GOING TO TOWN Little House in the Big Woods Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
going to town
after the sugar snow had gone spring
came birds sang in the leafing hazel
bushes along the crooked rail fence
the grass grew green again and the woods
were
full of wildflowers buttercups
and violets thimble flowers
and tiny starry grass flowers were
everywhere
as soon as the days were warm laura and
mary begged to be allowed to run
barefoot at first they might only run
out around the wood pile and back in
their bare feet
next day they could run farther and soon
their shoes were oiled and put away and
they ran barefoot
all day long every night they had to
wash their feet before they went to bed
under the hems of their skirts their
ankles and their feet were as brown as
their faces
they had playhouses under the two big
oak trees
in front of the house mary’s playhouse
was under mary’s tree
and laura’s playhouse was under laura’s
tree
the soft grass made a green carpet for
them
the green leaves were the roofs and
through them
they could see bits of the blue sky paul
made a swing of tough bark
and hung it to a large low branch of
laura’s tree
it was her swing because it was in her
tree
but she had to be unselfish and let mary
swing in it whenever she wanted to
mary had a crack saucer to play with and
laura
had a beautiful cup with only one big
piece broken out of it
charlotte and nettie and the two little
wooden men paw had made
lived in the playhouse with them every
day
they made fresh leaf hats for charlotte
and nettie
and they made little leaf cups and
saucers to set on their table
the table was a nice smooth rock
sookie and rosie the cows were turned
loose in the woods now to eat the wild
grass and the juicy new leaves
there were two little calves in the
barnyard and
seven little pigs with the mother hog in
the pigpen
in the clearing he had made last year
paul was plowing around the stumps and
putting in his crops
one night he came in from work and said
to laura what do you think i
saw today she couldn’t guess
well paul said when i was working in the
clearing this morning i looked up
and there at the edge of the woods stood
a deer
she was a doe a mother dear and you’ll
never guess what was with her
a baby dear laura and mary guessed
together clasping their hands
yes poss said her fawn
was with her it was a pretty little
thing
the softest fawn color with big dark
eyes
it had the tiniest feet not much bigger
than my thumb
and it had slender little legs and the
softest
muzzle it stood there and looked at me
with its large soft eyes wondering what
i was
it was not afraid at all you wouldn’t
shoot a little baby deer would you paw
laura said no never he answered
nor its ma nor its paw no more hunting
now
till all the little wild animals have
grown up
we’ll just have to do without fresh meat
till fall
paul said that as soon as he had the
crops in they would all go
to town laura and mary could go too
they were old enough now they were very
much excited
and next day they tried to play going to
town
they could not do it very well because
they were not quite sure what a town was
like
they knew there was a store in town but
they’d never seen a store
nearly every day after that charlotte
and neddy would ask if they could go to
town
but laura and mary always said no dear
you can’t go this year perhaps next year
if you’re good
then you can go then one night pau
said we’ll go to town tomorrow
that night though it was the middle of
the week
mob bathed laura and mary all over
and she put up their hair she divided
their long hair
into wisps combed each wisp with a wet
comb
and wound it tightly on a bit of rag
there were knobby little bumps all over
their heads whichever way they turned on
their pillows
in the morning their hair would be curly
they were so excited that they did not
go to sleep at once
ma was not sitting with her mending
basket as usual
she was busy getting everything ready
for a quick breakfast
and laying out the best stockings and
petticoats and dresses
and paws good shirt and her own dark
brown calico with the little purple
flowers on it
the days were longer now in the morning
mob blew out the lamp before they
finished breakfast
it was a beautiful clear spring morning
ma hurried laura and mary with their
breakfast
and she washed the dishes quickly they
put on their stockings and shoes while
she made the beds then she helped them
put on their best dresses
mary’s china blew calico and lara’s dark
red calico
mary button laura up the back and then
ma button mary
ma took the rags off their hair and
combed it into long round curls that
hung down over their shoulders
she combed so fast that the snarls hurt
dreadfully
mary’s hair was beautifully golden
but lara’s was only a dirt colored brown
when their curls were done ma tied their
sun bonnets under their chins
she fastened her collar with a gold pin
and she was putting on her hat
when pod drove up to the gate he had
curried the horses till they
shone he had swept the wagon box clean
and laid a clean blanket on the wagon
seat
