famous last words
I just finished reading By the Shores of Silver Lake again. This reading, I made note of the times Charles Ingalls said something would happen or be one way, then it wasn't. I don't know if Laura was writing what really happened or if these were merely plot devices. But for what it's worth, here are the ones that jumped out at me:

(1) In the beginning of the book, Pa says he'll be able to draw fifty dollars a month while looking for a homestead. Yet, he doesn't even bother to look at land near the Big Sioux camp (where he has been until September, when Ma and the girls join him), and he still hasn't had time to look for a homestead when they are settled in the Surveyors' house. It's not until wintertime that he "stumbles" upon the homestead site, and it doesn't seem as if he's been looking in the meantime.

(2) When talking about the buffalo wolf tracks Pa sees around the barn, he says he'd "hate to meet one without a gun." Yet that's exactly what Carrie and Laura do, because Pa was "careless" and thought all the wolves had left.

(3) Pa says that he "doesn't believe the winters are going to be so bad" in Dakota Territory. Later in the winter, he says that "if this is a sample of a Dakota winter (i.e. mild), then he's glad they came west." Ha! Think what the next book is...

(4) Once Pa finds the homestead, he says he can "get out to Brookings and file on that claim next spring before anybody else is looking for a homestead." But settlers start arriving before spring!

(5) The family moves into Pa's store building and he says they'll "be warm enough now that spring has come." But there's a blizzard shortly after they move in.

I have something else to say about By the Shores of Silver Lake, but it can wait for another day.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:34 AM