuesdays she sprinkled them and
helped ma
iron them on wednesdays she did her task
of mending and sewing
though she did not like to mary was
learning to sew
without seeing her sensitive fingers
could hem nicely
and she could sew quilt patches if the
colors were matched for her
at noon the camp was noisy again with
all the teams and the men coming in to
dinner
then paw came from the store and they
all ate in the little shanty with the
wind blowing against it
and the wide prairie outside the door
softly colored in all shades from dark
brown to russet and tan
the prairie rolled and gentle swells to
the far edge of the sky
the winds were blowing colder at night
more and more wild birds were flying
southward
and paw said that winter would not be
long in coming
but lara did not think about winter
she wanted to know where the men were
working and how they made a railroad
grade
every morning they went out and at noon
and at night they came back
but all that she saw working was a
smudge of dust that came up from the
tawny prairie in the west
she wanted to see the men building the
railroad
aunt docea moved into the camp one day
and she brought two cows
she said i brought our milk on the hoof
charles
it’s the only way to get any out here
where there aren’t any farmers
one of the cows was for paw she was a
pretty bright red cow named ellen
paul untied her from the back of aunt
decea’s wagon
and handed the halter rope to laura here
laura
he said you’re old enough to take care
of her take her out where the grass is
good
and be sure to drive down the picket pin
good and firm
laura and lena picketed the cows not far
apart in good grass
every morning and every evening they met
to take care of the cows
they led them to drink from the lake and
move the picket pins to fresh grass
and then they did the milking and while
they milked they sang
lena knew many new songs and laura
learned them quickly
together while the milk streamed into
the bright tin pails they
sang a life on the ocean wave
a home on the rolling deep the pollywogs
wagged their tails
and the tears rolled down their cheeks
sometimes lena sang softly and so did
laura
oh i wouldn’t marry a farmer
he’s always in the dirt
i’d rather marry a railroad man
who wears a striped shirt
but laura liked the wall songs best she
loved the broom song
though they had to sing broom so many
times to make the tune swing
by a broom by a broom broom by a broom
room by a broom room
will you buy of this wondering bavarian
a broom to brush off the insects
that come to annoy you you find it quite
useful
by night and by day
the cows stood quiet chewing their cuds
as though they were listening to the
singing until the milking was done
then with the pails of warm sweet smelly
milk
laura and lena walk back toward the
shanties
in the mornings the men were coming out
of the bunk house washing in the basins
on the bench by the door and combing
their hair
and the sun was rising over silver lake
in the evenings the sky flamed with red
and purple and gold
the sun had set and the teams and men
were coming in dark along the dusty road
they had worn on the prairie
and singing then quickly
lena hurried to aunt ducia shanti and
laura to moz
because they must strain the milk before
the cream began to rise
and help get supper lena had so much
work to do
helping aunt docea with cousin louisa
that she had no time to play
and laura though she did not work so
hard was busy enough
so they hardly ever met except at
milking time
if paw hadn’t put our black ponies to
work on the grade lina said one evening
you know what i’d do no what laura
asked well if i could get away
and if we had the ponies to ride we’d go
see the men working said lena
don’t you want to yes i want to laura
said
she did not have to decide whether or
not she would disobey paw because they
couldn’t do it anyway
suddenly one day at dinner paw sat down
his teacup
wiped his mustache and said you ask too
many questions flutter budget
put on your bonnet and come up to the
store along about two o’clock
i’ll take you out and let you see for
yourself
oh paw laura cried out
there laura don’t get so excited ma said
quietly
laura knew she should not shout she kept
her voice low
paw can lena go too we will decide about
that later
said ma after paw had gone back to the
store
ma talked seriously to laura she said
that she wanted her girls to know how to
behave
to speak nicely in low voices and have
gentle manners and always be ladies
they had always lived in wild rough
places except for a little while on plum
creek
and now they were in a rough railroad
camp and it would be some time before
this country was civilized
until then ma thought it best that they
keep themselves
to themselves she wanted laura to stay
away from the camp
