Book 2 14. INDIAN CAMP Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
indian camp day after day was hotter
than the day before
the wind was hot as if it came out of an
oven ma
said the grass was turning yellow
the whole world was rippling green and
gold under the blazing sky
at noon the wind died no bird sang
everything was so still that laura could
hear the squirrels chattering in the
trees down by the creek
suddenly black crows flew overhead
coined their rough
sharp cause then everything was still
again
ma said that this was mid-summer
paul wondered where the indians had gone
he said they had left their little camp
on the prairie
and one day he asked laura and mary if
they would like to see that camp
laura jumped up and down and clapped her
hands but ma
objected it’s so far charles she said
and in this heat
pau’s blue eyes twinkled this heat
doesn’t hurt the indians and it won’t
hurt us he said
come on girls please
can’t jack come too laura begged
paul had taken his gun but he looked at
laura
and he looked at jack then he looked at
ma and he put the gun up on its pegs
again
all right laura he said i’ll take jack
caroline and leave you the gun
jack jumped around them wagging his
stump of a tail
as soon as he saw which way they were
going he set off trotting ahead
paul came next and behind him came mary
and then laura
mary kept her son bonnet on but lara let
hers dangle down her back
the ground was hot under their bare feet
the sunshine
pierced through their faded dresses and
tingled on their arms and backs
the air was really as hot as the air in
an oven
and it smelled faintly like baking bread
paul said the smell came from all the
grass seeds parching in the heat
they went farther and farther into the
vast prairie
laura felt smaller and smaller even paul
did not seem as big as he really was
at last they went down into the little
hollow where the indians had camped
jack started up a big rabbit when it
bounded out of the grass laura jumped
pau said quickly let him go jack we have
meat enough
so jack sat down and watched the big
rabbit go bounding away down the hollow
laura and mary looked around them they
stayed close to paw
low bushes grew on the sides of the
hollow buck brush
with sprays of berries faintly pink and
sumac
holding up green cones but showing here
and there
a bright red leaf the golden rod’s
plumes were turning gray
and the oxide daisies yellow petals hung
down from the crown
centers all this was hidden in the
secret little hollow
from the house laura had seen nothing
but grasses
and now from this hollow she could not
see the house
the prairie seemed to be level but it
was not level
laura asked paul if there were lots of
hollows on the prairie like this one
he said there were are indians in them
she almost whispered he said he didn’t
know
there might be she held tight to his
hand
and mary held to his other hand and they
looked at the indians camp
there were ashes where indian campfires
had been
there were holes in the ground where
tent poles had been driven
bones were scattered where indian dogs
had gnawed them
all along the sides of the hollow indian
ponies had bitten the grasses short
tracks of big moccasins and smaller
moccasins were everywhere
and tracks of little bare toes and over
these tracks were tracks of rabbits and
tracks of birds and wolves tracks
paul read the tracks for mary and laura
he showed them tracks of two
middle-sized moccasins by the edge of a
campfire’s ashes
an indian woman had squatted there she
wore a leather skirt with fringes
the tiny marks of the fringe were in the
dust
the track of her toes inside the
moccasins was deeper than the track of
her heels
because she had leaned forward to stir
something cooking in a pot on the fire
then paul picked up a smoke blackened
fork stick
and he said that the pot had hung from a
stick laid across the top of two upright
forked sticks he showed mary and laura
the holes where the forked
sticks had been driven into the ground
then he told them to look at the bones
around that campfire
and tell him what had cooked in that pot
they looked and they said rabbit
that was right the bones were rabbits
bones
suddenly laura shouted look
look something bright blue glittered in
the dust
she picked it up and it was a beautiful
blue bead laura shouted with joy
then mary saw a red bead and laura saw a
green one
and they forgot everything but beads paw
helped them look
they found white beads and brown beads
and more and more red and blue beads
all afternoon they hunted for beads in
the dust of the indian camp
now and then paul walked up to the edge
of the hollow and looked toward home
then he came back and helped hunt for
more beads they looked all the ground
over carefully
when they couldn’t find anymore it was
almost sunset
laura had a handful of beads and so did
mary
part tied them carefully in his hand
could chuff laura’s beads in one corner
and mary’s in another corner he put the
handkerchief in his pocket
and they started home the sun was low
behind their backs when they came out of
the hollow
home was small and very far away
and pau did not have his gun
paul walked so swiftly that laura could
hardly keep
up she trotted as fast as she could but
the sun
sank faster homes seemed farther and
farther away the prairie seemed larger
and a wind ran over it whispering
something
frightening all the grasses shook as if
they were scared
then paul turned around and his blue
eyes twinkled at laura
he said getting tired little half pint
it’s a long way for little legs he
picked her up
big girl that she was and he settled her
safe against his shoulder
he took mary by the hand and so they all
came home together
supper was cooking on the fire mar was
setting the table
and baby carrie played with little
pieces of wood on the floor
pod tossed the handkerchief to ma
i’m later than i meant caroline he said
but look what the girls found he took
the milk bucket
and went quickly to bring pat and patty
from their picket lines and to milk the
cow
ma untied the handkerchief and exclaimed
at what she found
the beads were even prettier than they
had been in the indian camp
laura stirred her beads with her finger
and watched them sparkle and shine
these are mine she said then mary said
carrie can have mine ma waited to hear
what laura would say
laura didn’t want to say anything she
wanted to keep those pretty beads
her chest felt all hot inside and she
wished with all her might
that mary wouldn’t always be such a good
little girl
but she couldn’t let mary be better than
she was
so she said slowly carrie
can have mine too that’s my
unselfish good little girl said ma
she poured mary’s beads into mary’s
hands and laura’s into laura’s hands
and she said she would give them a
thread to string them on
the beads would make a pretty necklace
for carrie to wear around her neck
mary and laura sat side by side on their
bed
and they strung those pretty beads on
the thread that ma gave them
each wet her end of the thread in her
mouth and twisted it tightly
then mary put her end of the thread
through the small hole in each of the
beads
and laura put her end through her beads
one by one
they didn’t say anything perhaps mary
felt sweet and good inside but laura
didn’t
when she looked at mary she wanted to
slap her
so she dared not look at mary again
the beads made a beautiful string carrie
clapped her hands and laughed when she
saw it
then ma tied it around carrie’s little
neck and it glittered there
laura felt a little bit better after all
her beads were not enough beads to make
a whole string and neither were mary’s
but together they made a whole string of
beads for carrie
when carrie felt the beads on her neck
she grabbed at them she was so little
that she did not know any better than to
break the string
so ma untied it and she put the beads
away until carrie should be old enough
to wear them
and often after that laura thought of
those pretty beads and she was still
naughty enough to want her beads for
herself
but it had been a wonderful day she
could always think about that long walk
across the prairie
and about all they had seen in the
indian camp