The Dugout
The Ingalls family arrives at their new home
after leaving Indian Territory and traveling
across Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and a long way into
Minnesota. Pa trades the horses for land, and he
trades the mule-colt and wagon cover for oxen and
the growing crops. The family's new little house
is a sod dugout on the banks of Plum Creek. Charles
Ingalls is going to be a wheat farmer!
Ma and Pa, Laura, Mary, and Carrie settle into
their days on Plum Creek. Pa works at plowing in
anticipation of planting more wheat next spring,
and Mary and Laura have fun playing and exploring
along the creek bank. The weather feels strange,
though; the oldtimers call it "grasshopper
weather."
The Wonderful House
After spending a mild winter in the dugout, Pa
plants a large wheat field, which grows
beautifully. Banking on the sale of a large cash
crop, Pa decides to build across the creek, a wonderful house made of boards. Much care is given to
the planning and building of the new house, and in
making it pleasant and cosy inside.
Because the family is so nicely settled, Laura
and Mary attend school in town each day. Laura
enjoys learning to read and she enjoys the company
of the other children, except for spoiled Nellie
Oleson, daughter of the town storekeeper. Like the
Ingallses' farm, the town itself is thriving, with a
new church, businesses, and a railroad.
Grasshoppers!
Shortly before Pa's wheat crop is ready to be
harvested, disaster strikes. A cloud of
grasshoppers drops from the sky and the pests eat
every growing thing. The crops are destroyed and
Pa must go east to find work to pay for food for
the winter and the lumber he bought on credit to
build the new house. Even worse is the fact that
the grasshoppers lay eggs which will surely hatch
and mean no crops the following year.
There is little to look forward to during the
winter, but one bright spot is the Christmas
celebration at church, complete with the first
Christmas tree Laura has ever seen.
The next year, grasshoppers do destroy the crops,
and Pa must again leave home to find work. The
story ends following a violent blizzard which
traps Pa away from home. Almost as wonderful as
Pa's safe return is the news he brings: such cold
weather means that there will be no grasshoppers
the following year, and the family can finally be
optimistic that better times are coming!
On the Banks of Plum Creek was published in
the fall of 1937. There are several surviving
portions of drafts of this manuscript, owned by
the Laura Ingalls Wilder / Rose Wilder Lane Home
and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri. A copy of this
manuscript is on microfilm at the Herbert Hoover
Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa, and in
the collection of Western Historical Manuscripts
at the University of Missouri at Columbia.
