Guest post by Laura McLemore
Sometimes life imitates art, sort of. When my daughter was in Kindergarten many years ago a little girl in her class had beautiful long hair which she wore in braids. One day she came to school with her hair cut in a cute, short pixie cut. It seems that her cat loved to sleep in her bed at night. The cat also loved her hair, so much so that in the night he chewed off one of her braids while she was sleeping! I was immediately reminded of chapter three, “The Necessary Cat.”
In this chapter Pa comes in one evening completely exasperated. It seems the pesky gophers had been enjoying his recently planted corn a little too much. Apparently in this new unfarmed country, gophers had never tasted corn before and to them, it was a brand new delicacy. He was going to have to replant most of his cornfield. As Pa told his story, Grace remembered the little ditty that Pa had taught her about planting 4 kernels of corn in the previous chapter. Pa changed the rhyme just a bit to create a pun:
One for the gopher
Two for the gopher
Three for the gopher
Four don’t go fur
According to Laura, Ma frowned at the pun as she didn’t like puns but had to laugh at the naughty look Pa gave her. I have always wondered why Ma disliked puns so much. Anyway, Pa and Ma discuss the necessity of a cat and mourn the loss of Black Susan from Little House in the Big Woods. Unfortunately, a cat isn’t to be had in Dakota Territory. Or so they thought.
Later that night, Laura is awakened by a gasp, a grunt and the sound of something soft hitting the wall. She listens through the thin wall as Pa speaks of a dream that he had been having about getting his hair cut. It was so real he could hear the snip, snip, snip of scissors. He reached up, half asleep and was startled to find something chewing on his hair. He figured it was a mouse and threw it against the cabin wall. Ma, disbelieving at first, felt his head and discovered a palm size bald spot in the top of Pa’s head. The next morning, they found the barber and indeed it was a mouse. Ewwwww!
So, long story short, Pa goes to a meeting and comes home with a tiny newborn, blue and white kitten. He admits that it was too little to be away from its mama but he was afraid if he didn’t buy it then (for the princely sum of $.50) someone else would. Everyone admires the kitten and then the chapter is over.
I am enjoying my revisit to Little Town on the Prairie. I had forgotten that many of the things I love about the series happen in this book: name cards, rocking the desk, getting sent home from school, the party at Ben’s home, lunatic fringe and of course, her first encounter with Mr. Almanzo Wilder. Hmmm, maybe the musical should have been called “Little Town on the Prairie.”
Comments10
What a timely post for today. One of our mama kitty just had kittens last night – first litter of the season.
I was slightly traumatized by this incident as a child. The image of waking up to a mouse chewing my hair and a bald spot really stuck with me!
I also remember thinking it was sad that they could not take Black Susan with them from the Big Woods.
This is probably my favorite book. So many exciting things seem to happen to the Ingalls family. I think it was that those early teen years make such an impression on all of us. They probably COULD have taken Black Susan with them, it just would have been inconvenient.
The rat incident has always given me the heebie-jeebies! I would have been looking for SEVERAL cats to have!
I admit, that I had completely forgotten this bit when I re-read the book a couple of months ago. It seems such a strange thing to happen…and icky. Lately, we’ve had some mice issues in the house. Our last cat, Simon, died about a year ago. We’ve decided to get ourselves a new kitten. Every time I see a mouse, I think of this chapter.
This chapter made an impact on me when I was growing up, too. We lived in a rural area and had an occasional mouse problem. I had a bag of candy corn on the bedside table in my room and I heard something moving around in it while I was trying to fall asleep. I turned on the light and saw a mouse in the bag of candy. My first thought, besides, “Hey, that mouse is eating my candy!” was, “Thank goodness the mouse is eating the candy instead of chewing on my hair!” Every time I read this chapter, I have to laugh at Pa when he tells Ma he’s going to let people think that’s how she cuts hair. I love his sense of humor.
I love that unguarded look into Ma and Pa’s relationship as Laura overhears that conversation in the night. And how horrified Ma is when Pa teases him about it being how she cuts his hair.
“I have always wondered why Ma disliked puns so much. ”
It’s cheeky! Practically imitating drunken flippant ribaldness with a surprise pinch to your caboose! Vapors!
Remember how literal-minded Ma and Mary were? Mary disproved of Laura’s poetic flights of imagination as if it were deranged. Mr. Edwards must have seemed a carnival to them, no wonder Pa brought him around like a big Christmas present. Can you imagine Ma even letting him in the house with that fresh scar on his face??
I suppose the mindset was “You should be thankful for God’s creation as it is and not get smarty-pants or one-upping about it”.
Next thing you know, you’ll be kicking-in screen doors.
Come to think of it, that atmosphere of puritanical literalness might be why Pa thought it was so hilarious when Laura countered that she DID NOT SLIDE down that haystack!
She was literal AND cheeky, and she had him cornered!
I completely forgot about the rat incident too. I’m w/ Amanda and mamahen. It traumatized me as well!
Thats odd.
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