Chapter 10: SUMMERTIME
百度搜索 Little HOUSE in the BIG WOODS 天涯 或 Little HOUSE in the BIG WOODS 天涯在线书库 即可找到本书最新章节.
NOW it was summertime, and people went visiting. Sometimes Uncle Henry, or Uncle Gee, randpa, came riding out of the Big Woods to see Pa. Ma would e to the door and ask how all the folks were, and she would say:"Charles is in the clearing.”
Then she would ore dihan usual, and diime would be longer. Pa and Ma and the visitor would sit talking a little while before they went back to work.
Sometimes Ma let Laura and Mary go across the road and down the hill, to see Mrs. Peterson. The Petersons had Just moved in. Their house was new, and always very , because Mrs. Peterson had no little girls to muss it up. She was a Swede, and she let Laura and Mary look at the pretty things she had brought from Sweden-laces, and colored embroideries, and a.
Mrs. Peterson talked Swedish to them, and they talked English to her, and they uood each other perfectly. She always gave them each a cookie when they left, and they nibbled the cookies very slowly while they walked home.
Laura nibbled away exactly half of hers, and Mary nibbled exactly half of hers, and the other halves they saved for Baby Carrie. Thehey got home, Carrie had two half-cookies, and that was a whole cookie.
This wasnt right. All they wao do was to divide the cookies fairly with Carrie. Still, if Mary saved half her cookie, while Laura ate the whole of hers, or if Laura saved half, and Mary ate her whole cookies, that wouldher.
They didnt know what to do. So each saved half, and gave it to Baby Carrie. But they always felt that somehow that wasnt quite fair.
Sometimes a neighbor sent word that the family was ing to spend the day. Then Ma did extra ing and cooking, and opehe package of store sugar. And on the day set, a wagon would e driving up to the gate in the m and there would be strange children to play ay with.
When Mr. and Mrs. Huleatt came, they brought Eva and Clareh them. Eva retty girl, with dark eyes and black curls. She played carefully a her dress and smooth. Mary liked that, but Laura liked better to play with Clarence.
Clarence was red-headed and freckled, and always laughing. His clothes were pretty, too. He wore a blue suit buttoned all the the front with bright gilt buttons, and trimmed with braid, and he had copper-toed shoes.
The strips of copper across the toes were so glittering bright that Laura wished she were a boy. Little girls didnt wear copper-toes.
Laura and Clarence ran and shouted and climbed trees, while Mary and Eva walked ogether and talked. and Mrs. Huleatt visited and looked at a Godeys Ladys Book which Mrs. Huleatt had brought, and Pa and Mr. Huleatt looked at the horses and the crops and smoked their pipes.
Once Aunt Lotty came to spend the day. That m Laura had to stand still a long time while unwound her hair from the cloth st<u></u>rings and bed it into long curls. Mary was all ready, sitting primly on a chair, with her golden curls shining and her a-blue dress fresh and crisp.
Laura liked her own red dress. But Ma pulled her hair dreadfully, and it was brown instead of golden, so that no oiced it. Everyoiced and admired Marys.
"There! " Ma said at last. "Your hair is curled beautifully, and Lotty is ing.
Ru her, both of you, and ask her which she likes best, brown curls olden curls.”
Laura and Mary ran out of the door and dowh, for Aunt Lotty was already at the gate. Aunt Lotty was a big girl, much taller than Mary. Her dress was a beautiful pink and she was swinging a pink sunbo by oring.
"Which do you like best, Aunt Lotty," Mary asked, "brown curls, olden curls? " Ma had told them to ask that, and Mary was a very good little girl who always did exactly as she was told. Laura waited to hear what Aunt Lotty would say, and she felt miserable.
"I like both kinds best," Aunt Lotty said, smiling. She took Laura and Mary by the hand, one oher side, and they danced along to the door where Ma stood.
The sunshine came streaming through the windows into the house, and everything was so and pretty. The table was covered with a red cloth, and the cookstove olished shining black. Through the bedroom door Laura could see the trundle bed in its plader the big bed. The pantry door stood wide open, giving the sight and smell of goodies on the shelves, and Black Susan came purring dowairs from the attic, where she had been taking a nap.
It was all so pleasant, and Laura felt so gay and good that no one would ever have thought she could be as naughty as she was that evening.
Aunt Lotty had gone, and Laura and Mary were tired and cross. They were at the woodpile, gathering a pan of chips to kihe fire in the m. They always hated to pick up chips, but every day they had to do it. Tonight they hated it more than ever.
Laura grabbed the biggest chip, and Mary said:
"I dont care. Aunt Lotty likes my hair best, anyway. Golden hair is lots prettier than brown.”
Lauras throat swelled tight, and she could not speak. She knew golden hair rettier than brown. She couldnt speak, so she reached out quickly and slapped Marys face.
Then she heard Pa say, "e here, Laura.”
She went slowly, dragging her feet. Pa was sitting just ihe door. He had seen her slap Mary.
