Little House on the Prairie

Summary

Little House on the Prairie follows the Ingalls family through roughly a year in Kansas, on land the book calls Indian Territory, around 1869 and 1870. Pa sells the little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin because the woods are filling with people and the game is growing scarce. He packs Ma, Mary, Laura and Baby Carrie into a covered wagon pulled by the mustangs Pet and Patty, with the brindle bulldog Jack trotting underneath. They cross the frozen Mississippi just before the ice breaks up and travel through Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri. In Kansas a creek in flood nearly drowns Jack, who is left behind and turns up at the camp days later. On the high prairie, about a day's drive from the town of Independence, Pa builds a log house. His new neighbor Mr. Edwards, a lanky bachelor from Tennessee, helps him raise the walls, and Pa adds a stick-and-clay chimney, a door with a latchstring, a roof and a puncheon floor. A pack of wolves circles the cabin one night. While digging a well for Mr. Scott, a neighbor, Pa has to haul him up when he collapses from bad air at the bottom, and afterward lowers a candle to test the air before going down. Cowboys driving Texas longhorns pay Pa with a cow and calf for helping them. In late summer the whole family falls ill with fever 'n' ague; Dr. Tan, a Black physician who doctors the Osage, finds them when Jack leads him to the door, and Mrs. Scott nurses them back to health. A chimney fire breaks out while Pa is away, and Pa makes the long trip to Independence for nails and window glass. At Christmas the creek is too high to cross, but Mr. Edwards swims it with gifts he says Santa Claus gave him in Independence: a tin cup, a stick of peppermint candy, a heart-shaped cake and a penny for each girl. Through the book Osage men come and go along a trail near the house. Two of them enter the cabin while Pa is out and take cornbread and his tobacco. In spring the tribes gather in the creek bottoms, a prairie fire races past, and nights fill with war cries until, Pa learns, the Osage leader Soldat du Chêne persuades the others not to attack. Laura watches the long column ride west and begs for a baby she sees on a pony. Finally Pa hears that soldiers will remove the white families from the Territory. Rather than wait to be put off, he loads the wagon, leaves the house and the plowed field behind, and drives the family out onto the prairie, where he plays his fiddle by the campfire. Harper & Brothers published the book in 1935 with illustrations by Helen Sewell; Garth Williams illustrated the 1953 edition. It was the third Little House book to appear and the second about the Ingalls family.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1–4: Going West to the high prairie

  Pa sells the Wisconsin house; the family crosses the ice of the Mississippi, nearly loses Jack at a flooded creek, and camps on the open Kansas prairie, where Laura spends a long day watching the grass, birds and gophers.

• Chapters 5–10: Building the log house

  Pa and Mr. Edwards raise the cabin walls; Ma is hurt when a log slips; Pa adds two stout doors, a chimney and hearth, a roof and a split-log floor, and the family listens to a wolf pack circling the house in the moonlight.

• Chapters 11–14: Visitors, a well and cattle

  Two Osage men come into the house while Pa is away; Pa digs a well and rescues Mr. Scott from the bad air at its bottom; he helps cowboys driving Texas longhorns and is paid with a cow and calf; the girls collect beads at an empty Indian camp.

• Chapters 15–18: Fever and fire

  The family falls sick with fever 'n' ague and is found by Dr. Tan and nursed by Mrs. Scott; the chimney catches fire; Pa travels to Independence for supplies; a tall Indian visits and shares the family's fire.

• Chapters 19–21: Christmas and the jamboree

  Mr. Edwards swims the flooded creek to bring the girls their Christmas presents; a panther's scream sends Pa riding hard for home; many bands gather in the creek bottoms for the spring hunt and the drumming goes on night after night.

• Chapters 22–24: Fire, war cries and departure

  A prairie fire is turned with a backfire; war cries keep the family awake until Soldat du Chêne talks the gathered bands out of war; the tribes ride away in a column that lasts all day, and Laura cries for a baby she has glimpsed.