and not get acquainted with any of the
rough men there
it would be all right for her to go
quietly with paw to see the work this
once but she must be well behaved and
ladylike
and remember that a lady never did
anything that could attract attention
yes ma laura said and laura
i do not want you to take lena said ma
lina is a good capable girl but she is
boisterous
and ocea has not curbed her as much as
she might
if you must go where those rough men are
working in the dirt
and go quietly with your paw and come
back quietly
and say no more about it yes ma
laura said but but what laura
ma asked nothing said laura
i don’t know why you want to go anyway
mary wondered
it’s much nicer here in the shanty or
taking a little walk by the lake
i just want to i want to see them
building a railroad laura said
she tied on her sun bonnet when she set
out and resolved
to keep it tied on paul was alone in the
store
he put on his broad brimmed hat and
padlocked the door
and they went out on the prairie
together
at that time of day when there were no
shadows the prairie looked level
but it was not in a few minutes
it swells hid the shanties and on the
grassy land
there was nothing to be seen but the
dusty track of the road
and the railroad grade beside it against
the sky a head rose up the smudge of
dust
blowing away on the wind paw held onto
his hat
and laura bent her head in the flapping
sun bonnet
and they trudged along together for some
time
then paul stopped and said there you are
half pint
they were standing on a little rise of
the land
before them the railroad grade ended
bluntly
in front of it men with teams and plows
were plowing onward toward the west
breaking a wide strip of the prairie sod
do they do it with plows laura said
it seems strange to her to think that
men with plows
went ahead into this country that had
never been plowed
to build a railroad and scrapers
said paul now watch laura
between the plowing and the blunt end of
the grade
teams and men were going slowly around
in a circle
over the end of the grade and backed
across the plowed strip
the teams were pulling wide deep shovels
these were the scrapers instead of one
long shovel handle
each scraper had two short handles and a
strong half hoop of steel
curved from one side of the scraper to
the other side
the team was hitched to this curve of
steel
when a man and his team came to the
plowed land
another man took hold of the scraper
handles
and held them just high enough to thrust
the round shovel point
into the loose earth of the plowed
ground
while the team went on and earth filled
the scraper
then he let go of the handles the full
scraper
set level on the ground and the horses
pulled it on around the circle up the
side of the grade
on the grade’s blunt end the men who
drove the team
caught hold of the scraper’s handles and
tipped the whole
scraper over in a somersault inside the
curving steel
that the horses were hitched to all the
dirt was left right there
while the team drew the empty scraper
down the grade
and on around the circle to the plowed
land again
there the other men caught hold of the
handles and held them just high enough
to thrust the round shovel point
into the loose earth until the scraper
was filled again
and on around the circle it came sliding
behind the team
up the steep slope of the grade and
somersaulting over again
team after team came around the circle
scraper after scraper tipped over the
teams never stopped coming
the scrapers never stopped filling and
tipping
as the loose soil was scraped from the
plowed land
the curve widened out so that the
scrapers passed over freshly plowed
ground ahead
while the plow teams came back and
plowed again the ground
that had been scraped it all goes like
clockwork said paw
see no one stands still no one hurries
when one scraper is filled another is on
the spot to take its place
and the scraper holder is there to grab
the handles and fill it
the scrapers never have to wait for the
plows and the plows go
just so far ahead before they come back
to plow again the ground that has been
scraped
they’re doing great work fred is a good
boss
fred stood on the dump watching the
teams and scrapers circling
and the plows coming around inside the
circle
and moving out ahead of it again he
watched the dumping of the scrapers
and the dirt rolling down and with a nod
or a word
he told each driver when to dump his
scraper
so that the grade would be even and
straight and level
for every six teams one man did nothing
but stand and watch
if a team slowed he spoke to the driver
and he drove faster
if a team went too fast he spoke to that
driver
and that driver held his horses back the
teams must be spaced evenly
while they kept on going steadily around
the circle
