Almanzo shut the stable door against the cold while Lady went into her stall. Then with the currycomb he scraped the foam from her panting sides and her flanks and covered her warmly with a blanket. He squeezed a wet cloth into her mouth to moisten her tongue. He rubbed her slender legs and dried them where the sweat still ran down.
“Well, Lady, so you can outrun an antelope! Made a fool of yourself, didn’t you?” Almanzo talked to her while he worked. “It’s the last time I’ll let a fool ride you, anyway. Now you rest warm and quiet. I’ll water and feed you after a while.”
Pa had come quietly into the kitchen and without a word he laid his shotgun on its hooks. No one said anything; there was no need to. Carrie sighed. There would be no venison, no gravy on the brown bread. Pa sat down by the stove and spread his hands to the warmth.
After a little, he said, “Foster lost his head from excitement. He jumped off his horse and fired before he was anywhere near within gunshot. None of the rest of us had a chance. The whole herd’s high-tailed it north.”
Ma put a stick of hay in the stove. “They would have been poor eating anyway, this time of year,” she said.
Laura knew that antelope had to paw away the deep snow to reach the dry grass that was their food. In a blizzard they couldn’t do that, and now the snow was so deep that they must be starving. It was true that their meat would have been thin and tough. But it would have been meat. They were all so tired of nothing but potatoes and brown bread.
“The younger Wilder boy’s horse got away, too,” Pa said, and he told them how it had run with the antelope. He made a story for Carrie and Grace of the beautiful horse running free and far with the wild herd.
“And didn’t it ever, ever come back, Pa?” Grace asked him, wide-eyed.
“I don’t know,” said Pa. “Almanzo Wilder rode off that way and I don’t know whether he’s come back or not. While you’re getting dinner ready, Caroline, I’ll step up to the feed store and find out.”
The feed store was bare and empty, but Royal looked from the back room and said heartily, “Come on in, Mr. Ingalls! You’re just in time to sample the pancakes and bacon!”
“I didn’t know this was your dinnertime,” Pa said. He looked at the platter of bacon keeping hot on the stove hearth. Three stacks of pancakes were tall on a plate, too, and Royal was frying more. There was molasses on the ta
ble and the coffeepot was boiling.
“We eat when we get hungry,” said Royal. “That’s the advantage of baching it. Where there’s no womenfolks, there’s no regular mealtimes.”
“You boys are lucky to have brought in supplies,” Pa said.
“Well, I was bringing out a carload of feed anyway and thought I might as well bring the stuff along,” Royal replied. “I wish I’d brought a couple of carloads, now. I guess I could sell another carload before they get the train through.”
“I guess you could,” Pa agreed. He looked around the snug room, ran his eyes along the walls hung with clothes and harness, and noticed the empty spaces on the end wall. “Your brother not got back yet?”
“He just came into the stable,” Royal answered. Then he exclaimed, “Jiminy crickets, look there!” They saw Lady, dripping with lather and empty-saddled, streaking past the window to the stable.
While they were talking about the hunt and Mr. Foster’s crazy shot, Almanzo came in. He dumped the saddles in a corner to be cleaned before he hung them up and he warmed himself by the stove. Then he and Royal urged Pa to sit up to the table and eat with them.
“Royal don’t make as good pancakes as I do,” Almanzo said. “But nobody can beat this bacon. It’s home-cured and hickory-smoked from corn-fattened young hogs raised on clover, back on the farm in Minnesota.”
“Sit right up, Mr. Ingalls, and help yourself. There’s plenty more down cellar in a teacup!” said Royal. So Pa did.
Chapter 21
The Hard Winter
The sun shone again next morning and the winds were still. The day seemed warmer than it was, because the sunshine was so bright.
”This is a beautiful day,” Ma said at breakfast, but Pa shook his head.
“The sun is too bright,” he said. “I’ll get a load of hay as soon as I can for we’ll need plenty on hand if another storm comes.”
And he hurried away. Anxiously from time to time Ma or Laura or Carrie peeped out through the frosty window to see the northwestern sky. The sun still was shining when Pa came safely back, and after the day’s second meal of brown bread and potatoes he went across the street to hear the news.
In a little while he came gaily whistling through the front room and burst into the kitchen, singing out, “Guess what I got!”
Grace and Carrie ran to feel the package he carried. “It feels like… it feels like…” Carrie said, but she did not quite dare to say what it felt like for fear she was mistaken.
“It’s beef!” Pa said. “Four pounds of beef! To go with our bread and potatoes.” He handed the package to Ma.
“Charles! However did you get beef?” Ma asked, as if she could not believe it.