ma with baby carrie in her arms set up
on the wagon seat with paw
and laura and mary sat on a board
fastened across the wagon box behind the
seat
they were happy as they drove through
the springtime woods
carrie laughed and bounced ma was
smiling
and paul whistled while he drove the
horses
the sun was bright and warm on the road
sweet cool smells came out of the leafy
woods
rabbits stood up in the road ahead their
little front paws
dangling down and their noses sniffing
and the sun
shone through their tall twitching ears
then they bounded away with a flash of
little white tail
twice laura and mary saw deer looking at
them with their large
dark eyes from the shadows among the
trees
it was seven miles to town the town
was named pepin and it was on the shore
of lake pepin after a long time
laura began to see glimpses of blue
water between the trees
the hard road turned to soft sand
the wagon wheels went deep down in it
and the horses pulled and sweated
often passed up them to rest for a few
minutes
then all at once the road came out of
the woods
and laura saw the lake it was as
blue as the sky and it went to the edge
of the world
as far as she could see there was
nothing but flat blue
water very far away the sky and the
water met
and there was a darker blue line the sky
was
large overhead laura had never known
that the sky was so big
there was so much empty space all around
her that she felt
small and frightened and glad that paul
and ma were there
suddenly the sunshine was hot the sun
was almost overhead in the large empty
sky
and the cool woods stood back from the
edge of the lake
even the big woods seemed smaller under
so much sky
paw stopped the horses and turned around
on the wagon seat
he pointed ahead with his whip there you
are
laura and mary he said there’s the town
of pepin
laura stood up on the board and paw held
her safe by the arm so she could see the
town
when she saw it she could hardly breathe
she knew how yankee doodle felt when he
could not see the town because there
were so many houses
on the edge of the lake there was one
great big building
that was the store part told her it was
not made of logs
it was made of wide gray boards running
up and down
the sand spread all around it
behind the store there was a clearing
larger than paws clearing in the woods
at home
standing among the stumps there were
more houses than laura could count
they were not made of logs either they
were made of boards like the store
laura had never imagined so many houses
and they were so close together
of course they were much smaller than
the store one of them was made of new
boards that had not had time to get gray
it was the yellow color of newly cut
wood
people were living in all these houses
smoke rose up from their chimneys though
it was not monday
some woman had spread out a washing on
the bushes and stumps by her house
several girls and boys were playing in
the sunshine in the open space between
the store and the houses
they were jumping from one stump to the
next dump and shouting
well that’s pepin paw said
laura just nodded her head she looked
and looked and could not say a word
after a while she sat down again
and the horses went on they left the
wagon on the shore of the lake
paul unhitched the horses and tied one
to each side of the wagon box
then he took laura and mary by the hand
and mark came beside them carrying baby
carrie
they walked through the deep sand to the
store the warm sand came in over the
tops of laura’s shoes
there was a wide platform in front of
the store and at one end of it
steps went up to it out of the sand
laura’s heart was beating so
fast that she could hardly climb the
steps she was trembling all over
this was the store to which park came to
trade his furs
when they went in the storekeeper knew
him
the story keeper came out from behind
the counter and spoke to him
and tomorrow and then laura and mary had
to show their manners
mary said how do you do but laura could
not say
anything the story keeper said to paw
and ma
that’s a pretty little girl you’ve got
there and he admired mary’s golden curls
but he did not say anything about laura
or about her curls they were ugly and
brown
the store was full of things to look at
all along one side of it were shelves
full
of colored prints and calicos
they were beautiful pinks and blues and
reds and browns and purples
on the floor along the sides of the
plank counters
there were kegs of nails and kegs of
round grey
shot and there were big wooden pails
full
of candy there were sacks of salt and
sacks of store sugar in the middle of
the store
was a plow made of shiny wood with a
glittering bright plowshare
and there were still ax heads and hammer
heads
and saws and all kinds of knives hunting
knives
and skinning knives and butcher knives
and jack knives
there were big boots and little boots
big
shoes and little shoes
laura could have looked for weeks and
not seen all the things that were in
that store
she had not known there were so many
things in the world
pa and ma traded for a long time the
store keeper took down
bolts and bolts of beautiful calicos and
