Book 3 3. WINTER NIGHT Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
winter night
after supper almanzo took care of his
moccasins
every night he sat by the kitchen stove
and rubbed them
with tallow he held them up in the heat
and rubbed the melting tallow into the
leather with the palm of his hand
his moccasins would always be
comfortably soft and keep his feet dry
as long as the leather was well greased
and he didn’t stop rubbing
until it would absorb no more tallow
royal sat by the stove too and greased
his boots
almanzo couldn’t have boots he had to
wear moccasins because he was a little
boy
mother and the girls washed the dishes
and swept the pantry kitchen
and downstairs in the big cellar father
cut up carrots and potatoes to feed the
cows next day
when the work was done father came up
the cellar stairs bringing a big
pitcher of sweet cider and a pen full of
apples
royal took the corn popper and a
panicking of popcorn
mother banked the kitchen fire with
ashes for the night
and when everyone else had left the
kitchen she blew out the candles
they all settled down cozily by the big
stove in the dining room wall
the back of the stove was in the parlor
where nobody went
except when company came it was a fine
stove
it warmed the dining room and the parlor
its chimney warmed the bedrooms upstairs
and its whole top was an oven
royal opened its iron door and with the
poker
he broke the charred logs into a
shimmering bed of coals
he put three handfuls of popcorn into
the big wire popper
and shook the popper over the coals in a
little while
a kernel popped then another then three
or four at once
and all at once furiously the hundreds
of little pointed kernels exploded
when the big dish pan was heaping full
of fluffy white popcorn
alice poured melted butter over it and
stirred
and salted it it was hot and
crackling crisp and deliciously buttery
and salty
and everyone could eat all he wanted to
mother knitted and rocked in her
high-backed rocking chair
father carefully scraped a new axe
handle with a bit of broken glass
royal carved a chain of tiny links
from a smooth stick of pine and
alice sat on her hasic doing her wool
work embroidery
and they all ate popcorn and apples and
drank sweet cider
except eliza jane eliza jane read aloud
the news in the new york weekly paper
almanzo sat on a footstool by the stove
an apple in his hand a bowl of popcorn
by his side
and his mug of cider on the hearth by
his feet
he bit the juicy apple then he ate some
popcorn
then he took a drink of cider he thought
about popcorn
popcorn is american nobody but the
indians ever had popcorn until after the
pilgrim fathers came to america
on the first thanksgiving day the
indians were invited to dinner
and they came and they poured out on the
table a big bag full of popcorn
the pilgrim fathers didn’t know what it
was the pilgrim mothers didn’t know
either
the indians had popped it but probably
it wasn’t very good
probably they didn’t butter it or salt
it and it would be cold
and tough after they had carried it
around in a bag of skins
almanzo looked at every kernel before he
ate it
they were all different shapes he had
eaten
thousands of handfuls of popcorn and
never found
two kernels alike then he thought if he
had some milk
he would have popcorn and milk you can
fill the glass full to the brim with
milk
and fill another glass of the same size
brim full of popcorn
and then you can put all the popcorn
kernel by kernel
into the milk and the milk will not run
over
you cannot do this with bread popcorn
and milk are the only two things that
will go into the same place
then too they are good to eat but
almanzo was not very hungry
and he knew mother would not want the
milk pans disturbed
if you disturb milk when the cream is
rising the
cream will not be so thick so almanzo
ate another apple
and drank cider with his popcorn and did
not say anything about popcorn and milk
when the clock struck nine that was
bedtime
royal laid away his chain and alice her
wool work
mother stuck her needles in her ball of
yarn and
father wound the tall clock he put
another log in the stove
and closed the dampers it’s a cold night
mister course said
40 below zero said father and it will be
colder before morning
royal lighted a candle and almanzo
followed him sleepily to the stairway
door
the cold on the stairs made him wide
awake at once
he ran clattering upstairs the bedroom
was so
cold that he could hardly unbutton his
clothes and put on his long woolen night
shirt a night cap
he should have knelt down to say his
prayers but he didn’t
his nose ached with cold and his teeth
were chattering
he dived into the soft goose feather bed
between the blankets and pulled the
covers over his nose
the next thing he knew the tall clock
downstairs was striking twelve
the darkness pressed his eyes and
forehead
and it seemed full of little prickles of
ice
he heard someone moved downstairs then
the kitchen door
opened and shut he knew the father was
going to the barn
even those great barns could not hold
all father’s wealth of
cows and oxen horses and hogs and calves
and sheep
twenty-five young cattle had to sleep
under a shed in the barnyard
if they lay still all night on nights as
cold as this
they would freeze in their sleep so at
midnight
in the bitter cold father got out of his
warm bed
and went to wake them up out in the dark
cold night father was rousing up the
young cattle
he was cracking his whip and running
behind them
around and around the barnyard he would
run
and keep them galloping till they were
warmed with exercise
almanzo opened his eyes again and the
candle
was sputtering on the bureau royal was
dressing
his breath froze white in the air
the candle light was dim as though the
darkness were trying to put it out
suddenly royal was gone the candle was
not there
and mother was calling from the foot of
the stairs almanzo
what’s the matter be you sick it’s five
o’clock
he crawled out shivering he pulled on
his trousers and waist and ran
downstairs to button up by the kitchen
stove
father and royal had gone to the barns
almanzo took the milk pails and hurried
out
the night seemed very large and still
and the stars sparkled like frost in the
black sky
when the chores were done and he came
back with father and royal to the warm
kitchen
breakfast was almost ready how good it
smelled
mother was frying pancakes and the big
blue platter
keeping hot on the stove’s hearth was
full of plump brown
sausage cakes in their brown gravy
almanzo washed as quickly as he could
and combed his hair
as soon as mother finished straining the
milk they all sat down
and father asked the blessing for
breakfast
there was oatmeal with plenty of thick
cream and maple sugar
there were fried potatoes and the golden
buckwheat cakes as many as almanzo
wanted to eat
with sausages and gravy or with butter
and maple syrup
there were preserves and jams and
jellies and
donuts but best of all almanzo liked the
spicy apple pie
with its thick rich juice and its
crumbly crust
he ate two big wedges of the pie
then with his caps warm ear muffs over
his ears
and his muffler wrapped up to his nose
and the dinner pail in his mittened hand
he started down the long road to another
day at school
he did not want to go he did not want to
be there when the big boys thrashed mr
course
but he had to go to school because he
was almost nine years old