57 pages • 1 hour read
Laura Ingalls WilderA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The family goes to town for the Independence Day festivities. No one works today, and all the stores are closed to celebrate the Fourth of July. In town, they enjoy hearing the band playing songs like “Yankee Doodle” and are awed by the war cannons. The American flag rises, and the crowd sings the National Anthem together. A Congressperson reads the Declaration of Independence, and other politicians give speeches.
Afterward, Almanzo meets his cousin Frank at the lemonade stand. Frank is holding a nickel and teases Almanzo that he can’t get a nickel from his father for lemonade, unlike Frank. Almanzo claims he can, but feels sheepish when he finds Father talking to another man. He explains the situation with Frank, and Father shows him a half-dollar instead, which is a lot of money. Almanzo learns that hard work goes into earning a half-dollar, since a bucket of their potatoes is worth a half-dollar. Almanzo can spend the money however he sees fit, though Father suggests a pig to raise and have piglets that can benefit the family. Almanzo shows Frank and the other boys his half-dollar, which amazes them.
After a picnic, they head home. Father teaches Almanzo another lesson about how farmers built the country even though soldiers fought the English. Without farmers, the US wouldn’t have survived, Father says, because farmers tilled and tended the land so that everyone could have food to eat.
During the warm days of summer, the corn, potatoes, and other crops flourish. The plants are high and healthy. Almanzo tends to his pumpkin, which he’s raising for the County Fair. Almanzo also spent his half-dollar on a little female pig, whom he feeds and cares for daily. He wishes he could grow up as fast as the plants and his piglet so that he’d be old enough to train the colts and have his own horse.
Father trains the two-year-old colts, which makes Almanzo jealous. He yearns to help, but Father worries that he’ll scare the colts or teach them behavior he’ll have to reverse. When the mare Beauty has a gorgeous colt with a white star on his head, Almanzo names him Starlight. When Father is away one day, Almanzo goes into the pasture with Beauty and Starlight. He gets closer but doesn’t spook the colt. Starlight almost comes to him but then runs off. Eliza Jane sees Almanzo trying to work with Starlight and tells Father, who scolds Almanzo for messing around with the horses.
On rainy days, Almanzo and Father sometimes go fishing, since many chores can’t be done in the rain. He digs up worms and hurries to the river. They fish all day, and Almanzo feels excited when he catches fish bigger than Father’s. They string the fish, bring them home, and clean them, and Mother fries them in batter for supper.
The whole family goes berry-picking each summer in the mountains. One year, Almanzo met a black bear who was eating berries. The bear and Almanzo both froze in fear, but the bear ran away. The family picks berries all day. When they return home, Mother and Almanzo’s sisters make preserves for jams, jellies, and fresh berry pies. Soon after, Father announces that he and Mother are considering a vacation to Uncle Andrew’s house and asks if the kids can take care of the chores. They answer that they can.
Mother and Father prepare the kids for their vacation by reminding them of all the chores, such as weeding the fields, feeding the livestock, getting the eggs from the chickens, churning butter, etc. Once Mother and Father leave, the kids feel excited to do anything they want, though. They make ice cream first, and eat it with cake until they’re full.
Almanzo sneaks off to the horse pasture. Bess and Beauty have their newborns close, but when Almanzo comes nearer, the colts are curious. Suddenly, six larger colts come toward his outstretched hands, thinking he has carrots. The horses get spooked, stampede across the pasture, and then rush toward him. Luckily, they jump over him. Royal scolds him, saying that he “knows better than to fool with those colts” (209).
After dinner one night, Almanzo feeds his piglet Lucy food scraps and pets her outside; the piglet loves Almanzo and follows him often. They make taffy candy, and Almanzo sneaks a piece to Lucy.
The next morning, Lucy doesn’t squeal like usual; she looks tired and sick. Almanzo finds candy stuck between her teeth. She can’t make any noise since her mouth is stuck shut with candy. Almanzo and his siblings chase after her to get the candy out of her mouth, but Lucy crashes through crops and dodges them. Finally, they subdue Lucy, and Royal pulls the candy from Lucy’s mouth so that she can squeal, eat, and drink again.
Since their parents are coming home the next day, they do all the chores they didn’t get to yet. With Eliza Jane as the boss, they sweep, dust, clean stalls, churn butter, and more. Almanzo cleans and polishes the stove in the parlor, their finest room, which has gold and white wallpaper, beautiful furniture, and fine china and trinkets. Eliza Jane keeps pestering him, and Almanzo accidentally throws the polishing brush at her. He misses, and the brush hits the wall, leaving a terrible, black splotch on the lovely wallpaper. Almanzo runs to the barn and hides in the hay. He knows he has ruined Mother’s parlor and Father will whip him.
When his parents come home the next day, they’re impressed at their children’s work keeping the house and farm clean. Almanzo dreads when they’ll see the black spot on the parlor wall, but for days nothing happens. Mother thinks he’s sick, but he’s just worried. Neighbors come over to visit, and Mother invites them into the parlor. Almanzo joins them, but he’s shocked to see that the black spot is gone. Later, he asks Eliza Jane, and she explains: She found extra wallpaper and covered the spot up so that their parents would never know.
Almanzo, Father, and the hired men John and Joe chop down the hay with scythes. Almanzo, Pierre, and Louis lay the hay out behind them, spreading it to dry in the sun. Around noon, Almanzo hears Mother’s dinner bell. He runs down to get her pail of fresh, homemade, cold eggnog. The men drink the whole pail of eggnog and continue working.
