Welcome to the third installment of Little House Life—the diary that pulls quotes from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s famous books that have parallels to life in the time of Covid-19. Pioneer times have never seemed so relatable!
This week I’ll be sharing final thoughts from By the Shores of Silver Lake, and I’ll be back again next week to round things off with the quotes from the last half of The Long Winter.
On wildlife returning to old haunts now emptied of people
“And what were they [a pair of wolves] doing at that old den?” Ma wondered.
“They were just looking at it,” said Pa. “My belief is they came back to visit the old place where they lived before the graders came in and the antelope left. Maybe they used to live here before the hunters killed the last buffalo. Buffalo wolves were all over this country once, but there’s not many left now, even around here. The railroads and settlements kept driving them farther west.”
on the recent sourdough boom
“When you haven’t milk enough to have sour milk, however do you make such delicious biscuits, Laura?” she asked.
“Why you just use sour dough,” Laura said.
Mrs. Boast had never made sour-dough biscuits! It was fun to show her. Laura measured out the cups of sour dough, put in the soda and salt and flour, and rolled out the biscuits on the board.
“But how do you make the sour dough?” Mrs. Boast asked.
“You start it,” said Ma, “by putting some flour and warm water in a jar and letting it stand till it sours.”
“Then when you use it, always leave a little,” said Laura. “And put in the scraps of biscuit dough, like this, and more warm water,” Laura put in the warm water, “and cover it,” she put the clean cloth and the plate on the jar, “and just set it in a warm place,” she set it in its place on the shelf by the stove. “And it’s always ready to use, whenever you want it.”
“I never tasted better biscuits,” said Mrs. Boast.
On illness touching those we care about, and children thankfully escaping the worst
“I am sorry indeed, Sister Ingalls, to see the affliction that has come to Mary.”
“Yes, Brother Alden,” Ma answered sadly. “Sometimes it is hard to be resigned to God’s will. We all had scarlet fever in our place on Plum Creek, and for a while it was hard to get along. But I’m thankful that all the children were spared to us.”
On those with little cooking experience suddenly getting a trial by fire
“That poor boy’ll ruin his health, most likely,” said Ma. “Baching all by himself and trying to live on his own cooking.”
On scarcity and need intersecting
The supplies were all gone, and now Ma had to buy flour and salt and beans and meat and corn meal, so she did not make so much money. Supplies cost three and four times as much.
On bickering in close quarters (and on shortages making moot points of meal-planning disputes)
“Roast goose with sage stuffing! Won’t you like that, Laura!”
“No, and you know I don’t,” Laura answered. “You know I don’t like sage. We’ll have onion in the stuffing.”
“But I don’t like onion!” Mary said crossly. “I want sage!”
Laura sat back on her heels where she was scrubbing the floor. “I don’t care if you do. We won’t have it! I guess I can have what I want sometimes!”
“Why, girls!” Ma said astonished. “Are you quarreling?”
“I want sage!” Mary insisted.
“And I want onion!” Laura cried.
“Girls, girls,” Ma said in distress. “I can’t think what’s got into you. And I never heard of anything so silly! You both know we have no sage, nor onion either.”
on the altered atmosphere
She did not feel all alone and happy on the prairie now; she felt lonely and scared.
On mosquitoes*
The days were warm. Mosquitoes came out of the Big Slough at sundown and sang their high, keen song all night as they swarmed around Ellen, biting her and sucking the blood until she ran around and around on her picket rope. They went into the stable and bit the horses until they pulled at their halters and stamped. They came into the claim shanty and bit everyone there until great blotches raised on faces and hands.
Their singing and the sting of their bites made night a torment.
*(Mosquitoes are a hallmark—a big red itchy one—of my family’s confinement, because we live in the Southern Hemisphere, where late summer mosquitoes have accompanied us every step of the way through the lockdown here. This is probably not true for most of you reading this. But if you find yourself still sheltering at home a few months from now when mosquito season starts in the States, be warned: better start buying repellent now before the stores run out!)
on pep talks to help us through
“Oh drive dull care away,
For weeping is but sorrow.
If things are wrong today,
There’s another day tomorrow.
“So drive dull care away
And so the best you can.
Put your shoulder to the wheel
Is the motto for every man.”
* * * * *
“Now, girls,” she said cheerfully, “all together with a will, and we’ll soon have things to right.”