spread them out for ma to finger and
look at
and price laura and mary looked but must
not touch
every new color and pattern was prettier
than the last and there were so
many of them laura did not know how mark
would ever choose
ma chose two patterns of calico to make
shirts for paw
and a piece of brown denim to make him a
jumper
then she got some white cloth to make
sheets and underwear
paw got enough calico to make ma a new
apron
ma said oh no charles i don’t really
need it
but paul laughed and said she must pick
it out
or he would get her the turkey red piece
with the big yellow pattern
ma smiled and flushed pink and she
picked out a pattern
of rosebuds and leaves on a soft fawn
colored ground
then paul got for himself a pair of
galaxies
and some tobacco to smoke in his pipe
and ma got a pound of tea and a little
paper package of store sugar to have in
the house when company came
it was a pale brown sugar not dark brown
like the maple sugar ma
used for every day when all the trading
was done
the store keeper gave mary and laura
each a piece of candy
they were so astonished and so pleased
that they just stood
looking at their candies then mary
remembered and said
thank you laura could not speak
everybody was waiting and she could not
make a sound ma had to ask her
what do you say laura then laura opened
her mouth
and gulped and whispered thank you
after that they went out of the store
both pieces of candy were white
and flat and thin and heart-shaped
there was printing on them in red
letters
ma read it for them mary said
roses are red violets are blue
sugar is sweet and so are you
laura said only sweets to the sweet
the pieces of candy were exactly the
same size laura’s printing was larger
than mary’s
they all went back through the sand to
the wagon on the lakeshore
paw fed the horses on the bottom of the
wagon box
some oats he had brought for their
dinner ma opened the picnic box
they all sat on the warm sand near the
wagon
and ate bread and butter and cheese
hard-boiled eggs and cookies
the waves of lake pepin curled up on the
shore at their feet and
slid back with a smallest hissing sound
after dinner paul went back to the store
to talk a while with other men
ma sat holding carrie quietly until she
went to sleep but laura and mary ran
along the lakeshore
picking up pretty pebbles that had been
rolled back and forth by the waves until
they were polished smooth
there were no pebbles like that in the
big woods
when she found a pretty one laura put it
in her pocket
and there were so many each prettier
than the last
that she filled her pocket full then
paul called and they ran back to the
wagon for the horses were hitched up and
it was time to go home
laura was so happy when she ran through
the sand to paw
with all those beautiful pebbles in her
pocket but when pop picked her up and
tossed her into the wagon
a dreadful thing happened the heavy
pebbles tore
her pocket right out of her dress the
pocket fell
and the pebbles rolled all over the
bottom of the wagon box
laura cried because she had torn her
best dress
ma gave carrie to paw and came quickly
to look at the torn place
then she said it was all right stop
crying laura
she said i can fix it she showed laura
that the dress was not torn at all
nor the pocket the pocket was a little
bag
sewed into the seam of the dress skirt
and hanging under it
only the seams had ripped ma could sew
the pocket in again as good as new
pick up the pretty pebbles laura ma said
and another time don’t be so greedy
so laura gathered up the pebbles put
them in the pocket
and carried the pocket in her lap she
did not mind very much when paul laughed
at her for being such a greedy little
girl that she took
more than she could carry away nothing
like that ever happened to mary
mary was a good little girl who always
kept her dress clean and neat and minded
her manners
mary had lovely golden curls and her
candy heart
had a poem on it mary looked very good
and sweet
unrumpled and clean sitting on the board
beside laura
laura did not think it was fair but it
had been a wonderful day
the most wonderful day in her whole life
she thought about the beautiful lake and
the town she had seen
and the big store full of so many things
she held the pebbles carefully in her
lap and her candy heart
wrapped carefully in her handkerchief
until she got home and could put it away
to keep always
it was too pretty to eat the wagon
jolted along on the homeward road
through the big woods
the sun set and the woods grew darker
but before the last of the twilight was
gone
the moon rose and they were safe
because paul had his gun the soft
moonlight came down through the treetops
and made patches of light and shade on
the road ahead
the horse’s hooves made a cheerful
clippity-clop
laura and mary did not say anything
because they were
very tired and mo sat silently holding
baby carrie sleeping in her arms
but paw sang softly
me pleasures
and palaces
though we may roam
be it ever so
humble there’s
no place like
home
[Music]
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