Book 2 5. THE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
the house on the prairie
laura and mary were up next morning
earlier than the sun
they ate their breakfast of cornmeal
mush with prairie hen gravy
and hurried to help mo wash the dishes
paul was loading everything else into
the wagon
and hitching up pet and patty when the
sun rose
they were driving on across the prairie
there was
no road now pat and patty waded through
the grasses and the wagon left behind
only the tracks of its wheels
before noon paw said whoa the wagon
stopped
here we are caroline he said
right here we’ll build our house
laura and mary scrambled over the feed
box and dropped to the ground in a hurry
all around them there was nothing but
grassy prairie spreading to the edge of
the sky
quite near them to the north the creek
bottoms lay below the prairie
some dark a green tree top showed and
beyond them
bits of the rim of earthen bluffs held
up the prairie’s grasses
far away to the east a broken line of
different greens lay on the prairie
and paul said that was the river that’s
the verdigris river he said
pointing it out tomorrow right away he
and mob began to unload the wagon
they took out everything and piled it on
the ground
then they took off the wagon cover and
put it over the pile
then they took even the wagon box off
while laura and mary and jack watched
the wagon had been home for a long time
now there was nothing left of it but the
four wheels and the parts that connected
them
pet and paddy were still hitched to the
tongue
paw took a bucket in his axe and sitting
on his skeleton wagon he drove away
he drove right down into the prairie out
of sight
where’s paul going laura asked
and ma said he’s going to get a load of
logs from the creek bottoms
it was strange and frightening to be
left without the wagon
on the high prairie the land and the sky
seemed too large
and laura felt small she wanted to hide
and be still in the tall grass
like a little prairie chicken but she
didn’t
she helped ma while mary sat on the
grass and minded baby carrie
first laura and ma made the beds under
the wagon covered tent
then ma arranged the boxes and bundles
while laura pulled all the grass from a
space in front of the tent
that made a bare place for the fire they
couldn’t start the fire until paul
brought wood
there was nothing more to do so laura
explored a little
she did not go far from the tent but she
found a queer little kind of tunnel in
the grass
you’d never notice it if you looked
across the waving grass tops
but when you came to it there it was
a narrow straight hard path
down between the grass stems it went out
into the endless prairie
laura went along it a little way she
went slowly
and more slowly and then she stood
still and felt queer
so she turned around and came back
quickly
when she looked over her shoulder there
wasn’t anything there
but she hurried when paul came riding
back on a load of logs laura told him
about that path
he said he had seen it yesterday it’s
some old trail
he said that night by the fire
laura asked again when she would see a
papoose
but pau didn’t know he said you never
saw indians unless they wanted you to
see them
he had seen indians when he was a boy in
new york state
but laura never had she knew they were
wild men
with red skins and their hatchets were
called tomahawks
pawn knew all about wild animals so he
must know about wild men
too laura thought he would show her a
papoose someday
just as he had shown her fawns and
little bears and wolves
for days paw hauled logs
he made two piles of them one for the
house
and one for the stable there began to be
a road where he drove back and forth to
the creek bottoms
and at night on their picket lines pat
and patty ate the grass
till it was short and stubby all around
the log piles
paul began the house first he paced off
the size of it on the ground
then with his spade he dug a shallow
little hollow
along two sides of that space into these
hollows
he rolled two of the biggest logs they
were sound
strong logs because they must hold up
the house
they were called sills then part chose
two more strong
big logs and he rolled these logs onto
the ends of the sills
so that they made a hollow square
now with his axe he cut a wide deep
notch near each end of these logs he cut
these notches
out of the top of the log but with his
eye he measured the sills
and he cut the notches so that they
would fit around half of the sill
when the notches were cut he rolled the
log over
and the notches fitted down over the
sill
that finished the foundation of the
house it was one log
high the sills were half buried in the
ground
and the logs on their ends fitted snugly
to the ground
at the corners where they crossed the
notches let them fit together
so that they were no thicker than one
log
and the two ends stuck out beyond the
notches
next day paul began the walls
