2018.05.24

It's Thursday.

All at once Patty came running across the prairie. She was stretched out, running with all her might, and Pa was leaning almost flat on her neck. She ran right past the stable before Pa could stop her. He stopped her so hard that she almost sat down. She was trembling all over and her black coat was streaked with sweat and foam. Pa swung off her. He was breathing hard, too. Ma asked him what the matter was. Pa was looking toward the creek, so Ma and Laura looked at it, too. But they could see only the space above the bottom lands, with a few tree-tops in it, and the distant tops of the earthen bluffs under the High Prairie’s grasses. Ma asked again what it was and why he had ridden Patty like that. Pa breathed a long breath and said that he had been afraid the wolves would beat him there but he saw everything was all right. Ma cried what wolves. Pa said that everything was all right and asked her to let a fellow get his breath. When he had got some breath, he said that he hadn’t ridden Patty like that and it had been all he could do to hold her at all. He said that there were fifty wolves, the biggest wolves he had ever seen, and he wouldn’t go through such a thing again, not for a mint of money. A shadow came over the prairie just then because the sun had gone down, and Pa said that he would tell them about it later. Ma said that they would eat supper in the house. He told her that it was no need of that because Jack would give them warning in plenty of time. He brought Pet and her colt from the picket-line. He didn’t take them and Patty to drink from the creek, as he usually did. He gave them the water in Ma’s washtub, which was standing full, ready for the washing next morning. He rubbed down Patty’s sweat sides and legs and put her in the barn with Pet and Bunny.