Little House in the Big Woods (The Little House on the Prairie)

Product Information

The love, and friendship, and happiness Laura experiences along with the harsh and hungry winters truly makes for a wonderful story.

The First Four Years derives its title from a promise Laura made to Almanzo when they became engaged. Laura did not want to be a farm wife, but she consented to try farming for three years. At the end of that time, Laura and Almanzo mutually agreed to continue for one more year, a "year of grace". Over the course of the novel, which is set near De Smet, South Dakota, Laura and Almanzo's daughter, Rose, is born, they lose their unnamed son shortly after his birth, they suffer a bout of diphtheria that leaves Almanzo in poor health for the rest of his life, and they lose their house in a fire. The book ends at the close of that fourth year on a rather optimistic note. In reality, a two-year drought and several other tragic events eventually put the Wilders into debt and drove them from their land. They later founded a successful fruit and dairy farm in Mansfield, Missouri, where they lived comfortably until their respective deaths. I can only bless my son for his patience and grace that hot summer day as he stood politely over by a tree while I had an animated conversation and shared some hot tears with Laura, at her grave in Mansfield, Missouri).

Chapter 13.

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Journey Across America. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 2006. ISBN 0-06-072491-9

At the end of this book, the family is told that the land must be vacated by settlers as it is not legally open to settlement yet, and in 1875 Pa elects to leave the land and move before the Army forcibly requires him to abandon the land. Emma Carlson Berne (Edina, MN: Abdo Publ., 2008), Laura Ingalls Wilder, ISBN 1599288435, 128 pp., illustrated, OCLC 122337967 McLemore, Laura (December 7, 2018). "Historical Perspective or Racism in Little House on the Prairie?". littlehouseontheprairie.com . Retrieved October 27, 2023.

Chapter 8.

Each book contains lyrics to folk or patriotic songs. See The Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook reference below for full lyrics and music.

Les héros de la petite maison dans la prairie (Montreal: Québécor, 1983), Pierre Brousseau, 143 pp., OCLC 851006117 Koupal pointed to Wilder's "gift for descriptive prose and a true love of the prairie landscape", which she said was displayed in the memoir, highlighting the writer's description in the autobiography of the sunset on her first journey into Dakota Territory in September 1879. "The sun sank lower and lower until, looking like a ball of pulsing, liquid light it sank gloriously in clouds of crimson and silver. Cold purple shadows rose in the east; crept slowly around the horizon, then gathered above in depth on depth of darkness from which the stars swung low and bright." At home, Laura is met by Mr. Boast and Mr. Brewster, who interview Laura for a teaching position at a settlement led by Brewster, twelve miles (19km) from town. The school superintendent comes and tests Laura. Though she is two months too young, he never asks her age. She is awarded a third-grade teaching certificate.At the same time, Almanzo Wilder begins escorting Laura home from school. By Christmas, Almanzo has offered to take Laura on a sleigh ride after he completes the cutter he is building. [42]