At last, as Grandma stirred, the syrup in the saucer turned into little grains like sand, and Grandma called: ‘Quick girls! It’s graining!’ Aunt Ruby and Aunt Docia and Ma left the dance and came running. They set out pans, big pans, and little pans, and as fast as Grandma filled them with the syrup, they set out more. They set the...
A farmer depends on himself, and the land and the weather. If you’re a farmer, you raise what you eat, you raise what you wear, and you keep warm with wood out of your own timber. You work hard, but you work as you please, and no man can tell you to go or come. You’ll be free and independent, son, on a farm. —Farmer Boy“Those who labor...
Laura always wondered why bread made of corn meal was called johnny-cake. It wasn’t cake. Ma didn’t know, unless the Northern soldiers called it johnny-cake because the people in the South, where they fought, ate so much of it. They called the Southern soldiers Johnny Rebs. Maybe they called the Southern bread, cake, just for fun. Ma...
There were several beautiful hats, but Laura knew at once which one she wanted. It was a fine, cream-colored straw with a narrow brim, rolled narrower at the sides. —These Happy Golden YearsA sturdy straw hat was an essential accessory to have on the prairie that could be as pretty as it was practical. With just a few supplies and a...
Every morning Pa went cheerfully whistling to the field… Now he carried a sack of corn fastened to his belt, and as he plowed, he threw grains of corn into the furrow beside the plow’s point. The plow turned over a strip of sod on top of the seed corn. But corn would fight its way up through the matted roots, and there would be a...
One of my favorite “Little House on the Prairie” television episodes is “Christmas at Plum Creek.” If you’re a fan, then I’m sure that you remember it, too. It’s the episode where Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura, and Carrie face the challenge of finding a way to give each other Christmas gifts at a time when acquiring money — beyond what was...