Sundays Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
sundays
now the winter seemed long laura
and mary began to be tired of staying
always in the house
especially on sundays the time went so
slowly
every sunday mary and laura were dressed
from the skin out
in their best clothes with fresh ribbons
in their hair
they were very clean because they’d had
their baths on saturday night
in the summer they were bathed in water
from the spring
but in the winter time paw filled and
heaped the wash tub
with clean snow and on the cook stove
it melted to water then close by the
warm stove
behind a screen made of a blanket over
two chairs
ma bathed laura and then she bathed
mary laura was bathed first because she
was littler than mary
she had to go to bed early on saturday
nights with charlotte
because after she was bathed and put
into her clean nightgown
paul must empty the wash tub and fill it
with snow again
for mary’s bath then after mary came to
bed
ma had her bath behind the blanket and
then paul had his
and they were all clean for sunday
on sundays mary and laura must not run
or shout or be noisy in their play
mary could not sew on her nine patch
quilt
and laura could not knit on the tiny
mittens she was making for baby carrie
they might look quietly at their paper
dolls but they must not make anything
new for them
they were not allowed to sew on doll
clothes
not even with pins they must sit quietly
and listen
while ma read bible stories to them or
stories about lions and tigers and white
bears from paw’s big green book
the wonders of the animal world they
might look at pictures
and they might hold their rag dolls
nicely and talk to them
but there was nothing else they could do
laura liked best to look at the pictures
in the big bible with its paper covers
best of all was the picture of adam
naming the animals
adam sat on a rock and all the animals
and birds big and little were gathered
around him
anxiously waiting to be told what kind
of animals they were
adam looked so comfortable he did not
have to be careful to keep his clothes
clean
because he had no clothes on he wore
only a skin around his middle
did adam have good clothes to wear on
sundays
laura asked ma no ma
said poor adam all he had to wear was
skins
laura did not pity adam she wished she
had nothing to wear but
skins one sunday after supper she could
not bear it any longer
she began to play with jack and in a few
minutes she was running
and shouting paw told her to sit in her
chair
and be quiet but when laura sat down
she began to cry and kick the chair with
her heels
i hate sunday she said
paul put down his book laura
he said sternly come here
her feet dragged as she went because she
knew she deserved a spanking
but when she reached paw he looked at
her sorrowfully for a moment
and then he took her on his knee and
cuddled her against him
he held out his other arm to mary and
said
i’m going to tell you a story about when
grandpa was a boy
the story of grandpa’s sled and the pig
when your grandpa was a boy laura
sunday did not begin on sunday morning
as it does now
it began at sundown on saturday night
then everyone stopped every kind of work
or play
supper was solemn after supper
grandpa’s father read aloud a chapter of
the bible
while everyone sat straight and still in
his chair
then they all knelt down and their
father said a long prayer
when he said amen they got up from their
knees and each took a candle and went to
bed
they must go straight to bed with no
playing laughing or even talking
sunday morning they ate a cold breakfast
because nothing could be cooked on
sunday
then they all dressed in their best
clothes and walked to church
they walked because hitching up the
horses was work
and no work could be done on sunday
they must walk slowly and solemnly
looking straight ahead
they must not joke or laugh or even
smile
grandpa and his two brothers walked
ahead and their father and mother walked
behind them
in church grandpa and his brothers must
sit
perfectly still for two long hours and
listened to the sermon
they dared not fidget on the hard bench
they dared not swing their feet
they dared not turn their heads to look
at the windows or the walls or the
ceiling of the church they must sit
perfectly motionless and never for one
instant take their eyes from the
preacher when church was over
they walk slowly home they might talk on
the way
but they must not talk loudly and they
must never laugh or smile
at home they ate a cold dinner which had
been cooked the day before
then all the long afternoon they must
sit in a row
on a bench and study their catechism
until at last the sun went down and
sunday was over
now grandpa’s home was about halfway
down the side of a steep hill
the road went from the top of the hill
to the bottom right past the front door
and in winter it was the best place for
sliding downhill that you can possibly
imagine
one week grandpa and his two brothers
james and george
were making a new sled they worked at it
every minute of their play time
it was a best sled they had ever made
and it was so
long that all three of them could sit on
it one behind the other
they plan to finish it in time to slide
downhill saturday afternoon
for every saturday afternoon they had
two or three hours to play
but that week their father was cutting
down trees in the big woods
he was working hard and he kept the boys
working with him
they did all the morning chores by
lantern light
and were hard at work in the woods when
the sun came up
they worked till dark and then there
were the chores to do
and after supper they had to go to bed
so they could get up early in the
morning
they had no time to work on the sled
until saturday afternoon
then they worked at it just as fast as
they could but they didn’t get it
finished till
just as the sun went down saturday night
after the sun went down they could not
slide downhill not
even once that would be breaking the
sabbath
so they put the sled in the shed behind
the house to wait until sunday was over
all the two long hours in church next
