Sunday, April 28, 2024

Little House in the Big Woods,by Laura Ingalls Wilder

little house in the big woods

The wagon jolted along on the homeward road through the Big Woods. Thesun set, and the woods grew darker, but before the last of the twilightwas gone the moon rose. When all the trading was done, the storekeeper gave Mary and Laura eacha piece of candy. They were so astonished and so pleased that they juststood looking at their candies. Several girls and boys were playing in the sunshine, in the open spacebetween the store and the houses. They were jumping from one stump tothe next stump and shouting.

The Story of Grandpa and the Panther.

That night while she was washing the supper dishes andMary and Laura were wiping them, Ma told Pa that Laura had tasted thewhey and didn't like it. "The moon is made of green cheese, some people say," she told them. A bit of the rennet, tied in a cloth, was soaking in warm water.

GOING TO TOWN.

So Pa went again to Uncle Henry's, and came back with a piece of thelittle calf's stomach. It was like a piece of soft, grayish-whiteleather, all ridged and rough on one side. Somebody must kill a calf, for cheese could not be made without rennet,and rennet is the lining of a young calf's stomach. The calf must bevery young, so that it had never eaten anything but milk. When the grass was tall and thick in the woods and the cows were givingplenty of milk, that was the time to make cheese. "Which do you like best, Aunt Lotty," Mary asked, "brown curls, orgolden curls?" Ma had told them to ask that, and Mary was a very goodlittle girl who always did exactly as she was told.

THE SUGAR SNOW.

Ma looked pretty, with her bare arms plump and white, her cheeks so redand her dark hair smooth and shining, while she scrubbed and rubbed thecorn in the clear water. She never splashed one drop of water on herpretty dress. The days were growing shorter and the nights were cooler. One night JackFrost passed by, and in the morning there were bright colors here andthere among the green leaves of the Big Woods. They were yellow and scarlet and crimson and goldenand brown. Next day Pa cut the heads from several bundles of the oats, and broughtthe clean, bright, yellow straws to Ma.

DANCE AT GRANDPA'S.

When it was cool it would cut in slices, and that washeadcheese. For dinner they ate the stewed pumpkin with their bread. They made itinto pretty shapes on their plates. It was a beautiful color, andsmoothed and molded so prettily with their knives.

little house in the big woods

The barrels of salted fish were in the pantry, and yellow cheeses werestacked on the pantry shelves. Onions were made into long ropes, braided together by their tops, andthen were hung in the attic beside wreaths of red peppers strung onthreads. The pumpkins and the squashes were piled in orange and yellowand green heaps in the attic's corners. Once in the middle of the night Laura woke up and heard the pigsquealing. Pa jumped out of bed, snatched his gun from the wall, and ranoutdoors.

TWO BIG BEARS.

In the Big Woods the snow was beginning to thaw. Bits of it dropped fromthe branches of the trees and made little holes in the softeningsnowbanks below. At noon all the big icicles along the eaves of thelittle house quivered and sparkled in the sunshine, and drops of waterhung trembling at their tips. In the summer they were bathed in water from the spring. But in thewintertime Pa filled and heaped the washtub with clean snow, and on thecookstove it melted to water.

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little house in the big woods

Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this study guide. You'll also get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. In the fall, chores include harvesting the straw, and Charles has asked some men with threshing machines to come help them. Winter comes again—and with it, long and cozy nights of firelight and music. After supper Pa took his gun and went into the woods, and Laura and Marywent to sleep without any stories or music.

If they burned their fingers, that wastheir own fault; they should have minded him. So they put their fingersin their mouths to cool them, and watched Pa make more bullets. They were cosy and comfortable in their little house made of logs, withthe snow drifted around it and the wind crying because it could not getin by the fire.

Ma never allowed themto play with their food at table; they must always eat nicely everythingthat was set before them, leaving nothing on their plates. But she didlet them make the rich, brown, stewed pumpkin into pretty shapes beforethey ate it. When Mr. and Mrs. Huleatt came, they brought Eva and Clarence with them.Eva was a pretty girl, with dark eyes and black curls. She playedcarefully and kept her dress clean and smooth. Mary liked that, butLaura liked better to play with Clarence.

A man sat on top of the horsepower, and when everything was ready heclucked to the horses, and they began to go. They walked around him in acircle, each team pulling on the long stick to which it was hitched, andfollowing the team ahead. As they went around, they stepped carefullyover the tumbling rod, which was tumbling over and over on the ground. There was so much work to do, so many good thingsto eat, so many new things to see.

Under the cherry tree outside the back door Pa had put up the board topress the cheese on. He had cut two grooves the length of the board, andlaid the board on blocks, one end a little higher than the other. In the summer evenings Pa did not tell stories or play the fiddle.Summer days were long, and he was tired after he had worked hard all dayin the fields.

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Little House in the Big Woods,by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Table Of Content The Story of Grandpa and the Panther. GOING TO TOWN. THE SUGAR SNOW. Little House Books TWO BIG BEARS. The wagon jolted...