• Chapters 25–26: Soldiers and Going Out

  Word comes that soldiers will move the white families out of the Territory; Pa refuses to wait for them, and the family leaves the house and crop behind and drives away across the prairie.

Characters

• Laura Ingalls, protagonist

  Lively, curious girl of about five or six who loves the prairie and longs to see an Indian baby.

• Pa (Charles Ingalls), father

  Cheerful, skilled pioneer and fiddler who builds the house and is always drawn farther west.

• Ma (Caroline Ingalls), mother

  Calm, courteous and brave mother who keeps the household's manners and order in a log cabin.

• Mary Ingalls, older sister

  Obedient, tidy elder sister and Laura's constant companion.

• Baby Carrie, younger sister

  The baby of the family, who travels west in the wagon.

• Jack, family dog

  Faithful brindle bulldog who survives the creek crossing and guards the house.

• Mr. Edwards, neighbor

  Lanky bachelor who calls himself a wildcat from Tennessee, helps Pa build and brings the Christmas gifts.

• Mr. and Mrs. Scott, neighbors

  Nearby homesteaders; Pa saves Mr. Scott in the well, and Mrs. Scott nurses the family through the fever.

• Dr. Tan, physician

  Black doctor who treats the Osage and finds the feverish Ingalls family when Jack brings him to the door.

• Soldat du Chêne, Osage leader

  Leader who, Pa hears, talks the gathered bands out of attacking the white families.

• Pet and Patty, horses

  The western mustangs that pull the wagon and that Pa rides across the prairie.

Lessons

• Making a home with your hands

  Almost everything in the cabin is made by Pa from what is near: walls from creek-bottom logs, a door hung on wooden hinges, a chimney of sticks and clay, a floor of split logs. Wilder slows down to show each step, so that a child sees how much work, skill and patience lie behind a roof, a door and a warm hearth.

  • What does Pa build first, and why does he need Mr. Edwards to help him?
  • Why do you think Wilder tells every step of making the door and the floor?
  • What things in your own home did someone make or build with care?

• Neighbors in a lonely place

  Out on the prairie, help is a long way off, and the family's life depends on neighbors. Mr. Edwards helps raise the house and wades the flooded creek at Christmas, Pa goes down the well for Mr. Scott, and Mrs. Scott and Dr. Tan nurse the family when everyone is too sick to fetch water.

  • Who helps the Ingalls family when they have fever 'n' ague?
  • Why does Mr. Edwards swim the creek on Christmas Eve?
  • How did Pa know there was bad air in the well?

• Courage that stays calm

  Ma meets wolves, strangers in her kitchen, a chimney fire and nights of war cries without panic, and she expects the girls to keep their manners and do as they are told. The book shows courage as steadiness and obedience in danger, not as noise or boasting.

  • What does Ma do when the two men come into the house and Pa is away?
  • Why was it so important that Laura and Mary not let Jack loose?
  • When have you had to be brave by staying calm?

• Two peoples on the same land

  The Ingalls cabin stands beside an Osage trail, and the book lets Laura notice and wonder about her neighbors: the beads at the empty camp, the tall visitor at the fire, the drumming in the creek bottoms and the long line riding away. The grown-ups hold different opinions, Pa speaking with respect and others with fear, and Pa's departure at the end shows that the land was not his to keep.

  • How do Pa and Mrs. Scott talk differently about the Osage?
  • Why does Laura cry when she sees the baby riding away?
  • Why does Pa decide to leave before the soldiers come?

Context

The real Ingalls family lived in Montgomery County, Kansas, from about 1869 to 1871, southwest of Independence on land that belonged to the Osage Diminished Reserve, which was not yet open to homesteading; Pa had expected the government to open it. In 1870 the Osage agreed to sell their Kansas lands and move south into Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). Wilder's sister Carrie was born there in August 1870, though in the novel she is already a baby when the family leaves Wisconsin.

