Farmer Boy

Summary

Farmer Boy tells about a year and more in the boyhood of Almanzo Wilder, the author's future husband, on his family's prosperous farm near Malone in northern New York in the 1860s. Almanzo is almost nine when the book opens in January, walking to the schoolhouse with his brother Royal and his sisters Eliza Jane and Alice. The big boys from Hardscrabble Settlement have driven off earlier teachers, and everyone fears for the gentle new teacher, Mr. Corse, until he meets their leader, Bill Ritchie, with a long ox whip lent him by Almanzo's father and drives the gang out of the school. Most of the book follows the farm's work through the seasons. Almanzo gets up before dawn to milk and feed stock, and for his birthday Father gives him a small ox yoke so that he can train his calves, Star and Bright. The family fills the ice-house from the frozen pond, keeps a quiet Sabbath in church at Malone, and buys tinware from a peddler. In spring Almanzo plants potatoes and corn and helps with the sheep; when a June frost threatens the corn, the whole family rises before sunrise to pour cold water on every plant. On Independence Day in Malone, Almanzo's cousin Frank dares him to ask Father for a nickel; Father gives him a half-dollar instead and explains how much plowing, planting and hoeing it stands for, and Almanzo uses it to buy a young pig to raise. While the parents are away visiting relatives, the children make ice cream and cake, feed candy to the pig Lucy, and in a quarrel Almanzo throws a stove-blacking brush at the parlor wall; Eliza Jane quietly patches the stain with wallpaper and never tells. In the fall Almanzo's milk-fed pumpkin wins first prize at the county fair, the harvest is threshed and stored, a cobbler comes to make the year's boots, and the family keeps a Christmas of cousins and feasting. Near the end Almanzo finds a pocketbook on the road holding fifteen hundred dollars. Its owner, Mr. Thompson, first suspects him and offers only a nickel, until Mr. Paddock, the wheelwright, shames him into paying a two-hundred-dollar reward. Mr. Paddock then offers to take Almanzo as an apprentice in his growing wagon business. Father explains to his son the security of town work and the freedom of a farmer who answers to no one but the land and the weather, and lets him choose. Almanzo says he wants to be a farmer like his father, and above all to have a colt of his own. Father puts the reward money in the bank for him and gives him the colt Starlight to raise and train. Harper & Brothers published the book in 1933 with illustrations by Helen Sewell; Garth Williams illustrated the 1953 edition still in print. It is the second Little House book and the only one centered on Almanzo.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1–5: Winter school and a birthday

  The walk to school, the Hardscrabble boys and Mr. Corse's victory with the ox whip; winter chores and evenings; Almanzo's ninth birthday and the yoke for Star and Bright.

• Chapters 6–10: Ice, Sabbath and calves

  Cutting and storing ice, Saturday night baths, a long still Sunday in church, and Almanzo teaching his calves to obey as the year turns.

• Chapters 11–15: Spring work

  Plowing and planting, the tin-peddler's visit, sheep-shearing, and the cold snap when the family saves the corn from frost with water before sunrise.

• Chapters 16–18: Independence Day and keeping house

  The Fourth of July in Malone and Father's lesson on what a half-dollar means; the week the parents are away and the children run the house, ending with the blacking stain on the parlor wall.

• Chapters 19–22: Harvest and the county fair

  Haying and grain harvest, Almanzo's prize pumpkin at the fair, and the fall work of storing food for winter.

• Chapters 23–27: Late fall to winter

  The cobbler's visit, Almanzo's little bobsled, threshing, Christmas with the cousins, and hauling wood from the timber.

• Chapters 28–29: The pocketbook and the choice

  Almanzo returns Mr. Thompson's lost pocketbook and is rewarded; Mr. Paddock offers him an apprenticeship; Almanzo chooses farming and receives Starlight.

Characters

• Almanzo Wilder, protagonist

  Hardworking boy of nine who loves horses, food and farm work and longs to be trusted with a colt.

• Father, farmer and teacher

  Respected, patient farmer and horseman (the real James Wilder) who teaches Almanzo by example and by letting him earn trust.

• Mother, farm wife

  Brisk, capable mother (the real Angeline Wilder) whose cooking, spinning, weaving and butter-making keep the household running.

• Royal Wilder, older brother

  Teenage brother who leans toward town life and storekeeping rather than the farm.

• Eliza Jane Wilder, older sister

  Bossy, clever sister who nonetheless covers for Almanzo after the blacking-brush quarrel.

• Alice Wilder, older sister

  Almanzo's warm-hearted companion, who would rather be outdoors with him than sewing indoors.