over the plowed land and to the grade
and
over it and back to the plowed land
again
thirty teams and thirty scrapers and all
the four horse teams and the plows and
all the drivers and the scraper holders
all were going round
and round all in their places and all
moving in time
there on the open prairie just like the
works of a clock as pa had said
and on the prowl of the new railroad
grade in the dust
fred the boss kept it all going
laura would never have tired of watching
that but
farther west there was more to see paul
said
come along half pint and see how they
make a cut in the fill
laura walked with paw along the wagon
track where the crushed dead grasses
were like broken hay in the dust
where wagon wheels had passed farther to
the west
beyond a little rise of the prairie more
men were building another piece of the
railroad grade
in the little dip beyond the rise they
were making
a fill and farther on they were making
a cut through higher ground you see
laura paus said where the ground is low
they make the grade higher and where the
ground is high
they cut through it to make the grade
level a railroad road bed has to be as
level as it can be for the trains to run
on
why paw laura asked why can’t the trains
just run over the prairie swells
there were no real hills and it seemed a
waste of hard work to cut through all
the little rises and fill in all the
little hollows just to make the road bed
level
no it saves work later on pau said you
want to be able to see that laura
without being told
laura could see that a level road would
save work for horses
but a locomotive was an iron horse that
never got tired
yes but it burns coal said paw
coal has to be mined and that’s work
an engine burns less coal running on a
level
than it does going up and down grades so
you see it takes more work
and costs more money now to make a level
grade
but later on there’ll be a saving in
work and money
so they’ll be used for building
something else
what pa what else laura asked
more railroads said paul i wouldn’t
wonder
if you’ll live to see a time laura when
putin nearly
everybody will ride on railroads and
they’ll hardly be a covered wagon left
laura could not imagine a country with
so many railroads
nor one so rich that nearly everybody
could ride on trains
but she did not really try to imagine it
because now they’d come to high ground
where they could see the men
working at the cut and the fill
right across the prairie swell where the
trains would run
the teams with plows and the teams with
scrapers
were cutting a wide ditch back and forth
with the big teams pulling the plows and
round and round with the teams hauling
the scrapers all steadily moving in time
with each other but here the scrapers
did not go in a circle they went in a
long narrow loop
into the cut and out again at one end
and at the other end
they went over the dump the dump
was a deep ditch at the end of the cut
and crossways to it
heavy timbers shored up the sides of
this ditch and made a flat
platform over the top of it there was a
hole
in the middle of this platform and earth
had been graded high
on each side of the ditch to make a road
level with the platform
out of the cut came the team steadily
walking one behind another
pulling the loaded scrapers they went up
the grade to the top of the dump
and they went across the platform they
passed over the hole
one horse walking on each side of it
while into the hole the driver dumped
the scraper load of dirt going steadily
on
down the steep grade and around they
went back into the cut
to fill the scrapers again all the time
a circle of wagons was moving through
the dump
under the hole in the platform every
time a scraper dumped its load
a wagon was under the hole to catch the
dirt
each wagon waited till five scraper
loads had poured down into it
then it moved on and the wagon behind it
moved
under the hole and waited the circle of
wagons came out of the dump
and curved back to climb up over the end
of the high railroad grade that was
coming toward the cut
every wagon as it passed over the grade
dumped its dirt
and made the grade that much longer the
wagons had no wagon boxes
there were only platforms of heavy
planks
to dump the dirt the teamster turned
those planks over
one at a time then he drove onward down
over the end of the fill
and back in the endless circle through
the dump to be loaded again
dust blew from the plows and the
scrapers and from the dump and the end
of the hill
a great cloud of dust rose all the time
up over the sweating men and the
sweating horses
the men’s faces and arms were black with
sunburn and dust
their blue and gray shirts were streaked
with sweat and dust
and the horse’s manes and tails and hair
were full of dust
and their flanks were caked with muddy
sweat