from each side he rolled up a log and he
notched its ends
so that it fitted down over the end logs
then he rolled up logs from the ends and
notched them
so that they fitted down over the side
logs
now the whole house was two logs high
the logs fitted solidly together at the
corners
but no log is ever perfectly straight
and all logs are bigger at one end than
at the other end
so cracks were left between them all
along the walls
but that did not matter because paul
would those cracks
all by himself he built the house three
logs high
then ma helped him paul lifted one end
of a log onto the wall
then ma held it while he lifted the
other end
he stood up on the wall to cut the
notches and ma
helped roll and hold the log while he
settled it where it should be to make
the corner perfectly square
so log by log they built the walls
higher
till they were pretty high and laura
couldn’t get over them anymore
she was tired of watching paw and ma
build the house and she went into the
tall grass exploring
suddenly she heard par shout let go get
out from under
the big heavy log was sliding paul was
trying to hold up his end of it to keep
it from falling on ma
he couldn’t it crashed down and laura
saw ma
huddled on the ground she got to ma
almost as quickly as paw did paul knelt
down
and called ma in a dreadful voice
and ma gasped i’m all right
the log was on her foot paul lifted the
log
and ma pulled her foot from under it
paul felt her to see if any bones were
broken
move your arms he said is your back hurt
can you turn your head mom moved her
arms
and turned her head thank god
paul said he helped mata sit up
she said again i’m all right charles
it’s just my foot
quickly part took off her shoe in
stocking he felt her foot all over
moving the ankle and the instep and
every toe
does it hurt much he asked ma’s face was
gray and her mouth was a tight line
not much she said no bones broken
said paw it’s only a bad sprain
ma said cheerfully well
the sprains soon mended don’t be so
upset
charles i blame myself said paw
i should have used skids
he helped ma to the tenth he built up
the fire
and heated water when the water was as
hot as mark and bear
she put her swollen foot into it
it was providential that the foot was
not crushed
only a little hollow in the ground had
saved it
paul kept pouring more hot water into
the tub in which mars foot was soaking
her foot was red from the heat and the
puffed ankle began to turn
purple ma took her foot out of the water
and bound strips of rag tightly around
and around the ankle
i can manage she said she could not get
her shoe on
but she tied more rags around her foot
and she hobbled on
it she got supper as usual only a little
more slowly
but pause said she could not help to
build the house until her ankle was well
he hewed out skids these
were long flat slabs one end rested on
the ground
and the other end rested on the log wall
he was not going to lift any more logs
he and ma
would roll them up these skids but ma’s
ankle was not well yet
when she unwrapped it in the evenings to
soak it in hot water
it was all purple and black and green
and yellow
the house must wait then one afternoon
paul came merrily whistling up the creek
road
they had not expected him home from
hunting so soon
as soon as he saw them he shouted good
news
they had a neighbor only two miles away
on the other side of the creek
paul had met him in the woods they were
going to trade work and that would make
it easier for everyone
he’s a bachelor said paw and he says he
can get along without a house better
than you and the girls can
so he’s going to help me first then as
soon as he gets his logs ready i’ll go
over and help him
they need not wait any longer for the
house and ma need not do
any more work on it how do you like that
caroline
paul asked joyfully and ma said that’s
good charles i’m glad
early next morning mr edwards came he
was lean and tall
and brown he bowed tomorrow
and called her mam polightly but he told
laura that he was a wild cat from
tennessee
he wore tall boots and a ragged jumper
and a skin cap and he could spit
tobacco juice farther than laura had
ever imagined that anyone could spit
tobacco juice
he could hit anything he spit at too
laura tried and tried but she could
never spit so far or so well as mr
edwards could
he was a fast worker in one day
he and paul built those walls as high as
paul wanted them
they joked and sang while they worked
and their axes made the chips fly
on top of the walls they set up a
skeleton roof of slender poles
then in the south wall they cut a tall
hole
for a door and in the west wall and the
east wall
they cut square holes for windows
laura couldn’t wait to see the inside of
the house
as soon as the tall hole was cut she ran
inside
everything was striped there stripes of
sunshine came through the cracks in the
west wall
and stripes of shadow came down from the
poles overhead
