Read Online The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder - Free Book Online Page A

then Manly came down with it, and on his morning visit, the doctor ordered him to bed
     with strict orders to stay there. He said he would send someone out from town to help
     them. A short time after the doctor went away, Manly's brother Royal came out to care for
     them. He was a bachelor, living alone, and thought he was the one could best come.
    So both in the same room, with the crudest of care, Manly and Laura spent the miserable,
     feverish days. Laura's attack had been dangerous, while Manly's was light.
    At last they were both up and around again, but the doctor had given his last advice and
     warning against overexertion. Royal, tired and half sick himself, had gone home, and
     Laura and Manly, well wrapped, had spent a day in the summer kitchen while the sick room
     was fumigated.
    T h e n after a few days longer, Rose was brought home. She had learned to walk while she
     had been away and she seemed to have grown much older. But it was very pleasant to have
     her taking her little running steps around the room, and most of all, it was good to be
     well again.
    Laura thought the trouble was all over now. But that was not to be for many a day yet.
    Manlydisregarding the doctor's warning had worked too hard, and one cold morning he nearly
     fell as he got out of bed, because he could not use his legs properly. They were numb to
     his hips and it was only after much rubbing that he could get about with Laura's help. But together they did the chores; after breakfast, Laura helped him hitch up the wagon and he went to town to see the doctor.
    “A slight stroke of paralysis,” the doctor said, “from overexertion too soon after the
     diphtheria.” From that day on there was a struggle to keep Manly's legs so that he could
     use them. Some days they were better and again they were worse, but gradually he improved
     until he could go about his usual business if he was careful. In the meantime, spring had come. Sickness with its doctor bills had been expensive. There was no money to go on until another
     harvest. The renter on the tree claim was moving away and Manly in his condition could not
     work both pieces of land. The tree claim was not proved up and the young trees must be cultivated to hold it. Something must be done. And in this
     emergency a buyer for the homestead came along. He would assume the eight-hundred-dollar
     mortgage and give Manly two hundred. And so the homestead was sold and Manly and Laura
     moved back to the tree claim one early spring day. The little house was in bad order, but a little paint, a few fly screens, and a good cleaning made it fresh and sweet again. Laura felt
     that she was back home, and it was easier for Manly to walk on the level ground to the
     barn than it had been for him to climb up and down the hill on the homestead.
    He was gradually overcoming the effect of the stroke but still would fall down if he
     happened to stub his toe. He could not step over a piece of board in his way but must go
     around it. His fingers were clumsy so that he could neither hitch up nor unhitch his
     team, but he could drive them once they were ready to go.
    So Laura hitched up the horses and helped him get started and then was on hand ready to
     help him unhitch when he drove them back.
    The renter had taken the tree claim with the fall plowing done so he turned it back to
     Manly plowed. Manly had only to harrow and seed the fields. It was slow work but he
     finished in good time.
    The rains came as needed and the wheat and oats grew well. If it would only keep on
     raining oftenand not hail.
    There were three little calves in the barn lot and two young colts running all over the
     place, plus the colt they had bought with Laura's school money, now a three-year-old and
     grown out nicely. The little flock of hens were laying nicely. Oh, things weren't so bad
     after all.
    Rose was toddling about the house, playing with the kitten or clinging to Laura's skirts