Book 3 18. KEEPING HOUSE Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
keeping house
uncle andrew lived 10 miles away
for a week father and mother were
getting ready to go
and all the time they were thinking of
things that must be done while they were
away
even when mother was climbing into the
buggy she was talking
be sure to gather the eggs every night
she said
and i depend on you eliza jane to take
care of the churning
don’t salt the butter too much pack it
in the small tub
and be sure you cover it and remember
not to pick the beans and peas i’m
saving for seed
now you all be good while we’re gone she
was tucking her hoops down between the
seat and the dashboard
father spread the lap robe and mind
eliza jane
be careful of fires don’t you leave the
house while there’s a fire in the cook
stove
and don’t get scuffling with lighted
candles whatever you do
and father tighten the reins and the
horses started don’t eat all the sugar
mother called back the buggy turned into
the road
the horses began to trot rapidly taking
father and mother away
in a little while the sound of the buggy
wheels
ceased father and mother
were gone nobody said anything
even eliza jane looked a little scared
the house and the barns and the fields
seemed very big and empty
for a whole week father and mother would
be
ten miles away
suddenly almanzo threw his hat into the
air and yelled
alice hugged herself and cried what do
we do first
they could do anything they liked there
was nobody to stop them
we’ll do the dishes and make the beds
eliza jane said
bossy let’s make ice cream royal shouted
eliza jane loved ice cream she hesitated
and said
well almanzo ran after royal to the ice
house
they dug a block of ice out of the
sawdust and put it in a grain sack
they laid the sack on the back porch and
pounded it with
hatchets till the ice was crushed
alice came out to watch them while she
whipped egg whites on a platter
she beat them with a fork till they were
too stiff to slip when she tilted the
platter
eliza jane measured milk and cream and
dipped up sugar from the barrel in the
pantry
it was not common maple sugar but white
sugar bought from the store
mother used it only when company came
eliza jane dipped six cupfuls then she
smoothed the sugar that was
left and you would hardly have missed
any
she made a big milk pail full of yellow
custard
they set the pail in a tub and packed
the snowy crushed ice around it with
salt
and they covered it all with a blanket
every few minutes they took off the
blanket and uncovered the pail
and stirred the freezing ice cream when
it was frozen
alice brought saucers and spoons and
almanzo brought out a cake and the
butcher knife
he cut enormous pieces of cake while
eliza jane heaped the saucers
they could eat all the ice cream and
cake they wanted to
no one would stop them
at noon they had eaten the whole cake
and almost all the ice cream eliza jane
said it was time to get dinner
but the others didn’t want any dinner
almanzo said
all i want is a watermelon alice jumped
up
goody let’s go get one alice
eliza jane cried you come right back
here and do the breakfast dishes
i will alice called out would i come
back
alice and almanzo went into the hot
melon field where the melons lay round
above their wilting flat leaves
almanzo snapped his finger against the
green rhines and listened
when a melon sounded ripe it was ripe
and when it sounded green it was green
but when almanzo said a melon sounded
ripe
alice thought it sounded green there
wasn’t really any way to know
though almanzo was sure he knew more
about melons than any girl
so in the end they picked six of the
biggest melons
and they lugged them one by one to the
ice house
and put them on the damp cold sawdust
then alice went to the house to do the
dishes
almanzo said he wasn’t going to do
anything
maybe he’d go swimming but as soon as
alice was out of sight
he skipped through the barns and stole
into the pasture
where the colts were the pasture was
big and the sun was very hot
the air shimmered and wavered with heat
and little insects made a shrill sound
bass and beauty were lying down in the
shade of a tree
and their little colt stood near them
wagging their small bushy tails and
straddling the little on their long
gangling legs
the yearlings and the two-year-olds and
the three-year-olds were grazing
all of them lifted their heads and
stared at almanzo
he went slowly toward them holding out
his hand
there wasn’t anything in his hand but
they didn’t know that
he didn’t mean to do anything he only
wanted to get near enough to pet them
starlight and the other little cult ran
wobbling to their mothers
and bass and beauty lifted up their
heads and looked
then laid them down again the big colts
all pricked up their ears
one big cult stepped toward almanzo then
another
the six big cults were all coming
almanzo wish he had brought carrots for
them
they were so beautiful and free and big
tossing their manes and showing the
whites of their eyes
the sunshine glistened on their strong
arched necks and on the muscles of their
chests
suddenly one of them said
one of them kicked one of them squealed
and all at once their heads went up
