Book 2 20. A SCREAM IN THE NIGHT Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
a scream in the night
the days were short and gray now the
nights were very dark and cold
clouds hung low above the little house
and
spread low and far over the bleak
prairie rain fell
and sometimes snow was driven on the
wind
hard little bits of snow whirled in the
air and scurried over the humped backs
of miserable grasses
and next day the snow was gone
every day paul went hunting and trapping
in the cozy firelit house mary and laura
helped ma
with the work then they sewed quilt
patches
they played patty cake with carrie and
they played hide the thimble
with a piece of string in their fingers
they played cat’s cradle
and they played being porridge hot
facing each other
they clapped their hands together and
against each other’s hands keeping time
while they said
bean porridge hot bean porrish cold
bean porridge in the pot nine days old
some like it hot some like a cold
some like it in the pot nine days old
i like it hot i like it cold
i like it in the pot nine days old
that was true no supper was so good
as the thick bean porridge flavored with
a small
bit of salt pork that ma dipped onto the
tin plates when paul had come home
cold and tired from his hunting laura
liked it hot
and she liked it cold and it was always
good as long as it lasted
but it never really lasted nine days
they ate it up before that
all the time the wind blew shrieking
howling
wailing screaming and mournfully sobbing
they were used to hearing the wind all
day they heard it
and at night in their sleep they knew it
was blowing
but one night they heard such a terrible
scream that they all woke up
pau jumped out of bed and ma said
charles what was it
it’s a woman screaming pau said he was
dressing as fast as he could
sounded like it came from scott’s oh
what can be wrong
marx claimed paul was putting on his
boots
he put his foot in and he put his
fingers through the strap ears at the
top of the long bootleg
then he gave a mighty pull and he
stamped hard on the floor
and that boot was on maybe scott is sick
he said
pulling on the other boot you don’t
suppose
ma asked lo no said paw
i keep telling you they won’t make any
trouble they’re perfectly quiet and
peaceable down in those camps among the
bluffs
laura began to climb out of bed but ma
said lie down and be still laura
so she lay down paul put on his warm
bright plaid coat in his fur cap on his
muffler
he lighted the candle in the lantern
took his gun
and hurried outdoors before he shut the
door behind him
laura saw the night outside it was black
dark
not one star was shining lara had never
seen
such solid darkness
ma she said what laura
what makes it so dark it’s going to
storm
ma answered she pulled the latch string
in and put a stick of wood on the fire
then she went back to bed go to sleep
mary and laura
she said but ma did not go to sleep
and neither did mary and laura they lay
wide awake and listened
they could not hear anything but the
wind mary put her head under the quilt
and whispered to laura
i wish pod come back laura nodded her
head on the pillow
but she couldn’t say anything she seemed
to see paw striding along the top of the
bluff on the path that went toward mr
scott’s house
tiny bright spots of candlelight darted
here and there from the holes cut in the
tin lantern
the little flickering light seemed to be
lost in the black
dark after a long time
laura whispered it must be most morning
and mary nodded all that time they’d
been lying and listening to the wind
and paw had not come back then
high above the shrieking of the wind
they heard again that terrible scream
it seemed quite close to the house
laura screamed too and leapt out of bed
mary ducked under the covers
ma got up and began to dress in a hurry
she put another stick of wood on the
fire
and told laura to go back to bed but
laura begged so hard that ma said she
could stay up
wrap yourself in the shawl ma said
they stood by the fire and listened they
couldn’t hear
anything but the wind and they could not
do anything
but at least they were not lying down in
bed
suddenly fists pounded on the door and
pau
shouted let me in quick caroline
ma opened the door and paul slammed it
quickly behind him
he was out of breath he pushed back his
cap and said whoo
i’m scared yet what was it charles
said ma a panther paus said
he had hurried as fast as he could go to
mr scott’s
and when he got there the house was dark
and everything was quiet
paul went all around the house listening
and looking with the lantern
he could not find a sign of anything
wrong so he felt like a fool to think
he’d got up and dressed in the middle of
the night and walked two miles all
because
he heard the wind howl he did not want
mr mrs scott to know about it
so he did not wake them up he came home
as fast as he could because the wind was
bitter cold
and he was hurrying along the path where
it went on the edge of the bluff
when all of a sudden he heard that
scream right under his feet
i’d tell you my hair stood up till it
lifted my gap he told laura
i let out for home like a scared rabbit
where was the panther paw she asked him
in a tree top said paul in the top of
that big cottonwood that grows against
the bluff there
pot didn’t come after you laura asked
and he said
i don’t know laura well you’re safe now
charles
said ma yes and i’m glad of it
this is too dark a night to be out with
panthers paw said
now laura where’s my boot jack
laura brought it to him the boot jack
was a thin
oak slab with a notch in one end and a
cleat across the middle of it
laura laid it on the floor with the
cleat down
and the cleat lifted up the notched end
then pau stood on it with one foot he
put the other foot into the notch
and the notch held the boot by the hill
while paul
pulled his foot out then he pulled off
his other boot the same way
the boots clung tightly but they had to
come off
laura watched him do this and then she
asked
would a panther carry off a little girl
paw
yes said paw and kill her and eat her
too
you and mary must stay in the house till
i shoot that panther
as soon as daylight comes i will take my
gun and go after him
all the next day paul hunted that
panther
and he hunted the next day and the next
day
he found the panthers tracks and he
found the hide and bones of an antelope
that the panther had eaten
but he did not find the panther anywhere
the panther went swiftly through
treetops where it left no tracks
paw said he would not stop till he
killed that panther
he said we can’t have panthers running
around in a country where they’re little
girls
but he did not kill that panther and he
did stop hunting it
one day in the woods he met an indian
they stood in the wet
cold woods and looked at each other and
they could not talk because they did not
know each other’s words
but the indian pointed to the panthers
tracks and he made motions with his gun
to show paw that he had killed the
panther
he pointed to the treetops and to the
ground to show that he had shot it out
of a tree
and he motioned to the sky and west and
east
to say that he had killed it the day
before
so that was all right the panther was
dead
laura asked if a panther would carry off
a little papoose and kill and eat her
too
and pau said yes probably that was why
the indian had
killed that panther