the stripes of shade and sunshine were
all across laura’s hands and her arms
and her bare
feet and through the cracks between the
logs
she could see stripes of prairie the
sweet smell of the prairie
mixed with the sweet smell of cut wood
then as paw cut away the logs to make
the window hole in the west wall
chunks of sunshine came in when he
finished
a big block of sunshine lay on the
ground inside the house
around the door hole and the window
holes
paul and mr edwards nailed thin slabs
against the cut ends of the logs and the
house was
finished all but the roof
the walls were solid and the house was
large
much larger than the tent it was a
nice house mr
edwards said he would go home now but
paul moss said he must state a supper
ma had cooked an especially good supper
because they had company
there was stewed jack rabbit with white
flour dumplings and plenty of gravy
there was a steaming hot thick cornbread
flavored with bacon fat there was
molasses to eat on the cornbread
but because this was a company supper
they did not sweeten their coffee with
molasses
ma brought out the little paper sack of
pale brown
store sugar mr edwards said he surely
did appreciate that supper
then paul brought out his fiddle mr
edwards stretched out on the ground to
listen
but first paul played for laura and mary
he played their very favorite song and
he sang it
laura liked it best of all because paw’s
voice went down
deep deep deeper in that song
oh i am a gypsy king i
come and go as i please i pull my old
night cap
down and take the world at my ease
then his voice went deep deep down
deeper than the very oldest bullfrogs
they all laughed laura could hardly stop
laughing oh sing it again pausing it
again she cried before she remembered
that children must be seen and not heard
then she was quiet paul went on playing
and everything began to dance
mr edwards rose up on one elbow then he
sat up then he jumped up and he danced
he danced like a jumping jack in the
moonlight while paw’s fiddle kept on
rollicking and his foot kept tapping the
ground and laura’s hands
and mary’s hands were clapping together
and their feet were padding too
you’re the fiddlinest fool that ever i
see mr edward shouted admiringly to paw
he didn’t stop dancing paul didn’t stop
playing
he played money musk an arkansas
traveler
irish washerwoman and the devil’s
hornpipe
baby carrie couldn’t sleep in all that
music she sat up in ma’s lap looking at
mr edwards with round eyes and clapping
her little hands and laughing
even the fire light danced and all
around its edge the shadows were dancing
only the new house stood still and quiet
in the dark till the big moon rose and
shone on its gray walls and the yellow
chips around it
mr edwards said he must go it was a long
way back
to his camp on the other side of the
woods and the creek
he took his gun and said good night to
laura and mary
and ma he said a bachelor got mighty
lonesome and he surely had enjoyed this
evening of home life
play ingles he said play me down the
road
so while he went down the creek road and
out of sight
paul played and pau and mr edwards and
laura
sang with all their might
oh dan tucker was a fine old man he
washed his face in the frying pan he
combed his hair with a wagon wheel
and out of the toothache in his hill get
out of the way for old and tucker
he’s too late to get his supper supper’s
over and the dishes washed
nothing left but a piece of squash
old dan tucker went to town riding a
mule and leading a hound
far over the prairie ranked paw’s big
voice and lara’s little one
and faintly from the creek bottoms came
a last
whoop from mr edwards
get out of the way for old dan tucker
he’s too late to get his supper
when paws fiddle stopped they could not
hear mr
edwards anymore only the wind rustled in
the prairie grasses
the big yellow moon was sailing high
overhead
the sky was so full of light that not
one star twinkled in
it and all the prairie was a shadowy
mellowness then from the woods by the
creek
a nightingale began to sing
everything was silent listening to the
nightingale
song the birds sang
on and on the cool wind moved over the
prairie
and the song was round and clear
above the grasses whispering
the sky was like a bowl of light
overturned
on the flat black land
the song ended no one
moved or spoke
laura and mary were quiet pau
and ma sat motionless
only the wind stirred and the grasses
sighed
then paul lifted the fiddle to his
shoulder
and softly touched the bow to the
strings
a few notes fell like clear drops of
water
into the stillness a pause
and paul began to play the nightingale
song
the nightingale answered him the
nightingale began to sing again
it was singing with pause fiddle
when the strings were silent the
nightingale went on singing
when it paused the fiddle called to it
and it sang again
the bird and the fiddle were talking to
each other
in the cool night under the moon