HARVEST Little House in the Big Woods Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
harvest
paw and uncle henry traded work
when the grain got ripe in the fields
uncle henry came to work with paul
and aunt paulie and all the cousins came
to spend the day
then paul went to help uncle henry cut
his grain and ma
took laura and mary and carrie to spend
the day with aunt paulie
ma and aunt polly worked in the house
and all the cousins played together in
the yard till dinner time
aunt paulie’s yard was a fine place to
play
because the stumps were so thick the
cousins played jumping from stump to
stump without ever touching the ground
even laura who was littlest could do
this easily in the places where the
smallest trees had grown close together
cousin charlie was a big boy going on 11
years old and he could jump from stump
to stump all over the yard
the smaller stumps he could jump two at
a time
and he could walk on the top rail of the
fence without being afraid
paul and uncle henry were out in the
field cutting the oats with cradles
a cradle was a sharp steel blade
fastened
to a framework of wooden slats that
caught and held the stalks of the grain
when the blade cut them paw and uncle
henry
carried the cradles by their long curved
handles
and swung the blades into the standing
oats
when they had cut enough to make a pile
they slid the cut stalks
off the slats into neat heaps on the
ground
it was hard work walking around and
around the field in the hot
sun and with both hands swinging the
heavy cradles into the grain and cutting
it
then sliding it into the piles
after all the grain was cut they must go
over the field again
this time they would stoop over each
pile and taking up a handful of the
stalks in each hand
they would knot them together to make a
longer strand
then gathering up the pile of grain in
their arms
they would bind it tightly around with
the band they had made
and tie the band and tuck in its ends
after they’d made seven such bundles
then the bundles
must be shocked to make a shock
they stood five bundles upright snugly
together with the oat heads
up then over these they put two more
bundles
spreading out the stalks to make a
little roof
and shelter the five bundles from dew
and rain
every stalk of the cut grain must always
be safely in the shock
before dark for lying on the dewy ground
all night would spoil it
paw and uncle henry were working very
hard
because the air was so heavy and hot and
still that they expected rain
the oats were ripe and if they were not
cut and in the shock before rain came
the crop would be lost then uncle
henry’s horses would be hungry
all winter at noon paw and uncle henry
came to the house in a great hurry
and swallowed their dinner as quickly as
they could
uncle henry said that charlie must help
them that afternoon
laura looked at paw when uncle henry
said that
at home paul had said to ma that uncle
henry and aunt polly
spoiled charlie when paul was 11 years
old he’d done a good day’s work every
day in the fields driving a team but
charlie did hardly any work at all
now uncle henry said that charlie must
come to the field
he could save them a great deal of time
he could go to the spring for water and
he could fetch them the water jug when
they needed a drink
he could fetch the wet stone when the
blades needed sharpening
all the children looked at charlie
charlie did not want to go to the field
he wanted to stay in the yard and play
but of course he did not say so
paul and uncle henry did not rest at all
they ate in a hurry and went right back
to work
and charlie went with him now mary was
oldest and she wanted to play
a quiet ladylike play so in the
afternoon
the cousins made a playhouse in the yard
the stumps were chairs and tables and
stoves
and leaves were dishes and sticks were
the children
on the way home that night laura and
mary heard paw tell me
what happened in the field instead of
helping pawn uncle henry
charlie was making all the trouble he
could
he got in their way so they couldn’t
swing the cradles
he hid the wet stone so they had to hunt
for it when the blades needed sharpening
he didn’t bring the water jug to uncle
henry shouted at him three or four times
and then he was sullen after that
he followed them around talking and
asking questions
they were working too hard to pay any
attention to him so they told him to go
away and not bother them
but they dropped their cradles and ran
to him across the field when they heard
him scream
the woods were all around the field and
there were snakes in the oats
when they got to charlie there was
nothing wrong
and he laughed at them he said i fooled
you that time
paul said if he had been uncle henry he
would have tanned that boy’s height for
him right then and there
but uncle henry did not do it so they
took a drink of water
and went back to work three times
charlie screamed and they ran to him as
fast as they could
and he laughed at them he thought it was
a good
joke and still uncle henry did not
tan his hide then a fourth time he
screamed
louder than ever paul and uncle henry
looked at him
and he was jumping up and down screaming
they saw nothing wrong with them and
they’d been fooled so many times that
they went on with their work
charlie kept on screaming louder and
shriller
paul did not say anything but uncle
henry said let him scream
so they went on working and let him
scream
he kept on jumping up and down screaming
he did not stop at last uncle henry said
maybe something really is wrong they
laid down their cradles and went across
the field to him
and all that time charlie had been
jumping up and down
on a yellow jacket’s nest the yellow
jackets lived in a nest in the ground
and charlie stepped on it by mistake
then all the little bees and their
bright yellow jackets came
swarming out with their red hot stings
and they hurt charlie so that he
couldn’t get away
he was jumping up and down and hundreds
of bees were stinging him all over
they were stinging his face and his
hands and his neck and his nose they
were crawling up his pants legs and
stinging and crawling down the back of
his neck and stinging
the more he jumped and screamed the
harder they stung
paul and uncle henry took him by the
arms and ran him away from the yellow
jacket’s nest
they undressed him and his clothes were
full of yellowjackets and their stings
were swelling up
all over him they killed the bees that
were stinging him
and they shook the bees out of his
clothes and then they dressed him again
and sent him to the house laura and mary
and the cousins were playing quietly in
the yard when they heard a loud
blubbering cry charlie came bawling into
the yard and his face was so swollen
that the tears could hardly squeeze out
of his eyes
his hands were puffed up and his neck
was puffed out
and his cheeks were big hard puffs
his fingers stood out stiff and swollen
there were little hard white dents all
over his puffed out face and neck
laura and mary and the cousin stood and
looked at him
ma and aunt paulie came running out of
the house and asked him what was the
matter
charlie blubbered and bald ma said it
was yellow jackets
she ran to the garden and got a big pan
of earth
while aunt polly took charlie into the
house and undressed him
they made a big pan full of mud and
plastered him all over with it
they rolled him up in an old sheet and
put him to bed
his eyes were swollen shut and his nose
was a
funny shape ma and aunt paulie covered
his whole face with mud
and tied the mud on with cloths only the
end of his nose
and his mouth showed aunt paulie steeped
some herbs to give him for his fever
laura and mary and the cousin stood
around for some time looking at him
it was dark that night when paw and
uncle henry came from the field
all the oats were in the shock and now
the rain could come
and it would not do any harm paul could
not stay to supper
he had to get home and do the milking
the cows were already waiting at home
and when cows are not milked on time
they do not give so much milk
he hitched up quickly and they all got
into the wagon
paw was very tired and his hands ate
so that he could not drive very well but
the horses knew the way home
ma sat beside him with baby carrie and
laura and mary sat on the board behind
them
then they heard patel about what charlie
had done
laura and mary were horrified
they were often naughty themselves but
they had never
imagined that anyone could be as naughty
as
charlie had been he hadn’t worked to
help save the oats
he hadn’t minded his father quickly when
his father spoke to him
he had bothered pa and uncle henry when
they were hard at work
then pau told about the yellow jacket’s
nest
and he said it served the little liar
right
after she was in the trundle bed that
night laura lay
and listened to the rain drumming on the
roof and streaming from the eaves
and she thought about what paw had said
she thought about what the yellow
jackets had done to charlie
she thought it served charlie right too
it served him right because he had been
so
monstrously naughty and the bees had a
right to sting him
when he jumped on their home but she
didn’t understand
why paul had called him a little liar
she didn’t understand how charlie could
be a liar
when he had not said a word