"You remember," Pa said, "I told you girls you must rike each other.”
Laura began, "But Mary said-”
"That makes no difference," said Pa. "It is what I say that you must mind.”
Theook down a strap from the wall, and he whipped Laura with the strap.
Laura sat on a chair in the er and sobbed. Wheopped sobbing, she sulked. The only thing in the whole world to be glad about was that Mary had to fill the chip pan all by herself.
At last, when it was getting dark, Pa said again, "e here, Laura." His voice was kind, and when Laura came he took her on his knee and hugged her close. She sat in the crook of his arm, her head against his shoulder and his long brown whiskers partly c her eyes, and everything was all right again.
She told Pa all about it, and she asked him, "You dont like golden hair better than brown, do you?”
Pas blue eyes shone down at her, and he said, "Well, Laura, my hair is brown.”
She had not thought of that. Pas hair was brown, and his whiskers were brown, and she thought brown was a lovely color. But she was glad that Mary had had to gather all the chips.
In the summer evenings Pa did not tell stories Dr play the fiddle. Summer days were long, and he was tired after he had worked hard all day in the fields.
Ma was busy, too. Laura and Mary helped her weed the garden, and they helped her feed the calves and the hens. They gathered the eggs, and they helped make cheese.
When the grass was tall and thi the Woods and the cows were giving plenty of milk, that was the time to make cheese.
Somebody must kill a calf, for cheese could not be made without re, a is the lining of a young calfs stomac<bdo></bdo>h. The calf must be very young, so that it had never eaten anything but milk.
Laura was afraid that Pa must kill one of the little calves in the barn. They were so sweet. One was fawn-colored and one was red, and their hair was so soft and their large eyes so w. . Lauras heart beat fast when Ma talked to Pa about making cheese.
Pa would not kill either of his calves, because they were heifers and would grow into cows. He went to Grandpas and to Uncle Henrys, to talk about the cheese-making, and Uncle Henry said he would kill one of his calves. There would be enough re for Aunt Polly and Grandma. So Pa went again to Uncle Henrys, and came back with a piece of the little calfs stomach. It was like a piece of soft, grayish-white leather, all ridged and rough on one side.
When the cows were milked at night, set the milk away in pans. In the m she skimmed off the cream to make into butter later. Thehe ms milk had cooled, she mixed it with the skimmed milk a all oove to heat.
A bit of the reied in a cloth, was soaking in warm water.
When the milk was heated enough, Ma squeezed every drop of water from the re in the cloth, and she poured the water into the milk. She stirred it well a it in a lace by the stove. In a little while it thied into a smooth, quivery mass.
With a long k this mass into little squares, a stand while the curd separated from the whey. Then she poured it all into a cloth ahe thin, yellowish whey drain out.
When no more whey dripped from the cloth, emptied the curd into a big pan and salted it, turning and mixing it well.
Laura and Mary were always there, helping all they could. They loved to eat bits of the curd when Ma was salting it. It squeaked ieeth.
Uhe cherry tree outside the back door Pa had put up the board to press the cheese on. He had cut two grooves the length of the board, and laid the board on blocks, one end a little higher thaher. Uhe lower end stood ay pail.
Ma put her wooden cheese hoop on the board, spread a , wet cloth all over the inside of it, and filled it heaping full of the ks of salted curd. She covered this with another , wet cloth, and laid on top of it a round board, cut small enough to go ihe cheese hoop. Then she lifted a heavy ro top of the board.
All day long the round board settled slowly uhe weight of the rock, and whey pressed out and ran down the grooves of the board into the pail. m, Ma would take out the round, pale yellow cheese, as large as a milk pan. Then she made more curd, and filled the cheese hoop again.
Every m she took the new cheese out of the press, and trimmed it smooth. She sewed a cloth tightly around it, and rubbed the cloth all over with fresh butter. The the cheese on a shelf in the pantry.
Every day she wiped every cheese carefully with a wet cloth, then rubbed it all over with fresh butter once more, and laid it down on its other side. After a great many days, the cheese was ripe, and there was a hard rind all over it.
Then Ma ed each cheese in paper and laid it away on the high shelf. There was nothing more to do with it but eat it.
Laura and Mary liked cheese-making. They liked to eat the curd that squeaked ieeth and they liked to eat the edges pared off the big, round, yellow cheeses to make them smooth, before she sewed them up in cloth.
Ma laughed at them for eating green cheese.
"The moon is made of green cheese, some people say," she told them.
The new cheese did look like the round moon when came up behind the trees. But it was not green, it was yellow, like the moon.
"Its green," said, "because it isnt ripened yet. When its cured and ripened, it wont be a green cheese.”
"Is the moon really made of green cheese?" Laura asked, and laughed.
"I think people say that, because it looks like a green cheese," she said. "But appearances are deceiving." Then while she wiped all the green cheeses and rubbed them with butter, she told them about the dead, oon that is like a little world on whiothing grows.