their tails went up
and their hooves thundered on the ground
all their brown haunches and high black
tails were turned to almanzo
like a thundering whirlwind those six
cults went around the tree
and almanzo heard them behind him he
whirled around
he saw their pounding hooves and big
chests coming straight at him
they were running too fast to stop there
wasn’t time to get out of the way
almanzo’s eyes shut he yelled whoa
the air and the ground shook his eyes
opened
he saw brown knees rising up in the air
a round belly and hind legs
rushed overhead brown sides went by him
like
thunder his hat flew off he felt
stunned one of the three-year-olds
had jumped over him the colts were
thundering down across the pasture
and almanzo saw royal coming
leave those cults be royal shouted
he came up and said that for ascent he’d
give almanzo a licking he’d remember
you know better than to fool with those
cults royal
said he took almanzo by the year
almanzo trotted but his ear was pulled
all the way to the barns
he said he hadn’t done anything royal
wouldn’t listen
let me catch you in that pasture again
and i’ll wail the height off you
royal said i’ll tell father too
almanzo went away rubbing his ear
he went down to trout river and swim in
the swimming hole till he felt better
but he thought it wasn’t fair that he
was the youngest in the family
that afternoon the melons were cold
and almanzo carried them to the grass
under the balsam tree in the yard
royal stuck the butcher knife into the
dewy green rinds
and every melon was so ripe that the
rinds cracked open
almanzo and alice and eliza jane and
royal
bit deep into the juicy cold slices
and they ate till they could eat no more
almanzo pinched the sleek black seeds
popping them at eliza jane until she
made him quit
then he slowly ate the last slice of
melon and he said
i’m going to fetch lucy to eat up the
rinds
you will not do any such thing eliza
jane
said the idea a dirty old pig in the
front yard
she is not either a dirty old pig
said almanzo lucy’s a little young clean
pig and pigs are the cleanest animals
there are
you just ought to see the way lucy keeps
her bed clean
and turns it and airs it and makes it up
every day horses won’t do that
nor cows nor sheep nor anything
pigs i guess i know that
i guess i know as much about pigs as you
do eliza jane said
then don’t you call lucy dirty she’s
just as clean as you be
well mother told you to obey me
eliza jane answered and i’m not going to
waste melon rinds on any pig
i’m going to make watermelon rind
preserves
i guess they’re as much my rinds as they
are yours
almanzo began but royal got up and said
come along manzo it’s chore time
almanzo said no more but when the chores
were done
he let lucy out of her pen the little
pig was as white as a lamb
and she liked almanzo her little curled
tail
quirked whenever she saw him she
followed him to the house
grunting happily and she squealed for
him at the door till eliza jane said she
couldn’t hear herself think
after supper almanzo took a plate of
scraps and fed them to lucy
he sat on the back steps and scratched
her prickly back
pigs enjoy that in the kitchen eliza
jane and royal were arguing about candy
royal wanted some but eliza jane said
that candy pools were only for winter
evenings
royal said he didn’t see why candy
wouldn’t be just as good in the summer
almanzo thought so too and he went in
and sided with royal alice said she knew
how to make candy
eliza jane wouldn’t do it but alice
mixed sugar
and molasses and water and boiled them
then she poured the candy on buttered
platters and set it on the
porch to cool they rolled up their
sleeves
and buttered their hands ready to pull
it and eliza jane buttered her hands too
all the time lucy was squealing for
almanzo
he went out to see if the candy was cool
enough and he thought his little pig
should have some
the candy was cool no one was watching
so he took a big wad of the soft brown
candy
and dropped it over the edge of the
porch into lucy’s wide open mouth
then they all pulled candy they pulled
it into long
strands and doubled the strands and
pulled again
every time they doubled it they took a
bite
was very sticky it stuck to their teeth
and their fingers and their faces
somehow it got into their hair and stuck
there it should have become hard and
brittle but it didn’t
they pulled and they pulled still it was
soft and sticky
long past bedtime they gave it up
and went to bed next morning
when almanzo started to do chores lucy
was standing in the yard
her tail hung limp and her head hung
down
she did not squeal when she saw him she
shook her head sadly and wrinkled her
nose
where her white teeth should have been
there was a smooth
brown streak lucy’s teeth
were stuck together with candy she could
not eat
she could not drink she could not even
squeal
she could not grunt but when she saw
almanzo coming
she ran almanzo yelled for royal
they chased lucy all around the house
under the snowball bushes and the lilacs
they chased her all over the garden lucy
whirled and
dodged and ducked and ran like anything
all the time she didn’t make a sound she
couldn’t
her mouth was full of candy she ran