• Mr. Corse, schoolteacher

  Mild-mannered teacher who outfaces the Hardscrabble bullies with Father's ox whip.

• Mr. Thompson, owner of the lost pocketbook

  Suspicious, stingy man who must be shamed into rewarding Almanzo.

• Mr. Paddock, wheelwright

  Friendly wagon-maker who defends Almanzo and offers him an apprenticeship.

• Cousin Frank, town cousin

  Almanzo's teasing cousin who dares him to ask for money at the Fourth of July.

Lessons

• Trust is earned by faithful work

  Father will not let Almanzo handle the young horses until he shows he can be patient and careful with smaller things, starting with the calves Star and Bright. By the last chapter Almanzo's steady work has earned him Starlight.

  • Why won't Father let Almanzo near the colts at the start of the book?
  • How does training Star and Bright prepare Almanzo to raise a colt?
  • What job have you been trusted with because you did a smaller job well?

• What money stands for

  At the Fourth of July, Father shows Almanzo that a half-dollar is the plowing, planting, hoeing and harvesting of a bushel of potatoes. Almanzo learns to think about money as stored-up work, and chooses to buy a pig that will grow rather than spend it on treats in town.

  • How does Father explain the half-dollar to Almanzo?
  • Why does Almanzo decide to buy a pig instead of spending the money in town?

• Honesty and gratitude

  Almanzo returns fifteen hundred dollars without taking a cent, even when Mr. Thompson treats him like a thief. Mr. Paddock's anger at Mr. Thompson shows that a good deed deserves thanks, while Eliza Jane's secret kindness about the parlor wall shows grace given without being earned.

  • How does Almanzo feel when Mr. Thompson counts the money to see if any is missing?
  • Why does Mr. Paddock stand up for Almanzo?
  • Why do you think Eliza Jane never told about the blacking stain?

• The free life of a farmer

  In the last chapter Father compares the wheelwright's comfortable town job with farm life, where a man feeds, clothes and warms his family from his own land and is his own master. Almanzo hears both sides and chooses the harder, freer life.

  • What good things does Father say about the wheelwright's trade?
  • Why does Almanzo choose to be a farmer?

Context

The book pictures a well-established farm in Franklin County, New York, near the Canadian border, in the years just after the Civil War, before mechanized farming and electricity. Nearly everything the family eats, wears and burns comes from its own fields, flock, dairy and woodlot, and money comes from selling butter, potatoes, hay and horses. Malone was the county seat, with a fair, an academy and a lively Fourth of July.

Composition

After Little House in the Big Woods (1932) succeeded, Wilder wrote Almanzo's story from his recollections of his boyhood, shaping it as a novel told from a boy's point of view. Harper & Brothers published it in 1933 with illustrations by Helen Sewell; Garth Williams re-illustrated the whole series for the 1953 uniform edition.

Reception

It became a lasting favorite within the Little House series, especially valued for its detailed account of farm work and its famous descriptions of food. The real Almanzo's childhood home near Burke, New York, is now preserved as the Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder Association's Wilder Homestead museum.

Comparisons

• little-house-in-the-big-woods

  The first book shows Laura's family scraping by in a Wisconsin log cabin while this one shows a wealthy, settled New York farm; together they give both sides of the couple the series later brings together.

• little-house-on-the-prairie

  The Ingalls family's restless move west contrasts with the Wilders' rooted prosperity, and Pa's and Father's very different ways of providing make a good pairing.

• franklin-autobiography-and-poor-richard

  Father's lesson about the half-dollar is the farm version of Poor Richard's thrift and industry, and both books treat honest work as the road to independence.

• the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer

  Two American boyhoods of the mid-1800s: Tom tricks others into whitewashing his fence, while Almanzo takes pride in doing his own chores well.

• walden

  Thoreau and Father both prize a man who raises what he eats and answers to no master, though Thoreau seeks it alone in a cabin and Father on a busy family farm.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Every time Almanzo asks to work with the colts, and what Father answers.
• The meals Wilder describes, and how many of the foods came from the Wilders' own farm.
• Father's ox whip in Chapter 4 and how Mr. Corse uses it against the Hardscrabble boys.
• The half-dollar at the Fourth of July and the pocketbook in Chapter 28: two lessons about money.
• Almanzo's milk-fed pumpkin, from the patch to the prize at the county fair.

Key terms and names

Malone

The county town near the Wilder farm in northern New York, where the family goes to church, to the Fourth of July celebration and to the fair.

Hardscrabble Settlement

The poor neighborhood that the rough big boys come from, who have beaten earlier teachers and mean to beat Mr. Corse.

