Little House in the Big Woods

On Monday, the family takes a sled to Grandpas house, and along the way Pa shows Laura animal tracks and tells her the snow won’t last much longer. Soon they meet Grandma at the door of the house and Pa goes to help the men in the maple woods while Ma, Grandma, and Laura’s aunts work in the kitchen and Laura and Mary play. For supper Grandma cooks hasty pudding, making the house smell good.

The men—Pa, Grandpa, and Uncle George—come home in time for supper, carrying yokes from which hang big buckets of maple syrup; they eat that with the hasty pudding. Laura is fascinated by Uncle George because her parents called him a wild man. When he goes out and blows his army bugle to hear the echo, asking her to listen to the pretty sound, she says nothing and runs into the house.

Laura watches Aunt Ruby and Aunt Docia prepare for the dance. This involves doing their hair, washing with store soap, putting on white stockings and white shoes, and tying their corsets. Laura feels proud when Docia remarks upon how small her Ma’s waist was when she married her Pa. The women then put on their petticoats and dresses. Docia wears a cameo while Ruby has a wax rose. Ma wears her green delaine, and Laura thinks she looks so fine she is afraid to touch her.

People start to come for the dance, among them babies and another little girl with Laura’s name. They argue over which baby is cutest until Ma comes and puts an end to it. Uncle George blows his bugle and Pa fiddles and calls out the figures for the square dance: “Laura watched Ma’s skirt swaying and her little waist bending and her dark head bowing, and she thought Ma was the loveliest dancer in the world” (Page 145). Grandma tends to the maple syrup.

When Uncle George sees Laura dancing, he takes her by the hand and does a dance with her; she decides she likes him. The others have dragged Grandma away from the maple syrup, and she soon gets into a jigging competition with Uncle George. He can’t keep up and declares himself beaten.

Grandma suddenly stops and runs into the kitchen, then declares the syrup “waxing” (150), so everyone grabs plates and snow and then the maple syrup poured on top turns it into soft candy. They also have bread, pies, cakes, pork and pickles, and then they dance again. Eventually the stirred maple syrup begins “graining” (Page 152) so the women grab pans to fill with syrup, which will become maple sugar. The children all get patty-pans. The dancing goes on long after Laura goes to sleep. In the morning, they go home, and Pa says the sugar snow will end before night.

Spring is here at last and as the season progresses, the girls go barefoot all day. They play outside in their playhouses with their dolls, and on a swing Pa makes for Laura’s tree. One day Pa tells them he saw a deer with her fawn; he would never shoot them and in fact will not hunt until the baby animals have grown up.

Once the crops are in, the family goes to town, an event of much excitement for Mary and Laura—so much so, in fact, that they cannot sleep the night before, after they take an extra bath. They do their hair and wear their nicest dresses along with sunbonnets. The horses and carriage are also especially clean as they drive the seven miles to the town of Pepin, on the shore of the big lake of the same name. Laura’s reaction is one of wonder: “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” (Page 165).

The store is made of wooden gray boards instead of logs. The storekeeper knows Pa, and calls Mary a pretty girl—ignoring Laura, whose curls are “ugly and brown” (Page 168). The store is full of shoes, fabrics, and food: “She had not known there were so many things in the world” (Page 170). Laura’s parents trade for a long time, getting items such as fabric for clothing, galluses (suspenders), tobacco, tea, and sugar. The girls get candy hearts at the end, which surprises Laura so much she can’t even say thank you until her Ma urges her. Mary’s has a nicer, longer message on her candy than Laura’s.

The Ingalls family has a picnic on the lake. Then Pa goes to talk to some men, while Laura and Mary play on the shore and Ma puts Carrie to sleep. Laura has put many pretty pebbles into her pocket, but as they get in the cart to go home the pocket tears. She cries, but her mother says she can fix it and admonishes Laura to not be so greedy next time. Mary, by contrast, is a good little girl with nice manners, a candy heart with a poem on it, and golden curls: “Laura did not think it was fair” (Page 175). They had a wonderful day, but are tired. Pa sings, “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home” (Page 176).