By the Shores of Silver Lake (Little House 5)

Suddenly she asked, “Pa, was that what made the very first railroad?”

“What are you talking about?” Pa asked.

“Are there railroads because people think of them first when they aren’t there?”

Pa thought a minute. “That’s right,” he said. “Yes, that’s what makes things happen, people think of them first. If enough people think of a thing and work hard enough at it, I guess it’s pretty nearly bound to happen, wind and weather permitting.”

“What’s that house, Pa?” Laura asked.

“What house?” Pa asked.

“That house, that real house.” Laura pointed. All this time she had been meaning to ask Pa about that house standing by itself on the north shore of the lake, and she had always forgotten.

“That’s the surveyors’ house,” Pa said.

“Are they there now?” Laura asked.

“They come and go,” said Pa. They had almost reached the store, and he went on. “Run on along home now, Flutterbudget. I’ve got work to do on the books. Now you know how a railroad grade’s made, be sure to tell Mary all about it.”

“Oh, I will, Pa!” Laura promised. “I’ll see it out loud for her, every bit.”

She did her best, but Mary only said, “I really don’t know, Laura, why you’d rather watch those rough men working in the dirt than stay here in the nice clean shanty. I’ve finished another quilt patch while you’ve been idling.”

But Laura was still seeing the movement of men and horses in such perfect time that she could almost sing the tune to which they moved.

Chapter 11

Payday

Two weeks had gone by and now Pa worked every evening after supper in his little office at the back of the store. He was making out the time-checks.

From the time-book he counted up the days each man had worked, and figured how much he had earned. Then Pa figured up how much the man owed the store; to that he added the man’s board-bill at the cook-shanty. He subtracted that amount from the man’s wages, and made out his time-check.

On payday Pa would give each man his time-check and the money due him.

Always before, Laura had helped Pa with his work. When she was very little, in the Big Woods, she had helped him make the bullets for his gun; in Indian Territory she had helped finish the house, and on Plum Creek she had helped with the chores and the haying. But she could not help him now, for Pa said that the railroad company would not want anyone but him to work in the office.

Still she always knew what he was doing, for the store was in plain sight from the shanty’s doorway and she saw everyone who came and went.

One morning she saw a fast team come dashing up to the store’s door, and a man in fine clothes got quickly out of the buggy and hurried into the store. Two more men waited in the buggy, watching the door and looking around them on every side as if they were afraid.

In a little while the first man came out and got into the buggy. After another look all around, they drove away quickly.

Laura ran out of the shanty toward the store. She was sure that something had happened there. Her heart was beating wildly, and it gave a great flop when she saw Pa, safe and sound, come out of the store.

“Where are you going, Laura?” Ma had called after her, and now Laura answered, “Nowhere, Ma.”

Pa came into the shanty and swung the door shut behind him. He took a heavy canvas bag out of his pocket.

“I want you to take care of this, Caroline,” he said. “It’s the men’s pay. Anybody that tried to steal it would come to the office.”

“I’ll take care of it, Charles,” Ma said. She wrapped the bag in a clean cloth and worked it deep into her open sack of flour. “Nobody’ll ever think of looking there for it.”

“Did that man bring it, Pa?” Laura asked.

“Yes. That was the paymaster,” said Pa.

“Those men with him were afraid,” Laura said.