between royal’s legs and upset him
almanzo almost grabbed her and went
sprawling on his nose
she tore through the peas and squashed
the ripe tomatoes and
uprooted the green round cabbages eliza
jane kept telling royal and almanzo to
catch her
alice ran after her at last
they cornered her she dashed around
alice’s skirts
almanzo fell on her and grabbed she
kicked
and tore a long hole down the front of
his blouse
almanzo held her down alice held her
kicking hind legs
royal pryed her mouth open and scraped
out the candy
then how lucy squealed she squealed
all the squeals that had been in her all
night and all the squeals she couldn’t
squeal while they were chasing her
and she ran screaming to her pin
almanzo james wilder just look at
yourself eliza jane scolded
he couldn’t and he didn’t want to
even alice was horrified because he had
wasted candy on a pig
and his blouse was ruined it could be
patched
but the patch would show i don’t care
almanzo said he was glad it was a whole
week before mother would know
that day they made ice cream again
and they ate the last cake alice said
she knew how to make a pound cake
she said she’d make one and then she was
going to go sit
in the parlor almanzo thought that
wouldn’t be any fun
but eliza jane said you’ll do no such
thing alice you know very well the
parlors just for company
it was not eliza jane’s parlor and
mother hadn’t said she couldn’t sit in
it
almanzo thought that alice could sit in
the parlor if she wanted to
that afternoon he came into the kitchen
to see if the pound cake was done
alice was taking it out of the oven it
smelled so
good that he broke a little piece off
the corner
then alice cut a slice to hide the
broken place
and then they ate two more slices with
the last of the ice cream
i can make more ice cream alice said
eliza jane was upstairs and almanzo said
let’s go into the parlor they tiptoed in
without making a sand the light was dim
because the blinds were down
but the parlor was beautiful
the wallpaper was white and gold
and the carpet was of mother’s best
weaving almost too
fine to step on the center table was
marble topped and it held the tall
parlor lamp all
white and gold china and pink painted
roses
beside it lay the photograph album with
covers of red velvet and mother of pearl
all around the walls stood solemn
horsehair
chairs and george washington’s picture
looked sternly from its frame between
the windows
alice hitched up her hoops behind and
sat
on the sofa the slippery hair cloth
slitter right off onto the floor she
didn’t dare laugh out loud for fear
eliza jane would hear
she sat on the sofa again and slid off
again
then almanzo slid off a chair
when company came and they had to sit in
the parlor
they kept themselves on the slippery
chairs by pushing their toes against the
floor
but now they could let go and slide
they slid off the sofa and the chairs
till alice was giggling so hard they
didn’t dare slide anymore
then they looked at the shells and the
coral and the little china figures on
the whatnot
they didn’t touch anything they looked
till they heard eliza jane coming
downstairs
then they ran tiptoe out of the parlor
and shut the door without a sound
eliza jane didn’t catch them
it seemed that a week would last forever
but suddenly it was gone one morning at
breakfast eliza jane said
father and mother will be here tomorrow
they all stopped eating the garden had
not been
weeded the peas and beans had not been
picked
so the vines were ripening too soon the
hen house had not been whitewashed
this house is a sight eliza jane said
and we must churn today but what am i
going to tell mother
the sugar is all gone nobody ate any
more
they looked into the sugar barrel and
they could see the bottom of it
only alice tried to be cheerful we must
hope for the best
she said like mother there’s some sugar
left
mother said don’t eat all the sugar and
we didn’t
there’s some around the edges
this was only the beginning of that
awful day
they all went to work as hard as they
could royal and almanzo
hoed the garden they whitewashed the hen
house
they cleaned the cow stalls and swept
the south barn floor
the girls were sweeping and scrubbing in
the house
eliza jane made almanzo churn till the
butter came
and then her hands flew while she washed
and salted it and packed it in the tub
there was only bread and butter and jam
for dinner though almanzo was starved
now almanzo you polish the heater eliza
jane
said he hated to polish stoves
but he hoped eliza jane would not tell
that he had wasted candy on his pig
he went to work with the stove blacking
and the brush
eliza jane was hurrying and nagging be
careful you don’t spill the polish she
said busily dusting
guessed he knew enough not to spill
stove polish but he didn’t say anything
use less water almanzo and mercy rub
harder than that
he didn’t say anything eliza jane went
into the parlor to dust it
she called almanzo that stove done now
no said almanzo goodness don’t dawdle so
almanzo muttered whose boss are you
eliza jane asked what’s that you say
nothing almanzo said
eliza jane came to the door
you did so say something almanzo
straightened up
and shouted i say whose boss
