These Happy Golden Years (Little House 8)

“Better whistle for Nellie, she’d come,” Ida teased, and then she said soberly, “But she is afraid of these horses. She says they aren’t safe.”

Laura laughed delightedly. “They were a little wild, the time she was with us,” she said.

“But I can’t understand it. They are perfectly gentle,” Ida insisted.

Laura only smiled and tucked the dust robe in more securely. Then she saw Almanzo looking sidewise at her behind Ida’s head, and she let her eyes twinkle at him. She didn’t care if he did know that she had frightened the colts to scare Nellie, on purpose.

All the miles home they rode talking and singing, until they came to Laura’s home, and as she left them she asked, “Won’t you come with us next Sunday, Ida?”

Blushing, Ida answered, “I would like to, but I… I think I’m going walking with Elmer.”

Chapter 21

Barnum and Skip

June was gone, and Laura’s school was out. The organ was paid for. Laura learned to play a few chords with Pa’s fiddle, but she would rather listen to the fiddle alone, and after all, the organ was for Mary’s enjoyment when Mary came home.

One evening Pa said, “Tomorrow’s Fourth of July. Do you girls want to go to the celebration in town?”

“Oh no, let’s have it as it was last year,” Carrie said. “I don’t want to be in a crowd where they shoot off firecrackers. I’d rather have our own firecrackers at home.”

“I want lots of candy at home,” Grace put in her vote.

“I suppose Wilder will be around with that team and buggy, Laura?” Pa asked.

“He didn’t say anything about it,” Laura answered. “But I don’t want to go to the celebration, anyway.”

“Is this unanimous, Caroline?” Pa wanted to know.

“Why, yes, if you agree with the girls,” Ma smiled at them all. “I will plan a celebration dinner, and the girls will help me cook it.”

All the next morning they were very busy. They baked fresh bread, a pieplant pie, and a two-egg cake. Laura went to the garden, and with her fingers dug carefully into the hills of potatoes to find new potatoes. She gathered enough potatoes for dinner, without injuring one plant by disturbing its roots. Then she picked the first of the green peas, carefully choosing only the plump pods.

Ma finished frying a spring chicken while the new potatoes and the peas were cooked and given a cream dressing. The Fourth of July dinner was just ready, all but steeping the tea, when Pa came home from town. He brought lemons for afternoon lemonade, firecrackers for the evening, and candy for all the time after dinner.

As he gave the packages to Ma, he said to Laura, “I saw Almanzo Wilder in town. He and Cap Garland were hitching up a new team he’s got. That young fellow missed his vocation; he ought to be a lion tamer. Those horses are wilder than hawks. It was all he and Cap could do to handle them. He said to tell you if you want to go for a buggy ride this afternoon, be ready to climb in when he drives up, for he won’t be able to get out to help you. Said to tell you, there’s another team to break.”

“I do believe he wants to break your neck!” said Ma. “And I hope he breaks his own, first.”

This was so unlike Ma’s gentle self that they all stared at her.

“Wilder will manage the horses, Caroline. Don’t worry,” Pa said confidently. “If ever I saw a born horseman, he’s one.”

“Do you really not want me to go, Ma?” Laura asked.

“You must use your own judgment, Laura,” Ma replied. “Your Pa says it is safe, so it must be.”

After they had slowly enjoyed that delicious dinner, Ma told Laura to leave the dishes and go put on

her poplin if she intended to go driving. “I’ll do up the work,” Ma said.

“But you have worked all morning,” Laura objected. “I can do it and still have time to dress.”

“Neither of you need bother about the dishes,” Carrie spoke up. “I’ll wash, and Grace will wipe. Come on, Grace. You and I are older than Mary and Laura were when they did the work.”

So Laura was ready and waiting at the door when Almanzo came. She had never seen the horses before. One was a tall bay, with black mane and tail. The other was a large brown horse, spotted with white. On one side of his brown neck a white spot resembled a rooster. A streak of white in the brown mane looked like the rooster’s tail.

Almanzo stopped this strange team and Laura went toward the buggy, but the brown horse reared straight up on his hind legs, with front feet pawing the air, while the bay horse jumped ahead. Almanzo loosened the reins and as the horses sprang away he called, “I’ll be back.”