Royal and Father pitch the hay into the hayrack, and Almanzo tramples it down. They work for three weeks to clear all the hay from the fields and fill their barns with it. Then, it’s harvest time for all the other crops, and everyone works from dawn to dusk picking crops, preserving food, cooking, tilling, making straw hats, etc. Almanzo learns to tie off oat stalks after they’re cut, though he isn’t as fast as Father or Royal. They harvest the long strands of beans and peas next.
One day, the butter buyer comes from the city. He tests Mother’s butter barrels in the cellar, finding them golden and firm throughout. The butter buyer says it’s the best butter he’s ever seen, paying Mother $250 for her stores. Almanzo feels proud of his mother’s hard work while she drives to the bank with the new money.
In the fall, the corn and pumpkins are ready to harvest. Almanzo’s pumpkin for the fair is the largest, so he can’t lift it. Father helps him, and they store the pumpkins in a barn. Next, Almanzo and Royal pick apples from the trees. Father brings some apples to the cider mill, while the others pull turnips, beets, onions, and parsnips.
One night, Father judges that the cold wind will bring an early winter, so they harvest the last crops: carrots and potatoes. Father harrows the fields with the horses, and the children gather the pulled-up carrots and potatoes. They work for days, from dawn to dusk, to gather the potatoes and carrots before the freeze comes.
When Alice and Almanzo get too cold, Father gives them a match and instructs them to build a fire from the potato top. They warm up at the bonfire and roast two potatoes. However, while Almanzo is cooking the potatoes, one explodes, throwing embers in his face and burning his cheek and eyelid. Alice and Father yell with worry. Father puts a handkerchief around Almanzo’s eye and assures him that his eye isn’t hurt, though the burn stings. Mother puts a poultice on Almanzo’s burns every day, and he feels better within a few days. Finally, all the harvest is finished, the fields are picked clean, and the food is stored for the next year for the family and their livestock.
Childhood and Coming of Age take center stage in this section. At the Fourth of July festival, Almanzo learns the meaning and value of money through Father’s symbolic half-dollar. Although he only wants a nickel, Almanzo receives a higher amount of money. Father teaches him that the dollar represents hard work; he can earn money only through work. When Almanzo answers him that the coin is a half-dollar, Father corrects him by even stating the half-dollar is work. He puts the monetary item into terms Almanzo can clearly understand. This coin represents the value of hard work, maturity, and learning. Almanzo learns that a small coin contains hours and hours of physical labor to earn. Thus, he has a clear respect for money from Father’s teaching. He greatly values this reward of a half-dollar, seriously contemplating what to spend his money on after Father’s teaching. As a maturing boy, he rationally thinks he should invest the money in something that will earn him another reward. Almanzo’s decision to buy Lucy the piglet shows that he’s become more forward-thinking, planning ahead to when Lucy has baby pigs and he can sell them for more earnings. By raising Lucy, he can contribute more to the family’s funds. Being frugal and ambitious are important to Almanzo after the half-dollar lesson, so he doesn’t just spend the money on toys or treats at the festival, which impresses Father.
The novel highlights the characterization of the family and the responsibilities of children during this time period when Father and Mother take a trip, leaving the house and farm in their children’s care and trusting them with an immense workload for a week. They must complete all the chores, including cleaning, cooking, feeding the animals and tending their stalls, training the animals, and chopping wood—and they must remember important things like not to leave the stove on or waste food, like eating too much sugar rather than rationing it. They are responsible and mature enough to keep the farm running. The siblings are close-knit and kind, though Almanzo thinks Eliza Jane is “bossy” and extra strict during this week alone. The others want ice cream and spend time lounging, playing games, and doing only the basic chores until the day before their parents come home. Their procrastination on doing big chores, like cleaning, is relatable: Most kids avoid work until they must do it, but this is out of character for farm kids, who have been raised to work hard. They enjoy taking a break but then must scurry to finish the cleaning under Eliza Jane’s supervision. When Almanzo hits the parlor wallpaper with the black brush and fears that he’ll get in trouble, Eliza Jane resolves this conflict. She’s giving, helpful, and sneaky, replacing the wallpaper to save Almanzo from being punished. He’s grateful, viewing his sister in a new light, not just as the bossy eldest but as a kind, empathetic person, even after he was so angry with her. Likewise, Royal comforts Almanzo after the black brush accident, helping his little brother stop crying. Eliza Jane’s actions show that the siblings are selfless and loyal to each other, always willing to help one another and show love and support.
Since Almanzo loves animals, he ensures another heartbreaking conflict when he feeds Lucy the candy. He didn’t realize that pigs shouldn’t have the sticky, homemade taffy, since Lucy eats other scraps. When they wake up the next morning, Almanzo is terrified to find that Lucy can’t open her mouth to make noise, eat, or drink. Because he adores animals and views Lucy more like a beloved dog than a pig he’s raising, Almanzo experiences immense guilt and worry over her health. He fears that she may die and blames himself for accidentally hurting her with candy. Almanzo can’t face this heart-wrenching conflict and yells for Royal. He needs all his siblings’ aid to chase Lucy down and wrench the candy from her mouth. He feels intense relief when they save Lucy and learns to never let her have any sticky food again. He’ll protect and care for his animals better now, showing his increasing maturity.
By Laura Ingalls Wilder
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