Yoke

The wooden bar that joins two oxen so they can pull together. Father makes Almanzo a small one for his calves Star and Bright.

Ice-house

A shed where blocks of pond ice are packed in sawdust so they last into summer, for keeping food cold and making ice cream.

Cobbler

A shoemaker who travels from farm to farm, staying with each family while he makes their boots and shoes for the year.

Wheelwright

A craftsman who builds wheels and wagons. Mr. Paddock is one, and he offers to teach Almanzo the trade.

Starlight

The colt Father gives Almanzo at the end of the book to raise and gentle by himself.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What happens when Bill Ritchie and the Hardscrabble boys try to beat Mr. Corse, and how did Father help?
2. Comprehension What does Father tell Almanzo the half-dollar stands for, and what does Almanzo buy with it?
3. Comprehension How much money was in Mr. Thompson's pocketbook, and how does Almanzo end up with a reward?
4. Interpretation Why does the whole family get up in the dark to pour water on the corn during the cold snap? What does that tell you about how they think of their work?
5. Interpretation Eliza Jane is bossy all through the book, but she hides the blacking stain for Almanzo. What does that show about her and about being a family?
6. Interpretation Father says good things about being a wheelwright before he talks about farming. Why do you think he lets Almanzo choose instead of telling him what to do?
7. Big Question Almanzo works very hard, but he is proud and happy in his work. What makes work feel like a good gift instead of a burden?

Faith Connections

• Luke 16:10 (Scripture)

  Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful also in much. Almanzo is trusted with calves before a colt, and his honesty with Mr. Thompson's pocketbook shows he can be trusted with much more.

• Genesis 2:15 (Scripture)

  God put the man in the garden to work it and keep it. The Wilder farm, where the family tends land and animals all year, is a picture of that first calling.

• Exodus 20:8-11 (Scripture)

  Remember the Sabbath day. In the Sunday chapter the busy farm stops completely, and Almanzo must sit still through the long sermon in Malone and spend a quiet afternoon at home.

• Proverbs 6:6-8 (Scripture)

  The ant gathers her food in harvest. The whole second half of the book is the Wilders filling cellar, granary and woodshed so that winter finds them ready.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A farmer raises his own food, clothing and fuel, and so depends only on himself, his land and the weather. A man who depends on no master is free and independent. Therefore, Father argues, farming is a harder but freer life than a trade in town, and Almanzo, having learned what farm work costs and gives, chooses it.

Rhetorical device: catalog (enumeratio). Wilder's descriptions of meals, as at Christmas in Chapter 26, pile dish upon dish in long lists, so that the reader feels the farm's abundance and Almanzo's hunger.

Debate: Resolved: Almanzo made the wiser choice in turning down Mr. Paddock's apprenticeship.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain how Almanzo earns Father's trust over the course of the book, using at least three events, from training Star and Bright to returning the pocketbook.

Comparison with Little House in the Big Woods: Compare a day on the Wilder farm in New York with a day in the Ingalls cabin in Wisconsin. How are the two families' work, food and ways of having fun alike, and how are they different?

Medical Lens

The book has no illness of note; its interest for medical history is diet and labor. Wilder's long descriptions of meals (pies, doughnuts, baked beans, ham, fried apples'n'onions) record the heavy, home-produced diet of a prosperous northern farm family before refrigeration, with ice stored in sawdust for summer and food salted, smoked and stored for winter. Almanzo's constant hunger is that of a growing child doing a man's share of chores. The contrast with the near-starvation of the Ingalls family in Wilder's later The Long Winter makes a useful classroom pairing on food security.

• Chapter 6, "Filling the Ice-house"

  Ice is sawed from the pond and packed in sawdust to keep milk, butter and ice cream cold through the summer.

  Starvation Nutrition
• Chapter 26, "Christmas"

  The family's holiday dinner, one of the book's long catalogs of farm food.

  Starvation Nutrition

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Make a calendar of Almanzo's year with one farm job for each month, drawn from the chapters, and mark which jobs he does himself.

• Fiction

  Write the evening after the blacking-brush quarrel from Eliza Jane's point of view, as she decides to patch the wall and keep quiet.

• Essay

  Using Father's half-dollar lesson, figure out how many hours of your own chores something you want would cost, and explain whether it is worth it.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between Father and Mother about whether Almanzo should become Mr. Paddock's apprentice.

Further Reading

• Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder

• The Long Winter, Laura Ingalls Wilder

  The grown Almanzo returns as a hero who brings wheat to starving De Smet.

• Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, Laura Ingalls Wilder, ed. Pamela Smith Hill

• The Little House Cookbook, Barbara M. Walker

  Recipes and food history drawn from the series.