Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist: Writings from the Ozarks

Contents

C O N T E N T S vii Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A Note on the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 1911– 1915 Favors the Small Farm Home . . . . . . 13 The People in God’s Out-of-Doors . . . 16 The Story of Rocky Ridge Farm . . . . . 17 My Apple Orchard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Shorter Hours for Farm Women . . . . . 22 Good Times on the Farm . . . . . . . . . . 26 A Plain Beauty Talk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 A Homemaker of the Ozarks . . . . . . . 30 Economy in Egg Production . . . . . . . 34 Making the Best of Things . . . . . . . . . 35 Magic in Plain Foods . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 And Missouri “Showed” Them . . . . . . 41 1916 All in the Day’s Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Sometimes Misdirected Energy May Cease to Be a Virtue . . . . . . . . 51 Life Is an Adventure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Join “Don’t Worry” Club . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Look for Fairies Now. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 So We Moved the Spring. . . . . . . . . . . 66 Folks Are “Just Folks”. . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 When Is a Settler an Old Settler? . . . . 72 Facts Versus Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Haying While the Sun Shines . . . . . . . 75 Kin-folks or Relations?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Showing Dad the Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 A Dog’s a Dog for A’ That . . . . . . . . . . 81 Do Not Waste Your Strength. . . . . . . . 83 All the World Is Queer . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Just a Question of Tact . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 An Autumn Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Our Fair and Other Things . . . . . . . . . 88 Thanksgiving Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Learning to Work Together. . . . . . . . . 92 Before Santa Claus Came . . . . . . . . . . 94 What’s in a Word. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Giving and Taking Advice . . . . . . . . . . 98 According to Experts. . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Are You Going Ahead?. . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Getting the Worst of It. . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Buy Goods Worth the Price. . . . . . . . 105 Does “Haste Make Waste”? . . . . . . . . 106 Each in His Place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Just Neighbors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Doing Our Best . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Chasing Thistledown . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Without Representation. . . . . . . . . . . 114 And a Woman Did It . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 A Bouquet of Wild Flowers . . . . . . . . 118 Put Yourself in His Place . . . . . . . . . . 120 Let Us Be Just . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 To Buy or Not to Buy . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Are We Too Busy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Get the Habit of Being Ready . . . . . . 126 “Thoughts Are Things” . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Everyone Can Do Something . . . . . . 128 If We Only Understood . . . . . . . . . . . 129 viii Contents 1917 1918 Make a New Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Santa Claus at the Front . . . . . . . . . . 132 Make Your Dreams Come True . . . . 133 Victory May Depend on You . . . . . . . 135 Keep Journeying On . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Make Every Minute Count . . . . . . . . 138 Visit “Show You” Farm . . . . . . . . . . . 139 What Would You Do?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 We Must Not Be Small Now . . . . . . . 144 What the War Means to Women . . . . 145 How About the Home Front?. . . . . . . 147 New Day for Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Do the Right Thing Always . . . . . . . . 152 Are You Helping or Hindering? . . . . . 153 Swearing Is a Foolish Habit. . . . . . . . 155 Overcoming Our Difficulties . . . . . . . 156 When Proverbs Get Together . . . . . . 157 What Days in Which to Live!. . . . . . . 159 Your Code of Honor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Early Training Counts Most . . . . . . . 162 Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 San Marino Is Small but Mighty . . . . 166 The American Spirit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 1919 A Few Minutes with a Poet . . . . . . . . 169 Let’s Revive the Old Amusements. . . 171 Mrs. Jones Takes the Rest Cure . . . . 173 Work Makes Life Interesting. . . . . . . 175 Friendship Must Be Wooed. . . . . . . . 176 Keep the Saving Habit. . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Who’ll Do the Women’s Work? . . . . . 179 Women’s Duty at the Polls . . . . . . . . 181 The Farm Home (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 The Farm Home (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 The Farm Home (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 The Farm Home (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 The Farm Home (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 The Farm Home (6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 The Farm Home (7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 The Farm Home (8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 The Farm Home (9) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 The Farm Home (10) . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 The Farm Home (11) . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 The Farm Home (12) . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 The Farm Home (13) . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 The Farm Home (14) . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 The Farm Home (15) . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Contents ix 1920 The Farm Home (16) . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 The Farm Home (17) . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 The Farm Home (18) . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 The Farm Home (19) . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 The Farm Home (20) . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 The Farm Home (21) . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 The Farm Home (22) . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 The Farm Home (23) . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 The Farm Home (24) . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 The Farm Home (25) . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 The Farm Home (26) . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 The Farm Home (27) . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 We Visit Arabia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 The Farm Home (28) . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Now We Visit Bohemia (1) . . . . . . . . 230 Now We Visit Bohemia (2) . . . . . . . . 232 The Farm Home (29) . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 The Farm Home (30) . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 The Farm Home (31) . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 The Farm Home (32) . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 1921 Dear Farm Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 We Visit Paris Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 The Roads Women Travel . . . . . . . . . 244 We Visit Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Women and Real Politics . . . . . . . . . . 246 Pioneering on an Ozark Farm . . . . . . 249 As a Farm Woman Thinks (1) . . . . . . 253 From a Farm Woman to You . . . . . . . 255 As a Farm Woman Thinks (2) . . . . . . 256 When Grandma Pioneered...