In the fall Laura helped Pa get the hay from the field. Pa would take the pitchfork and toss the hay into the hay wagon. Then Laura would stamp it down. They did this all day long. It took about a week to get all the hay from the field into the barn. Not only did Laura help Pa out but she also had her other chores to get done also.
Then one day Pa went into town to get a few things that they needed. He was in the store and a old Indian man came in and just kept saying winter seven. No one could figure out what he was talking about at first. The the old Indian man said bad winter seven. Pa figured it out and when the old Indian man left Pa said he meant we are going to have a bad winter that will last seven months. Then Pa left the store and came home and told the family. He said we have to move to town we can not stay here the house is not ready for winter yet.
Ma said when they moved to town that Laura and Carrie could go to school. Laura didn't like the idea of going to school. That is because she didn't know any of the kids like she did in Walnut Grove. She was asking Pa if she really had to go to school and he told her yes. Carrie was really excited to go to school. Laura said Ma is teaching them really good that they didn't need to go. Pa said he promised Ma if there was a school in town that the girls would go to school.
Pa still had his building in town that he had built. So they packed everything up and moved into town and lived in the building for the winter. Sure enough the old Indian man was right in October there was a three day blizzard. It was so bad that you couldn't even see across the street to the store. The winds were whipping so bad that the window would rattle. Pa strung a clothes line from the building to the stable so he could find his way back and forth to go and take care of the horses.
With the blizzards the girls only went to school on the good days. But Laura got to know the girls and she was really sad because she couldn't talk to them at all. Then they ran out of coal for the heater and they closed the school until spring.
The blizzard was so bad that the trains couldn't get to town. They were all stuck in different towns so there was no coal, food or wood coming in to town. There Christmas barrel from Reverend Alden was on the train and they couldn't even get that. There was a turkey and all the fixing to go with it for Christmas dinner.
Then by the New Year they had to use hay to heat the building. Pa and Laura would twist it and tuck the ends in to use in the cook stove. They even ran out of kerosene for the lamp and ran out of meat. The only thing that they had to eat for the rest of the winter was bread and tea. But didn't have no sugar to go in the tea. The stores didn't have any food on the shelves or in the barrels. They didn't have any white flour they only had wheat. They had to grind that down in a coffee grinder to make flour out of it.
They were almost out of the wheat flour and Pa went across the street to the store were all the men went. Someone said that there is some more wheat that someone has on his claim. The man stayed on his claim for the winter and it was south of town. So Almanzo and Cap took there horses and sleds and went to find this man to try to buy some wheat for everyone in town. They made it back right before the next blizzard hit. When that blizzard was over everyone split the wheat to last until the train would be able to come to town.
Then April came and all of a sudden everything started to melt. They had to break the ice from around the trains so they could get through. It took a couple of weeks to get that done with men working with picks to break the ice. The snow made the rivers overflow and the roads real muddy. Finally the train came to town and they had the food, coal and wood.
There Christmas barrel finally made it and a couple of days later they had a Christmas dinner. They invited the Boast's to come and join them for Christmas dinner. They all had presents in the barrel too.
I hope you enjoy this revue about this book. Please let me know how you like it.
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