2018.05.02

It's Wednesday.

Chapter four: PRAIRIE DAY

Soft whickerings were close to Laura’s ear, and grain rattled into the feed box. Pa was giving Pet and Patty their breakfasts. He asked Pet not be greedy and told her it was Patty’s turn. Pet stamped her foot and nickered. Then Pa asked Patty to keep her own end of the box and told her that was for Pet and there was a little squeal from Patty. The horses got nipped. And Pa asked them to serve them right and eat their own corn. Mary and Laura looked at each other and laughed. They could smell bacon and coffee and hear pancakes sizzling, and they scrambled out of bed. Mary could dress herself, all but the middle button. Laura buttoned that one for her, then Mary buttoned Laura all the way up the back. They washed their hands and faces in the tin washbasin on the wagon-step. Ma combed every snarl out of their hair, while Pa brought fresh water from the creek. Then they sat on the clean grass and ate pancakes and bacon and molasses from tin plates in their laps. All around them shadows were moving over the sun rose. Meadow larks were springing straight up from the billows of grass into the high, clear sky, singing as they went. Small pearly clouds drifted in the intense blueness overhead. In all the weed-tops tiny birds were swinging and singing in tiny voices. Pa said that they were dickcissels. Laura called back to them. Ma asked Laura to eat her breakfast and told the girls that they must mind their manners, even if they had been a hundred miles from anywhere. Pa said mildly that it was only forty miles to Independence and no doubt there was a neighbor or so nearer than that.