Changes
It is two years after the last story told in
On the Banks of Plum Creek, and things have
not been easy for the Ingalls family. Pa has
harvested two poor wheat crops since the
grasshoppers came, and most of the family has
recently been sick with scarlet fever. "Worst of
all, the fever had settled in Mary's eyes, and
Mary was blind." There are doctor's bills and
other debts to pay, and not only the Ingallses, but the land and Plum
Creek are tired and worn out.
The West Begins
The Ingallses seize an opportunity to go west, where Pa will be able to look for a homestead - "free land" to make up for what the government forced them to leave in Indian Territory, he says. Pa accepts a job as paymaster, bookkeeper, and timekeeper for the new railroad, and Ma and the girls soon leave Minnesota and follow him to Dakota Territory. Once again they are going west! Laura describes everything she sees for Mary, from the wide-open prairie grasses and vivid sunrises to the people and animals they encounter.
Opportunity
Once railroad work shuts down for the approaching winter, the Ingalls family is fortunate to be asked to remain at the new townsite and live in the Surveyors' house on the shores of Silver Lake. They settle down for what they expect to be a cosy winter all alone, but are pleased that visitors and friends are able to pass the long winter days and nights with them.
After the pleasant winter passes - and Pa files on his homestead - the Ingalls family takes part in the building of the new railroad town of De Smet, then they move to a little shanty on the claim to begin a new chapter in their lives as homesteaders!
The text of By the Shores of Silver Lake
was copyrighted October 20, 1939, by Laura Ingalls
Wilder for an original term of 28 years. The
copyright was renewed in 1967 by Roger Lea
Mac Bride for another term of 28 years. Mac Bride
renewed the copyright for 19 years in 1976. The
Copyright Act of 1976 extended the renewal term
from 28 to 47 years. Public Law 105-298, enacted
on October 27, 1998, further extended the renewal
term of copyrights still subsisting on that date
by an additional 20 years, providing for a renewal
term of 67 years and a total protection of 95
years. Currently, the text of By the Shores of
Silver Lake is protected by copyright until
the end of the year 2034.