are you eliza jane
gasped then she cried out you just wait
almanzo james wilder you just wait till
i tell my
almanzo didn’t mean to throw the
blacking brush
it flew right out of his hand it sailed
past eliza jane’s head
smack it hit the parlor wall
a great splash and smear of blacking
appeared on the white and gold wallpaper
alice screamed almanzo turned around
and ran all the way to the barn he
climbed into the haymo
and crawled far back in the hay he did
not cry
but he would have cried if he hadn’t
been almost 10 years old
mother would come home and find he had
ruined her beautiful
parlor father would take him into the
woodshed
and whip him with the black snake whip
he didn’t want ever to come out of the
jemo
he wished he could stay there forever
after a long while royal came into the
haymo and called him
he crawled out of the hay and he saw
that royal knew
manny you’ll get an awful whipping royal
said royal was sorry
but he couldn’t do anything they both
knew that almanzo deserved whipping
and there was no way to keep father from
knowing it so almanzo
said i don’t care
he helped do the chores and he ate
supper
he wasn’t hungry but he ate to show
eliza jane
he didn’t care then he went to bed
the parlor door was shut but he knew how
the black splotch looked on the white
and gold wall
next day father and mother came driving
into the yard
almanzo had to go out to meet them with
the others
alice whispered to him don’t feel bad
maybe they won’t care but she looked
anxious too
father said cheerfully well here we are
been getting along all right yes father
royal answered almanzo didn’t go to help
unhitch the driving horses
he stayed in the house mother hurried
about
looking at everything while she untied
her bonnet strings
i declare eliza jane and alice she said
you’ve kept the house as well as i’d
have done myself
mother alice said in a small voice
mother well child what is it
mother alice said bravely you told us
not to eat all the sugar
mother we we ate almost all of it
mother laughed you’ve all been so good
she said
i won’t scold about the sugar
she did not know that the black splotch
was on the parlor wall
the parlor door was shut she did not
know it that day
nor all the next day almanzo could
hardly choke down his food at meal times
and mother looked worried she took him
to the pantry and made him swallow a big
spoonful of
horrible black medicine she had made of
roots and herbs
he did not want her to know about the
black splotch
and yet he wished she did know when the
worst was over
he could stop dreading it that second
evening they heard a buggy driving into
the yard
mr and mrs webb were in it father and
mother went out to meet them
and in a minute they all came into the
dining room almanzo heard mothers saying
come right into the parlor he couldn’t
move
he could not speak this was worse than
anything he had thought of
mother was so proud of her beautiful
parlor
she was so proud of keeping it always
nice
she didn’t know he had ruined it and now
she was taking
company in they would see that big black
splotch on the wall
mother opened the parlor door and went
in
mrs webb went in and mr webb and father
almanzo saw only their backs but he
heard the window shades going up
he saw that the parlor was full of light
it seemed to him a long time before
anybody said anything
then mother said take this big chair mr
webb and make yourself comfortable
sit right here on the sofa mrs webb
almanzo couldn’t believe his ears
mrs webb said you have such a beautiful
parlor i declare it’s almost too fine to
sit in
now almanzo could see where the blacking
brush had hit the wall
and he could not believe his eyes the
wallpaper was
pure white and gold there was no black
splotch mother caught sight of him and
said
come in almanzo almanzo went in
he sat up straight on a hair cloth chair
and pushed his toes against the floor to
keep from sliding off father and mother
were telling all about the visit to
uncle andrews
there was no black splotch anywhere on
the wall
didn’t you worry leaving the children
alone here and you so far away
mrs webb asked no mother said proudly
i knew the children would take care of
everything as well as if james and i
were home
almanzo minded his manners and did not
say a word
next day when no one was looking he
stole into the parlor
he looked carefully at the place where
the black splotch had been
the wallpaper was patched
the patch had been cut out carefully
around the gold scrolls
and the pattern was fitted perfectly and
the edges of the patch scraped
so thin that he could hardly find them
he waited until he could speak to eliza
jane alone
and then he asked eliza jane
did you patch the parlor wallpaper from
me
yes she said i got the scraps of
wallpaper that were saved in the attic
and cut out the patch and put it on with
flour paste
almanzo said gruffly i’m sorry i threw
that brush at you
honest i didn’t mean to eliza jane
i guess i was aggravating she said but i
didn’t mean to be
you’re the only little brother i’ve got
almanzo had never known before how much
he liked
eliza jane they never never told about
the black splotch on the parlor wall
and mother never knew