day while they kept their feet still
and their eyes on the preacher they were
thinking about the sled
at home while they ate dinner they
couldn’t think of anything else
after dinner their father sat down to
read the bible
and grandpa and james and george sat as
still as mice on their bench with their
catechism
but they were thinking about the sled
the sun shone brightly and the snow
was smooth and glittering on the road
they could see it through the window
it was a perfect day for sliding
downhill
they looked at their catechism and they
thought about the new sled
and it seemed that sunday would never
end
after a long time they heard a snore
they looked at their father and they saw
that his head had fallen against the
back of his chair and he was fast asleep
then james looked at george and james
got up from the bench
and tiptoed out of the room through the
back door
george looked at grandpa and george
tiptoed after james
and grandpa looked fearfully at their
father but on tiptoe
he followed george and left their father
snoring
they took their new sled and went
quietly up to the top of the hill
they meant to slide down just once then
they would put the sled away
and slipped back to their bench in the
catechism before their father woke up
james sat in front on the sled then
george
and then grandpa because he was the
littlest the sled started
at first slowly then faster
and faster it was running flying down
the long steep hill but the boys
dared not shout they must slide silently
past the house without waking their
father
there was no sound except the little
whirr of the runners on the snow
and the wind rushing past then
just as the sled was swooping toward the
house
a big black pig stepped out of the woods
he walked into the middle of the road
and stood there
the sled was going so fast it couldn’t
be stopped
there wasn’t time to turn it the sled
went
right under the hog and picked him up
with a squeal he
sat down on james and he kept on
squealing long and loud and shriel
[Music]
they flashed by the house the pigs
sitting in front
then james then george then grandpa
and they saw their father standing in
the doorway looking at them
they couldn’t stop they couldn’t hide
there was no time to say anything
down the hill they went the hog sitting
on james and squealing all the way
at the bottom of the hill they stopped
the hog
jumped off james and ran away into the
woods still
squealing the boys walked slowly
and solemnly up the hill they put the
sled away
they sneaked into the house and slipped
quietly to their places on the bench
their father was reading his bible he
looked up at them without saying a word
then he went on reading and they studied
their catechism
but when the sun went down and the
sabbath day was over
their father took them out to the
woodshed and tanned their jackets
first james then george then grandpa
so you see laura and mary pau said
you may find it hard to be good but you
should be glad that it isn’t as hard to
be good now as it was when grandpa was a
boy
did little girls have to be as good as
that laura
asked and moss said it was harder for
little girls because they had to behave
like little ladies all the time not only
on sundays
little girls could never slide downhill
like boys
little girls had to sit in the house and
stitch on samplers
now run along and let ma put you to bed
said paw
and he took his fiddle out of his box
laura and mary lay in their trundle bed
and listened to the sunday hymns for
even the fiddle must not sing the
weekday songs on sundays
rock of ages cleft for me pause saying
with the fiddle
then he sang
[Music]
shall i be carried to the skies
on flowery beds of ease
while others fought to
win the prize and sail through
bloody seas
laura began to float away on the music
and then she heard a clattering noise
and there was ma
by the stove getting breakfast it was
monday morning and sunday would not come
again for a whole
week that morning when paul came into
breakfast
he caught laura and said he must give
her a spanking
first he explained that today was her
birthday and she would not grow
properly next year unless she had a
spanking and then he spanked
so gently and carefully that it did not
hurt a bit
one two three
four five
six he counted and spanked slowly
one spank for each year and at the last
one big spank to grow on then paw gave
her a little wooden man he had whittled
out of a stick
to be company for charlotte ma gave her
five little cakes
one for each year that laura had lived
with her and paw
and mary gave her a new dress for
charlotte
mary had made the dress herself when
laura thought she was sewing on her
patchwork quilt
and that night for a special birthday
treat
pop played pop goes the weasel for her
he sat with laura and mary close against
his knees while he played
now watch he said watch and maybe you
can see the weasel pop
out this time then he’s saying
a penny for a spool of thread another
for a needle
that’s the way the money goes laura and
mary bent close
watching for they knew now was the time
said paw’s finger on the string
saying the fiddle plane is playing but
laura and mary hadn’t seen paw’s finger
make the string pop
oh please please do it again they begged
him
pau’s blue eyes laughed and the fiddle
went on while he sang
all around the cobbler’s bench the
monkey chased the weasel the preacher
kissed the cobbler’s wife
pop goes a weasel
they hadn’t seen paw’s finger that time
either he was so
quick they could never catch him so they
went laughing
to bed and lay listening to paw and the
fiddle singing
there was an old and his name was
uncle ned and he died long ago
long ago there was
no wool on the top of his head
in the place where the wall ought to
grow
his fingers were as long as the cane in
the break
his eyes they could hardly see
and he had no teeth for to
eat the whole cake so he had to let that
whole cake be
so hang up the shovel and the hole
play down the fiddle and the bow
there’s no more work for
old uncoonhead for he’s gone
where the good go