Little House On The Prairie Book 4 – Laura Ingalls Wilder (1)

How many brothers and sisters have you?” “Two,” Laura said. “That’s Mary, and Carrie’s the baby. She has golden hair, too. And we have a bulldog named Jack. We live on Plum Creek. Where do you live?” “Does your Pa drive two bay horses with black manes and tails?” Christy asked.

“Yes,” said Laura. “They are Sam and David, our Christmas horses.” “He comes by our house, so you came by it, too,” said Christy. “It’s the house before you come to Beadle’s store and post-office, before you get to the blacksmith shop. Miss Eva Beadle’s our teacher. That’s Nellie Oleson.” Nellie Oleson was very pretty. Her yellow hair hung in long curls, with two big blue ribbon bows on top.

Her dress was thin white lawn, with little blue flowers scattered over it, and she wore shoes. She looked at Laura and she looked at Mary, and she wrinkled up her nose. “Hm!” she said. “Country girls!” Before anyone else could say anything, a bell rang. A young lady stood in the schoolhouse doorway, swinging the bell in her hand. All the boys and girls hurried by her into the schoolhouse. She was a beautiful young lady. Her brown hair was frizzed in bangs over her brown eyes, and done in thick braids behind.

Buttons sparkled all down the front of her bodice, and her skirts were drawn back tightly and fell down behind in big puffs and loops. Her face was sweet and her smile was lovely. She laid her hand on Laura’s shoulder and said, “You’re a new little girl, aren’t you?” “Yes, ma’am,” said Laura. “And this is your sister?” Teacher asked, smiling at Mary. “Yes, ma’am,” said Mary. “Then come with me,” said Teacher, “and I’ll write your names in my book.” They went with her the whole length of the schoolhouse, and stepped up on the platform.

The schoolhouse was a room made of new boards. Its ceiling was the underneath of shingles, like the attic ceiling. Long benches stood one behind another down the middle of the room.

When the wagon wheels stopped turning, Jack dropped down in the shade between them. His belly sank on the grass and his front legs stretched out. His nose fitted in the furry hollow. All of him rested, except his ears. All day long for many, many days, Jack had been trotting under the wagon. He had trotted all the way from the little log house in Indian Territory, across Kansas, across Missouri, across Iowa, and a long way into Minnesota.

He had learned to take his rest whenever the wagon stopped. In the wagon Laura jumped up, and so did Mary. Their legs were tired of not moving. “This must be the place,” Pa said. “It’s half a mile up the creek from Nelson’s. We’ve come a good half-mile, and there’s the creek.” Laura could not see a creek. She saw a grassy bank, and beyond it a line of willow-tree tops, waving in the gentle wind.

Everywhere else the prairie grasses were rippling far away to the sky’s straight edge. “Seems to be some kind of stable over there,” said Pa, looking around the edge of the canvas wagon-cover. “But where’s the house?” Laura jumped inside her skin. A man was standing beside the horses. No one had been in sight anywhere, but suddenly that man was there. His hair was pale yellow, his round face was as red as an Indian’s, and his eyes were so pale that they looked like a mistake.

Jack growled. “Be still, Jack!” said Pa. He asked the man, “Are you Mr. Hanson?” “Yah,” the man said. Pa spoke slowly and loudly. “I heard you want to go west. You trade your place?” The man looked slowly at the wagon. He looked at the mustangs, Pet and Patty. After a while he said again, “Yah.” Pa got out of the wagon, and Ma said, “You can climb out and run around, girls, I know you are tired, sitting still.”

Jack got up when Laura climbed down the wagon wheel, but he had to stay under the wagon until Pa said he might go. He looked out at Laura while she ran along a little path that was there. The path went across short sunny grass, to the edge of the bank. Down below it was the creek, rippling and glistening in the sunshine.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: be32e160c8edfeda
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 62,494,828 bytes (59.6 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 229
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 294.25 minutes
• Total Words: 58,849
• Total Characters: 314,182
• Average Words per Page: 256.98
• Average Characters per Page: 1371.97

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