Read Online On The Banks Of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Laura Ingalls Wilder
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and rubbing her hard all over with a towel. She did not say a word even when Laura had told her everything. Laura's teeth chattered, and Ma wrapped a quilt around her and sat her close to the stove.
At last Ma said: “Well, Laura, you have been very naughty and I think you knew it all the time. But I can't punish you. I can't even scold you. You came near being drowned.”
Laura did not say anything.
“You won't go near the creek again till Pa or I say you may, and that won't be till the water goes down,” said Ma.
“No'm,” Laura said.
The creek would go down. It would be a gentle, pleasant place to play in again. But nobody could make it do that. Nobody could make it do anything. Laura knew now that there were things stronger than anybody. But the creek had not got her. It had not made her scream and it could not make her cry.
THE WONDERFUL HOUSE
The creek went down. All at once the days were warm, and early every morning Pa went to work the wheat-field with Sam and David, the Christmas horses.
“I declare, Ma said, ”you're working that ground to death and killing yourself."
But Pa said the ground was dry because there had not been enough snow. He must plow deep and harrow well, and get the wheat sowed quickly. Every day he was working before the sun came up and he worked till dark.
Laura waited in the dark till she heard Sam and David splashing into the ford. Then she ran into the dugout for the lantern and she hurried to the stable to hold it so that Pa could see to do the chores.
He was too tired to laugh or talk. He ate supper and went to bed.
At last the wheat was sowed. Then he sowed oats, and he made the potato patch and the garden. Ma and Mary and Laura helped plant the potatoes and sprinkle little seeds in the garden-rows, and they let Carrie think she was helping.
The whole world was green with grass now; the yellow-green willow leaves were uncurling. Violets and buttercups were thick in the prairie hollows, and the sorrel's clover-like leaves and lavender blossoms were sour and good to eat. Only the wheat-field was bare and brown.
One evening Pa showed Laura a faint green mist on that brown field. The wheat was up!
Each tiny sprout was so thin you could hardly see it, but so many of them all together made that misty green. Everyone was happy that night because the wheat was a good stand.
Thenext day Pa drove to town. Sam and David could go to town and come back in one afternoon. There was hardly time to miss Pa, and they were not even watching for him when he came home. Laura heard the wagon first, and she was the first one up the path.
Pa was sitting on the wagon seat. His face was one big shining of joy, and lumber was piled high in the wagon box behind him. He sang out, “Here's your new house, Caroline!”
“But Charles!” Ma gasped. Laura ran and climbed up over the wheel, up onto that pile of boards. She had never seen such smooth, straight, beautiful boards. They had been sawed by machinery.
“But the wheat's hardly up yet!” Ma said.
“That's all right,” Pa told her. “They let me have the lumber, and we'll pay for it when we sell the wheat.”
Laura asked him, “Are we going to have a house made of boards?”
“Yes, flutterbudget,” said Pa. "We're going to have a whole house built of sawed lumber.
And it's going to have glass windows!"
It was really true. Next morning Mr. Nelson came to help Pa, and they began digging the cellar for that house. They were going to have that wonderful house, just because the wheat was growing.
Laura and Mary could hardly stay in the dugout long enough to do their work. But Ma made them do it.
“And I won't have you giving your work a lick and a promise,” said Ma. So they washed every breakfast dish and put them all away.
They made their bed neatly. They brushed the floor with the willow-twig broom and set the broom in its place. Then they could go.
They ran down the steps and over the footbridge, and under the willows, up
At last Ma said: “Well, Laura, you have been very naughty and I think you knew it all the time. But I can't punish you. I can't even scold you. You came near being drowned.”
Laura did not say anything.
“You won't go near the creek again till Pa or I say you may, and that won't be till the water goes down,” said Ma.
“No'm,” Laura said.
The creek would go down. It would be a gentle, pleasant place to play in again. But nobody could make it do that. Nobody could make it do anything. Laura knew now that there were things stronger than anybody. But the creek had not got her. It had not made her scream and it could not make her cry.
THE WONDERFUL HOUSE
The creek went down. All at once the days were warm, and early every morning Pa went to work the wheat-field with Sam and David, the Christmas horses.
“I declare, Ma said, ”you're working that ground to death and killing yourself."
But Pa said the ground was dry because there had not been enough snow. He must plow deep and harrow well, and get the wheat sowed quickly. Every day he was working before the sun came up and he worked till dark.
Laura waited in the dark till she heard Sam and David splashing into the ford. Then she ran into the dugout for the lantern and she hurried to the stable to hold it so that Pa could see to do the chores.
He was too tired to laugh or talk. He ate supper and went to bed.
At last the wheat was sowed. Then he sowed oats, and he made the potato patch and the garden. Ma and Mary and Laura helped plant the potatoes and sprinkle little seeds in the garden-rows, and they let Carrie think she was helping.
The whole world was green with grass now; the yellow-green willow leaves were uncurling. Violets and buttercups were thick in the prairie hollows, and the sorrel's clover-like leaves and lavender blossoms were sour and good to eat. Only the wheat-field was bare and brown.
One evening Pa showed Laura a faint green mist on that brown field. The wheat was up!
Each tiny sprout was so thin you could hardly see it, but so many of them all together made that misty green. Everyone was happy that night because the wheat was a good stand.
Thenext day Pa drove to town. Sam and David could go to town and come back in one afternoon. There was hardly time to miss Pa, and they were not even watching for him when he came home. Laura heard the wagon first, and she was the first one up the path.
Pa was sitting on the wagon seat. His face was one big shining of joy, and lumber was piled high in the wagon box behind him. He sang out, “Here's your new house, Caroline!”
“But Charles!” Ma gasped. Laura ran and climbed up over the wheel, up onto that pile of boards. She had never seen such smooth, straight, beautiful boards. They had been sawed by machinery.
“But the wheat's hardly up yet!” Ma said.
“That's all right,” Pa told her. “They let me have the lumber, and we'll pay for it when we sell the wheat.”
Laura asked him, “Are we going to have a house made of boards?”
“Yes, flutterbudget,” said Pa. "We're going to have a whole house built of sawed lumber.
And it's going to have glass windows!"
It was really true. Next morning Mr. Nelson came to help Pa, and they began digging the cellar for that house. They were going to have that wonderful house, just because the wheat was growing.
Laura and Mary could hardly stay in the dugout long enough to do their work. But Ma made them do it.
“And I won't have you giving your work a lick and a promise,” said Ma. So they washed every breakfast dish and put them all away.
They made their bed neatly. They brushed the floor with the willow-twig broom and set the broom in its place. Then they could go.
They ran down the steps and over the footbridge, and under the willows, up
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