HARVEST Little House in the Big Woods Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder

harvest

paw and uncle henry traded work

when the grain got ripe in the fields

uncle henry came to work with paul

and aunt paulie and all the cousins came

to spend the day

then paul went to help uncle henry cut

his grain and ma

took laura and mary and carrie to spend

the day with aunt paulie

ma and aunt polly worked in the house

and all the cousins played together in

the yard till dinner time

aunt paulie’s yard was a fine place to

play

because the stumps were so thick the

cousins played jumping from stump to

stump without ever touching the ground

even laura who was littlest could do

this easily in the places where the

smallest trees had grown close together

cousin charlie was a big boy going on 11

years old and he could jump from stump

to stump all over the yard

the smaller stumps he could jump two at

a time

and he could walk on the top rail of the

fence without being afraid

paul and uncle henry were out in the

field cutting the oats with cradles

a cradle was a sharp steel blade

fastened

to a framework of wooden slats that

caught and held the stalks of the grain

when the blade cut them paw and uncle

henry

carried the cradles by their long curved

handles

and swung the blades into the standing

oats

when they had cut enough to make a pile

they slid the cut stalks

off the slats into neat heaps on the

ground

it was hard work walking around and

around the field in the hot

sun and with both hands swinging the

heavy cradles into the grain and cutting

it

then sliding it into the piles

after all the grain was cut they must go

over the field again

this time they would stoop over each

pile and taking up a handful of the

stalks in each hand

they would knot them together to make a

longer strand

then gathering up the pile of grain in

their arms

they would bind it tightly around with

the band they had made

and tie the band and tuck in its ends

after they’d made seven such bundles

then the bundles

must be shocked to make a shock

they stood five bundles upright snugly

together with the oat heads

up then over these they put two more

bundles

spreading out the stalks to make a

little roof

and shelter the five bundles from dew

and rain

every stalk of the cut grain must always

be safely in the shock

before dark for lying on the dewy ground

all night would spoil it

paw and uncle henry were working very

hard

because the air was so heavy and hot and

still that they expected rain

the oats were ripe and if they were not

cut and in the shock before rain came

the crop would be lost then uncle

henry’s horses would be hungry

all winter at noon paw and uncle henry

came to the house in a great hurry

and swallowed their dinner as quickly as

they could

uncle henry said that charlie must help

them that afternoon

laura looked at paw when uncle henry

said that

at home paul had said to ma that uncle

henry and aunt polly

spoiled charlie when paul was 11 years

old he’d done a good day’s work every

day in the fields driving a team but

charlie did hardly any work at all

now uncle henry said that charlie must

come to the field

he could save them a great deal of time

he could go to the spring for water and

he could fetch them the water jug when

they needed a drink

he could fetch the wet stone when the

blades needed sharpening

all the children looked at charlie

charlie did not want to go to the field

he wanted to stay in the yard and play

but of course he did not say so

paul and uncle henry did not rest at all

they ate in a hurry and went right back

to work

and charlie went with him now mary was

oldest and she wanted to play

a quiet ladylike play so in the

afternoon

the cousins made a playhouse in the yard

the stumps were chairs and tables and

stoves

and leaves were dishes and sticks were

the children

on the way home that night laura and

mary heard paw tell me

what happened in the field instead of

helping pawn uncle henry

charlie was making all the trouble he

could

he got in their way so they couldn’t

swing the cradles

he hid the wet stone so they had to hunt

for it when the blades needed sharpening

he didn’t bring the water jug to uncle

henry shouted at him three or four times

and then he was sullen after that

he followed them around talking and

asking questions

they were working too hard to pay any

attention to him so they told him to go

away and not bother them

but they dropped their cradles and ran

to him across the field when they heard

him scream

the woods were all around the field and

there were snakes in the oats

when they got to charlie there was

nothing wrong

and he laughed at them he said i fooled

you that time

paul said if he had been uncle henry he

would have tanned that boy’s height for

him right then and there

but uncle henry did not do it so they

took a drink of water

and went back to work three times

charlie screamed and they ran to him as

fast as they could

and he laughed at them he thought it was

a good

joke and still uncle henry did not

tan his hide then a fourth time he

screamed

louder than ever paul and uncle henry

looked at him

and he was jumping up and down screaming

they saw nothing wrong with them and

they’d been fooled so many times that

they went on with their work

charlie kept on screaming louder and

shriller

paul did not say anything but uncle

henry said let him scream

so they went on working and let him

scream

he kept on jumping up and down screaming

he did not stop at last uncle henry said

maybe something really is wrong they

laid down their cradles and went across

the field to him

and all that time charlie had been

jumping up and down

on a yellow jacket’s nest the yellow

jackets lived in a nest in the ground

and charlie stepped on it by mistake

then all the little bees and their

bright yellow jackets came

swarming out with their red hot stings

and they hurt charlie so that he

couldn’t get away

he was jumping up and down and hundreds

of bees were stinging him all over

they were stinging his face and his

hands and his neck and his nose they

were crawling up his pants legs and

stinging and crawling down the back of

his neck and stinging

the more he jumped and screamed the

harder they stung

paul and uncle henry took him by the

arms and ran him away from the yellow

jacket’s nest

they undressed him and his clothes were

full of yellowjackets and their stings

were swelling up

all over him they killed the bees that

were stinging him

and they shook the bees out of his

clothes and then they dressed him again

and sent him to the house laura and mary

and the cousins were playing quietly in

the yard when they heard a loud

blubbering cry charlie came bawling into

the yard and his face was so swollen

that the tears could hardly squeeze out

of his eyes

his hands were puffed up and his neck

was puffed out

and his cheeks were big hard puffs

his fingers stood out stiff and swollen

there were little hard white dents all

over his puffed out face and neck

laura and mary and the cousin stood and

looked at him

ma and aunt paulie came running out of

the house and asked him what was the

matter

charlie blubbered and bald ma said it

was yellow jackets

she ran to the garden and got a big pan

of earth

while aunt polly took charlie into the

house and undressed him

they made a big pan full of mud and

plastered him all over with it

they rolled him up in an old sheet and

put him to bed

his eyes were swollen shut and his nose

was a

funny shape ma and aunt paulie covered

his whole face with mud

and tied the mud on with cloths only the

end of his nose

and his mouth showed aunt paulie steeped

some herbs to give him for his fever

laura and mary and the cousin stood

around for some time looking at him

it was dark that night when paw and

uncle henry came from the field

all the oats were in the shock and now

the rain could come

and it would not do any harm paul could

not stay to supper

he had to get home and do the milking

the cows were already waiting at home

and when cows are not milked on time

they do not give so much milk

he hitched up quickly and they all got

into the wagon

paw was very tired and his hands ate

so that he could not drive very well but

the horses knew the way home

ma sat beside him with baby carrie and

laura and mary sat on the board behind

them

then they heard patel about what charlie

had done

laura and mary were horrified

they were often naughty themselves but

they had never

imagined that anyone could be as naughty

as

charlie had been he hadn’t worked to

help save the oats

he hadn’t minded his father quickly when

his father spoke to him

he had bothered pa and uncle henry when

they were hard at work

then pau told about the yellow jacket’s

nest

and he said it served the little liar

right

after she was in the trundle bed that

night laura lay

and listened to the rain drumming on the

roof and streaming from the eaves

and she thought about what paw had said

she thought about what the yellow

jackets had done to charlie

she thought it served charlie right too

it served him right because he had been

so

monstrously naughty and the bees had a

right to sting him

when he jumped on their home but she

didn’t understand

why paul had called him a little liar

she didn’t understand how charlie could

be a liar

when he had not said a word