Composition

Wilder wrote the book in her late sixties at Rocky Ridge Farm, after Little House in the Big Woods (1932) and Farmer Boy (1933), drawing on family stories and her own very early memories, since she was only about two or three during the Kansas years. Her daughter Rose Wilder Lane read and edited the manuscripts. Harper & Brothers published it in 1935 with pictures by Helen Sewell, and Garth Williams re-illustrated the series for the 1953 uniform edition after visiting the family's old homesites.

Reception

It became the best-known title of the series and lent its name to the NBC television drama (1974–1983), which drew loosely on all the books. In a 2012 School Library Journal poll of all-time children's novels it ranked 27th. The cabin site southwest of Independence was later identified from census and land records, and a replica cabin now stands there as a museum.

Comparisons

• little-house-in-the-big-woods

  The Wisconsin cabin Pa leaves in Chapter 1 is the setting of the first book; the move from a settled woodland home among relatives to an empty prairie is the hinge of the whole series.

• farmer-boy

  Almanzo's father stays rooted on a prospering New York farm while Pa abandons a half-finished claim, so the two books set rooted stewardship against the pull of new country.

• the-sign-of-the-beaver

  Matt's cabin in the Maine woods and the Ingalls cabin on the Kansas prairie both stand beside native neighbors, and both books follow a child's slow understanding of people whose land it first was.

• my-antonia

  Cather's Nebraska prairie, seen through a remembering adult, and Wilder's Kansas prairie, seen through a small girl, both make the open grassland a character in its own right.

• the-courage-of-sarah-noble

  Sarah and Laura are both small girls carried into wild country by their fathers, and both books are built on a child's fear of and curiosity about the Indian families nearby.

Quotes

For Students

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

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Each step Pa takes in building the house, from cutting logs in the creek bottoms to the last floorboard, and who helps him.
• Jack the bulldog: where he is left, where he is chained, and every time he saves or warns the family.
• The Osage trail that runs past the cabin, and every time Laura sees, hears or asks about the Indians who use it.
• The fever 'n' ague in Chapter 15: who comes to help, and what each grown-up thinks caused the sickness.
• Pa's fiddle, and the songs he plays on good nights and hard ones.

Key terms and names

Indian Territory

What the book calls the land in Kansas where Pa builds. It was the Osage people's land, and Pa had hoped the government would soon open it to homesteaders.

Independence

The nearest town, where Pa goes for nails and window glass and where Mr. Edwards says he met Santa Claus.

Fever 'n' ague

The family's name for the illness of shaking chills and high fever that strikes them in Chapter 15. It was malaria, which doctors later learned is spread by mosquitoes.

Latchstring

The leather string Pa threads through a hole in the door to lift the wooden latch from outside. Pulling it in at night locks the house.

Puncheon floor

A floor made of logs split in half and laid flat side up, which Pa smooths with his ax.

Osage

The people whose trail runs past the cabin and whose bands gather in the creek bottoms in spring.

Backfire

A small fire Pa and Ma set on purpose and beat out, so that the big prairie fire finds nothing left to burn near the house.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why does Pa want to leave the Big Woods, and how do the family and Jack get across the big river?
2. Comprehension What happens to Mr. Scott at the bottom of the well, and how does Pa make sure it will not happen to him?
3. Comprehension How does Mr. Edwards bring the Christmas presents across the creek, and what does each girl get?
4. Interpretation Ma tells the girls to stay quiet and keep Jack chained when the two men come into the house. Why do you think she is so careful, and how did the girls feel?
5. Interpretation Mrs. Scott and Pa say very different things about the Osage. Whose way of talking does Laura seem to share, and how can you tell?
6. Interpretation Why does Laura cry for the baby she sees in the long line of riders, and why does Ma scold her?
7. Big Question Pa leaves the house he worked so hard to build rather than wait for the soldiers. Was that a brave choice, a sad one, or both?

Faith Connections

• Hebrews 11:8-9 (Scripture)

  Abraham went out not knowing where he was going and lived in tents in a land that was not his own. The Ingalls family goes out in a wagon, lives in a house they must finally leave, and at the end are travelers again.