they all went on steadily and evenly
circling into the cut and out
while the plows went back and forth and
circling under the dump
and back over the end to the fill and
under the dump again
the cut grew deeper and the fill grew
longer
while the men and teams kept on weaving
their circles together never stopping
they never miss once laura marveled
every time
a scraper dumps there’s a wagon
underneath to catch the dirt
that’s the boss’s job paul said he makes
some keep time just like they were
playing a tune
watch the boss and you’ll see how it’s
done it’s pretty work
on the rise above the cut and on the end
of the fill
and along the circles the bosses stood
they watched the men and the teams and
kept them moving in time
here they slowed one team a little there
they hurried another
no one stopped and waited no one was
laid at his place
laura heard the boss call out from the
top of the cut
boys move along a little faster
you see paul said it’s nearing quitting
time
and they’d all slow down a little they
can’t put that over on a good boss
the whole afternoon had gone while pau
and laura
watched those circles moving making the
railroad grade
it was time to go back to the store in
the shanty
laura took one last long look and then
she had to go
on the way pau showed her the figures
painted on the little grade stakes that
were driven into the ground in a
straight line where the railroad grade
would be
the surveyors had driven those stakes
the figures told the graders how high to
build the grade on low ground
and how deep to make the cuts on high
ground
the surveyors had measured it all and
figured the grade
exactly before anyone else had come
there
first someone had thought of a railroad
then
the surveyors had come out to that empty
country
and they had marked and measured a
railroad that was not there at all
it was only a railroad that someone had
thought of
then the plowmen came to tear up the
prairie grass
and the scraper men to dig up the dirt
and the teamsters with their wagons to
haul it
and all of them said they were working
on the railroad but still
the railroad wasn’t there nothing was
there yet
but cuts through the prairie swells
pieces of the railroad grade
that were really only narrow short
ridges of earth
all pointing westward across the
enormous grassy land
when the grades finished paw said the
shovel men will come along
with hand shovels and they’ll smooth the
sides of the grade by hand
and level it on top and then they’ll lay
the rails
laura said don’t jump ahead so fast
flutter budget
paul laughed at her the railroad ties
have got to be shipped out here
and laid before it’s time for the rails
rome wasn’t built in a day
and neither is a railroad or anything
else worth having
the sun was so low now that each prairie
swell began to have its shadow lying
eastward
and out of the large pale sky the flocks
of ducks
and the long wedges of geese were
sliding down to silver lake
to rest for the night the clean wind was
blowing now with no dust in it
and laura let her sunburn it slipped
down her back so that she could feel the
wind on her face and see the whole
great prairie there was no railroad
there now
but someday the long steel tracks would
lie
level on the fills and through the cuts
and trains would come
roaring steaming and smoking the speed
the tracks and the trains were not there
now
but laura could see them almost as if
they were there
suddenly she asked paw was that what
made the very first railroad
what are you talking about paw asked
are there railroads because people think
of them first
when they aren’t there paul thought a
minute
that’s right he said yes
that’s what makes things happen people
think of them first
if enough people think of a thing and
work hard enough at it
i guess it’s pretty nearly bound to
happen wind and weather permitting
what’s that house paw laura asked
what house paw asked that house that
real house laura pointed all this time
she’d been meaning to ask paw about that
house standing by itself on the north
shore of the lake
and she’d always forgotten that’s the
surveyor’s house
paul said are they there now
laura asked they come and go said paw
they had almost reached the store and he
went on run on a long home now flutter
budget
i got work to do on the books now you
know how a railroad grade’s made be sure
to tell mary all about it
oh i will paw laura promised i’ll see it
out loud for her every bit
she did her best but mary only said i
really don’t know laura why you’d rather
watch those rough men working in the
dirt than stay here in the nice clean
shanty
i finished another quilt patch while
you’ve been idling
but laura was still seeing the movement
of the men
and horses in such perfect time that she
could almost sing the tune
to which they moved