It's a little hard to get used to Laura as a young woman, but here she is in Little Town on the Prairie (how far the Ingalls family has come from the big woods of Wisconsin!)--fourteen years old, nearly finished with school, earning money by sewing in the summer months, becoming the "older" sister, and even catching the eye of a young man. Still, even as she presses Ma to allow her to cut her hair so she has bangs, she still snaps out at the ever-trying Nellie Oleson! She may well be becoming a proper young lady, but she still has a streak of the tomboy in her as well.
I'm convinced now that as a child I never read the whole series of Little House books. I'm not sure that I ever got past Plum Creek, and surely I would have remembered that very long winter. Laura remains always a school girl in my mind, but now she must take the lead--while Mary had always wished to be a school teacher, it falls to Laura to teach. It's all the more important as Mary must have the chance to go to school in Iowa, so Laura is driven to help out. These stories are charming and remain as fresh in the telling as when they were first written (or at least from my own youthful recollections of them) without feeling dated, but that thread of self-sufficiency and propriety flows throughout the stories. I can see why they are classics and why parents would happily press them into the hands of their children.
"In two more years she would be sixteen, old enough to teach school. If she studied hard and faithfully, and got a teacher's certificate, and then got a school to teach, she would be a real help to Pa and Ma. Then she could begin to repay them for all that it had cost to provide for her since she was a baby. Then surely, they could send Mary to college."
The family remains in De Smet. In winter they live in town and in summer they move out to the claim to grow their crops and work the land. Finally there the family is properly settled and De Smet is growing up around them. They may have not been as prepared in the last story to survive such a long, hard winter (barely managing), but now life is becoming somewhat easier. It's not all hardship and difficulties. As a matter of fact, the Ingalls family is flourishing somewhat. When Laura takes a job (much to the chagrin of Ma as a proper young lady would wouldn't work in town) she is able to earn money, but more this is an eye opening experience for her in a couple of ways.
"The more Laura saw of the town, the more she realized how well off her own family was. That was because Pa had got a whole year's start ahead of the others. He had broken sod last year. Now they had the garden, the oatfield, and the second planting of corn was growing quite well in the sod."
She must also turn a 'blind ear' to some of the more colorful language of the men of the town . . . ahem. As the town grows the newcomers must begin from scratch, as the Ingalls family begins to prosper. Even Nellie Oleson must live out on a claim. Her pride isn't wounded from having been set back, however, she is as odious as ever, and even though she would never admit it, she has a jealous streak running through her. And she is always eager to show Laura in a bad light or make her life difficult. When the new school teacher arrives, Almanzo Wilder's sister as a matter of fact, Nellie becomes her confidante and spins tales about Laura.
I think the rivalry between the two girls was always more pronounced in the TV show, but Nellie makes herself a nuisance on more than one occasion. She might be boastful of what she will accomplish, but it's usually--happily for the reader--Laura who takes the day. What makes Laura such a sympathetic character is her ordinariness and modesty. Sometimes she surprises herself by her accomplishments. Though I am with Laura on the question of corsets--
"Her corsets were a sad affliction to her, from the time she put them on in the morning until she took them off at night. But when girls pinned up their hair and wore skirts sown to their shoetops, they must wear corsets."
You know you are entering new ground when a beloved character, little Half-Pint, is now wearing corsets. Part of me is shaking my head thinking no-let Laura continue frolicking in the fields barefoot or shimmying down branches over streams or racing on a horse bareback. But then when Almanzo begins walking Laura home at night from the town's 'Literaries', life takes on a new hue, a new path that might be interesting in other ways.
So much happens in this story. It is both exciting and bittersweet because there are only two books left to read and life for the Ingalls family and Laura in particular is changing quickly. The cover shows school girls, but not for much longer. Spoiler alert--though nothing I will be sharing is likely to be earth-shattering. Mary does go away from home. The illustration in the book shows quite a young woman--almost startling in her maturity. The family is both happy yet a little bereft. I mentioned the town Literaries--finally a little bit of culture is introduced. You know the town is growing and prospering when they move from just a Main Street and a few families settling to being able to introduce evenings of music and literature. The latest trends have even arrived--the Easter 'Thing' is to have calling cards, and then there is the confusion of Almanzo. Why does Mr. Wilder show Laura so much attention? She mistakenly thinks he is older--someone who would be part of her father's circle, perhaps, since he has his own claim--so why then does he pay her such attention?
And then the most surprising moment is at the end, which I won't give away now, but I am reading about the next path in Laura's life in These Happy Golden Years. I should finish the book in the next day or so. And then Laura's and the Ingalls's family story will be complete. A happy sigh for me, but a little bit bereft as well I suspect. And where will my own reading path take me next?