LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS

This story takes place in the woods of Wisconsin; Laura, Mary, Ma, Pa, and baby Carie live in a log cabin. At the beginning of the story the family is getting ready for the long winter. Pa smokes meat in a log that he hollowed out and put a roof over and, Ma and the girls harvest the vegetables. Once winter comes Laura and Mary have to play inside and help Ma. They liked helping make fresh butter, Ma would shape it into strawberries. One day Pa shot a bear that had stolen someone's pig. He brought both the bear and pig home and they had even more fresh meat for the winter. At night Pa would set the girls on his lap and tell them stories; once they were settled into bed Pa would play his fiddle until the girls had fallen asleep. Pa carried his gun with him every where he went, in the evenings the girls would watch Pa make bullets and load his gun. Then Christmas came and their Aunt Eliza and Uncle Peter and their children came to visit, Laura and Mary were allowed to go outside and play in the snow with their cousins. They would fall face down in the snow off of tree stumps and try to make a perfect impression of themselves in the snow. They all woke up the next morning and found gifts in their stockings. On Sundays the girls had to put on their best dresses and play quietly after they listened to Ma read from the Bible. Laura did not like this very much and threw a fit one day. Pa told him a story of how he and his brothers broke the rules and went sledding one Sunday afternoon. He told Laura that he was going to have to punish her the next day for being a bad little girl. After this Laura never complained again. One day Pa had gone to town to trade his furs, he had so many that he was unable to carry his gun with him and he would not be getting back home until dark. This meant that Ma had to do the feeding. She took Laura with her; once they got outside they saw the cow was outside her stable so, Ma went up to it and slapped it. After she slapped the cow she realized that it wasn't the cow it was a bear! She quickly told Laura to go back to the house and they made it back in safely. When Pa got back home he told the girls that on his way home he saw a bear standing in the middle of the path. He picked up a big log that he saw and hit the bear on the head as hard as he could. It turned out that it was only a tree stump the entire time. Over the next several days, the snow began to melt and Laura and Mary would soon be able to play outside. But one night it began to snow again, in the morning Pa left for Grandpa's house because he said it was sugar snow. Laura had no idea what sugar snow was and wondered all day until Pa came back home with Maple sugar, Maple syrup and Maple cakes. Pa them explained that Grandpa put hollowed sticks into the trees and out came Maple syrup, this began to happen after the snow began to melt and then it snowed again. Pa also told the girls that Grandpa was going to have a dance on Saturday. The girls washed early that week and got prepared to go to Grandpa's the following day. Once they arrived they helped Grandma get everything ready for that evening. Everyone put on their nice dresses and pants and fixed their hair, soon after company began to arrive. Dinner was then served and everyone ate until they could eat no more. Then the music started playing and everyone began to dance, they danced for a long time, and Grandma stayed in the kitchen and stired some syrup. Then she was challenged to jig, so she left the stove and began to jig with Uncle George. After she finally won, she ran back to the stove and yelled that the syrup was waxing, everyone grabbed a plate full of snow and ate all the Maple candy they possibly could. Then spring came and Pa told the girls they were old enough to go to town, Laura and Mary had never seen a town before and were greatly excited. Summer soon came and Pa planted his wheat, he was busy in the field everyday and no longer played his fiddle at night. When it was time to harvest the wheat Uncle Henry came and helped Pa harvest his wheat, and then the family went to Uncle Henry's so Pa could help him harvest his wheat. Uncle Henry decided that his son Charley was old enough to begin to help in the field. Charley misbehaved and kept tricking Pa and Uncle Henry that something was wrong with him. Then Charley stomped on a yellow jacket nest, on accident, and began screaming; Uncle Henry and Pa thought he was trying to trick them again, so the ignored him. Ma and Aunt Polly put mud all over Charley and wrapped him in old sheets and sent him to bed. Pa told Ma and the girls that Charley deserved what happened to him for trying to trick he and Uncle Henry. Pa convinced Uncle Henry that they should get someone to bring a harvesting machine. So the day after all the wheat was harvested some men brought a machine and Pa and Uncle Henry were able to get twice as much wheat as they would have been able to by hand. Pa was then able to go hunting again. He set up a salt-lick for the deer and watched them. He watched several animals and was unable to kill them, he came back home with no meat for Ma and the girls. He explained what had happened and the girls told Pa that they were not mad at him.

Throughout this story you gain much background information on many of the characters through Pa's stories. You also see Mary and Laura slowly maturing, though they have to learn many lessons. Baby Carrie is not mentioned a lot in this book. It is only said that she is there, you never know what she is doing. You learn that Pa is the soul provider for the family, and he works very hard.