Progress and the Wisdom of Pa

The Long Winter tells the amazing story of a prairie town's survival during a seven-month long winter of blizzards. Slowly, the isolated town on the treeless prairie begins to run out of food and fuel. It takes all the creativity that the pioneers possess just to keep alive.

Ma got up and put another stick of hay on the fire. When she lifted the stove lid, a reddish-yellow smoky light flared up and drove back the dark for a moment. Then the dark came back again. The wild screaming of the storm seemed louder and nearer in the dark.

"If only I had some grease I could fix some kind of a light," Ma considered. "We didn't lack for light when I was a girl, before this newfangled kerosene was ever hear of."

"That's so," said Pa. "These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraph and kerosene and coal stoves--they're good things to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em."

I wonder what Pa would say about our society today?

Taken from:
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. The Long Winter (1940), p. 192.

Tea Time with Betsy-Tacy

This tea time passage is from the book Betsy-Tacy. It's a delightful scene where five-year-old Betsy and Tacy have dressed up in grownup clothes and have gone "calling" on a neighbour, Mrs. Benson. Being such a good neighbour (one that bought the coloured sand from the girls in an earlier chapter), Mrs. Benson plays along nicely by treating the girls as though they really were lady callers.

"I hear you bought some sand, Mrs. Benson," said Betsy in the grown-up tone.

"Yes, I did. Would you like to see it?" asked Mrs. Benson, and she went to her desk and brought out the two bottles full of sand which Betsy and Tacy had coloured, the perfume bottle with the blue coloured stopper and the big fat jar.

"Mercy, what beautiful sand!" said Betsy.

"Isn't it!" cried Mrs. Benson. "I bought it from two little girls named Betsy and Tacy."

Tacy looked up then, her blue eyes dancing into Mrs. Benson's. "I know those little girls," she said.

"I thought maybe you did," said Mrs. Benson.

After a minute Mrs. Benson asked, "Wouldn't you like some tea?"

"Tea?" asked Betsy, so surprised that she forgot to talk like her mother.

"Afternoon tea," explained Mrs. Benson. "What ladies drink when they go calling."

"Oh, of course," said Betsy. "I'd love some. Wouldn't you, Tacy?"

So Mrs. Benson gave them some tea... cambric tea, she called it, and it was delicious. They had cookies with their tea, and Betsy and Tacy nibbled them daintily. But they ate them to the very last crumb.

Taken from:
Lovelace, Maud Hart. Betsy-Tacy (1940), p. 78-79.

Why I am Terrified of Leeches

I blame it all on Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, On the Banks of Plum Creek.

But without further preamble, here is the passage where Laura first discovers those horrible creatures...

Mary would not go into the dark water under the plum trees. The creek bottom was muddy there and she did not like to wade in mud. So she sat on the bank while Laura waded into the thicket.

The water was still there, with old leaves floating on its edges. The mud squelched between Laura's toes and came up in clouds till she could not see the bottom. The air smelled old and musty. So Laura turned around and waded back into the clean water and the sunshine.

There seemed to be some blobs of mud on her legs and feet. She splashed the clear water over them to wash them off. But they did not wash off. Her hand could not scrape them off.

They were the color of mud, they were soft like mud. But they stuck as tight as Laura's skin.

Laura screamed. She stood there screaming, "Oh, Mary, Mary! Come! Quick!"

Mary came, but she would not touch those horrible things. She said they were worms. Worms made her sick. Laura felt sicker than Mary, but it was more awful to have those things on her than it was to touch them. She took hold of one, she dug her fingernails into it, and pulled.

The thing stretched out long, and longer, and longer, and still it hung on.

"Oh don't! Oh don't! Oh, you'll pull it in two!" Mary said. But Laura pulled it out longer, till it came off. Blood tricked down her leg from the place where it had been.

One by one, Laura pulled those things off. A little trickle of blood ran down where each one let go.

Laura did not feel like playing any more.

I don't blame Laura. After that experience, I wouldn't want to play either.

Of course, the chapter isn't over. Laura goes home to discover exactly what those things are...

Ma said they were leeches and that doctors put them on sick people. But Pa called them bloodsuckers. He said they lived in the mud, in dark, still places in the water.

"I don't like them," Laura said.

"Then stay out of the mud, flutterbudget," said Pa. "If you don't want trouble, don't go looking for it."

And that is the reason why I am terrified of leeches. Not that I've actually had a whole lot of experience with leeches. But, that's probably because I've taken Pa's good advice...

(Oh, and my fear was probably reinforced by the movie, Stand By Me.)

Taken from:
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), p. 136-139.

How did I rate this book? Excellent book! (Despite the leeches)