The Long Winter by Wilder Laura Ingalls

Author:Wilder, Laura Ingalls [Wilder, Laura Ingalls]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Non-Fiction, Children, Young Adult, Historical, Biography, Autobiography, Classic
ISBN: 0060885424
Publisher: HarperTrophy
Published: 1940-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

WHERE THERE'S A WILL

T he hay made a quick, hot fire, but it burned away more swiftly than kindling. Ma kept the stove's drafts closed and all day long she was feeding the fire. All day long, except when he went through the storm to do the chores, Pa was twisting more sticks of hay in the lean-to. The storm grew fiercer and the cold more cruel.

Often Pa came to the stove to warm his hands. “My fingers get so numb,” he said, “I can't make a good twist.”

“L e t me help you, Pa,” Laura begged.

He did not want to let her. “Your hands are too small for such work,” he told her. Then he admitted,

“But somebody's got to help. It is going to be more than one person can do, to keep this stove going and haul hay for it.” Finally he decided, “Come along. I'll show you how.”

Laura put on Pa's old coat and her hood and muffler and went into the lean-to with Pa.

The lean-to was not ceiled inside. The wind was blowing snow through all the cracks of the board walls. Snow traveled in little drifts across the floor and sifted over the hay.

Pa picked up a double handful of hay and shook the snow from it.

“Shake off all the snow,” he told Laura. “If you leave it on, it will melt when you take the sticks in and make them too wet to burn.”

Laura picked up all the hay her hands could hold and shook the snow from it. Then , watching Pa, she followed his motions in twisting the hay. First he twisted the long strand as far as his two hands could do it. Then he put the right-hand end of it under his left elbow and held it there, tight against his side, so that it could not untwist. Then his right hand took the other end from his left hand. His left hand slid down as near as it could get to the end under his left elbow and took hold of it. Pa twisted the strand again. This time he put its other end under his left elbow. He repeated these motions, again and again and again, till the whole strand of hay was twisted tight and kinking in the middle. Each time he twisted and tucked the end under his left arm, the tight twist coiled around itself.

When the whole length of the twist had wound itself tight, Pa bent the ends of hay together and tucked them into the last kink. He dropped the hard stick of hay on the floor and looked at Laura.

She was trying to tuck in the ends as Pa had done.

The hay was twisted so tightly that she couldn't push them in.

“Bend your twist a little to loosen it,” said Pa.

“Then slip the ends in between the kinks and let it twist itself back tight. That's the way!”

Laura's stick of hay was uneven and raggedy, not smooth and hard like Pa's. But Pa told her that it was well done for the first one; she would do better next time.

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