• Matthew 25:35-36 (Scripture)

  Jesus says, I was sick and you visited me. Dr. Tan, who stops at a stranger's cabin, and Mrs. Scott, who stays to nurse the whole family, do exactly this in the fever chapter.

• Galatians 6:2 (Scripture)

  Bear one another's burdens. Pa and Mr. Edwards trade days of work on each other's houses, and Mr. Edwards carries the girls' Christmas across a flooded creek.

• Psalm 4:8 (Scripture)

  I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. Laura falls asleep again and again to Pa's fiddle while wolves, fire and war cries are close by outside the walls.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A family that works together, keeps its courage and helps its neighbors can make a home even in empty country. The Ingallses build such a home on the prairie and survive wolves, fever and fire. But a home also depends on having the right to the land it stands on, and when Pa learns the land is not open to him, he chooses to leave rather than be driven out. So the family carries home with them, in the wagon, the fiddle and each other.

Rhetorical device: child's-eye point of view (limited narration). Events such as the war cries in Chapter 23 are told only as far as Laura can see and hear them, so the reader, like Laura, learns about Soldat du Chêne only afterward, from what Pa tells Ma.

Debate: Resolved: Pa was right to move the family to Kansas in the first place.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Choose three people who help the Ingalls family in this book, such as Mr. Edwards, Mrs. Scott and Dr. Tan, and explain how the family could not have managed without each one.

Comparison with Farmer Boy: Almanzo's family has lived on its farm for years, while Laura's family builds a new house and then leaves it. Compare how each family makes and keeps a home, and which life you would choose.

Medical Lens

Chapter 15, Fever 'n' Ague, is a vivid child's-eye account of frontier malaria. The whole family is laid low with alternating chills and fever, too weak to fetch water, and is rescued by a passing physician and a neighbor who nurses them. The chapter records two period theories of the cause: Mrs. Scott blames watermelons grown in the creek bottoms, while Pa blames the night air, a version of the miasma theory; Wilder's narrator adds that nobody yet knew the illness came from mosquito bites, which was established only in the late 1890s. The physician, called Dr. Tan in the book, is the historical Dr. George A. Tann (d. 1909), a Black practitioner of eclectic medicine in Independence; the bitter medicine he gives was very likely quinine, the standard remedy of the day, though the novel may not name it. Chapter 12 adds a piece of practical frontier occupational medicine: Mr. Scott collapses from foul air at the bottom of a new well, and Pa afterward lowers a lit candle to test the air before he goes down.

• Chapter 15, "Fever 'n' Ague"

  The whole family falls ill with chills and fever; Dr. Tan arrives, gives medicine, and Mrs. Scott nurses them; the watermelon and night-air theories of the illness are debated.

  Fever Infection Physicians Doctors Nursing Caregiving Public Health Sanitation
• Chapter 12, "Fresh Water to Drink"

  Mr. Scott is overcome by bad air in the well and hauled out; Pa tests the air with a candle before resuming the digging.

  Public Health Sanitation
• Chapter 5, "The House on the Prairie"

  Ma's foot is crushed when a wall log slips, and she treats the sprain with bandages and rest while Pa finishes the walls.

  Nursing Caregiving

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Draw a plan of the Ingalls cabin and label everything Pa made himself, using the chapters on the walls, doors, chimney, roof and floor.

• Fiction

  Write Christmas Eve from Mr. Edwards's side: the walk back from Independence, the flooded creek, and deciding to swim it with the presents on his head.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation Pa and Ma might have had after the soldiers' news, as they decide to leave the house they built.

Further Reading

• Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder

• On the Banks of Plum Creek, Laura Ingalls Wilder

  The next Ingalls book, beginning with the family's arrival in Minnesota.

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

  Wilder's own memoir draft, with notes on the real Kansas years.

• Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Caroline Fraser

• The Little House Cookbook, Barbara M. Walker