The first day made cheese, Laura tasted the whey. She tasted it without saying anything to , and when turned around and saw her face, laughed. That night while she was washing the supper dishes and Mary and Laura were wiping them, told Pa that Laura had tasted the whey and didnt like it.
"You wouldnt starve to death on Mas whey, like old Grimes did on his wifes," Pa said.
Laura begged him to tell her about Old Grimes. So, though Pa was tired, he took his fiddle out of its box and played and sang for Laura:
"Old Grimes is dead, that good old man, We neer shall see him more, He used to wear an old gray coat, All buttoned down before.
"Old Grimeses wife made skim-milk cheese, Ol<samp></samp>d Grimes, he drank the whey, There came a wind from the -west, And blew Old Grimes away.”
"There you have it! " said Pa. "She was a mean, tight-fisted woman. If she hadnt skimmed all the milk, a little cream would have run off in the whey, and Old Grimes might have staggered along.
"But she skimmed off every bit of cream, and poor Old Grimes got so thin the wind blew him alumb starved to death.”
Then Pa looked at Ma and said, "Nobodyd starve to death when you were around, Caroline.”
Well , no," Ma said. "No, Charles, not if you were there to provide for us.
Pa leased. It was all so pleasant, the doors and windows wide open to the summer evening, the dishes making little cheerful sounds together as washed them and Mary and Laura wiped, and Pa putting away the fiddle and smiling and whistling softly to himself.
After awhile he said, "Im going over to Henrys tomorrow m, Carolio borrow his grubbing hoe. Those sprouts are getting waist-high around the stumps in the wheat-field. A man just has to keep everlasting at it, or the woodsll take back the place.”
Early m he started to walk to Uncle Henrys. But before long he came hurrying back, hitched the horses to the wagon, threw in his ax, the two washtubs, the washboiler and all the pails and wooden buckets there were.
"I dont know if Ill need em all, Caroline, " he said, "but Id hate to wantem and not haveem.
"Oh, what is it: What is it?" Laura asked, jumping up and down with excitement.
"Pas found a bee tree," Ma said. "Maybe hell bring us some honey.”
It was noon before Pa came driving home. Laura had been watg for him, and she ran out to the wagon as soon as it stopped by the barnyard. But she could not see into it.
Pa called, "Caroline, if youll e take this pail of honey, Ill go unhitch.”
Ma came out to the wagon, disappointed. She said:
"Well, Charles, even a pail of honey is something." Then she looked into the wagon and threw up her hands. Pa laughed.
All the pails and buckets were heaping full of dripping, golden honeyb. Both tubs were piled full, and so was the wash-boiler.
Pa and Ma went bad forth, carrying the two loaded tubs and the wash-boiler and all the buckets and pails into the house. Ma heaped a plate high with the golden pieces, and covered all the rest ly with cloths.
For dihey all had as much of the delicious honey as they could eat, and Pa told them how he found the bee tree.
"I didnt take my gun," he said, "because I wasnt hunting, and now its summer there wasnt much danger of meeting trouble. Panthers and bears are so fat, this time of year, that theyre lazy and good-natured.
"Well, I took a short cut through the woods, and I nearly ran into a big bear. I came around a clump of underbrush, and there he was, not as far from me as across this room.
"He looked around at me, and I guess he saw I didnt have a gun. Anyway, he didnt pay any", more attention to me.
"He was standing at the foot of a big tree, and bees were buzzing all around him. They couldnt sting through his thick fur, and he kept brushing them away from his head with one paw.
"I stood there watg him, a the other paw into a hole iree and drew it out all dripping with honey. He licked the honey off his paw and reached in for or more. But by that time I had found me a club. I wahat honey myself.
So I made a great racket, banging the club against a tree and yelling. The bear was so fat and so full of hohat he just dropped on all fours and waddled off among the trees. I chased him some distand got him going fast, away from the bee tree, and then I came back for the wagon.”
Laura asked him how he got the honey away from the bees.
"That was easy Pa said. "I left the horses ba the woods, where they wouldung, and then I chopped the tree down and split it open.”
"Didnt the bees sting you?”
"No, said Pa. "Bees ing me.
"The whole tree was hollow, and filled from top to bottom with hohe bees must have been st h<tt>?t>ohere for years. Some of it was old and dark, but I guess I got enough good, hoo last us a long time.”
Laura was sorry for or the poor bees. She said:
"They worked so hard, and now they wont have any honey.”
But Pa said there was lots of honey left for the bees, and there was another large, hollow tree near by, into which they could move. He said it was time they had a , new home.
They would take the old honey he had left in the old tree, make it into fresh, new honey, and store it in their new house. They would save every drop of the spilled honey and put it away, and they would have plenty of honey again, long before winter came.
百度搜索 Little HOUSE in the BIG WOODS 天涯 或 Little HOUSE in the BIG WOODS 天涯在线书库 即可找到本书最新章节.