Now she was alone; she must take care of herself. When you must do that, then you do it and you are grown up.
Success gets to be a habit, like anything else a fellow keeps on doing.
In the West the land was level, and there were no trees. The grass grew thick and high. There the wild animals wandered and fed as though they were in a pasture that stretched much farther than a man could see, and there were no settlers. Only Indians lived there.
Pa promised that when they came to the West, Laura should see a papoose.
When a man undertakes a job, he has to stick to it till he finishes it. If.
Almanzo couldn’t understand how Father knew that he wasn’t looking at the preacher, if Father was looking at the preacher himself. But Father always did know.
For winter was coming.
I dare you to ask him,” Frank said. The other boys were listening. Almanzo put his hands in his pockets and said: “I’d just as lief ask him if I wanted to.” “Yah, you’re scared!” Frank jeered. “Double dare! Double dare!
Well, Caroline, it’s pleasant to be with a crowd of people all trying to do the right thing, same as we are.
Why, I guess you can,” Ma said doubtfully. She did not like to see women working in the fields. Only foreigners did that. Ma and her girls were Americans, above doing men’s work.
It’s work, son,” Father said. “That’s what money is; it’s hard work.
Down a long road through the woods a little boy trudged to school, with his big brother Royal and his two sisters, Eliza Jane and Alice. Royal was thirteen years old, Eliza Jane was twelve, and Alice was ten. Almanzo was the youngest of all, and this was his first going-to-school, because he was not quite nine years old.
This year the teacher was a slim, pale young man. His name was Mr. Corse. He was gentle and patient, and never whipped little boys because they forgot how to spell a word. Almanzo.
Then Father said: “If the teacher has to thrash you again, Royal, I’ll give you a thrashing you’ll remember.
Little rabbits, you know, always have games together before they go to bed.
Anybody knew that no two men were alike. You could measure cloth with a yardstick, or distance by miles, but you could not lump men together and measure them by any rule. Brains and character did not depend on anything but the man himself. Some men did not have the sense at sixty that some had at sixteen.
What is it about water that affects a person? I never see a great river or lake but I think how I would like to see a world made and watch it through all its changes.
But it had been a wonderful day, the most wonderful day in her whole life. She thought about the beautiful lake, and the town she had seen, and the big store full of so many things. She held the pebbles carefully in her lap, and her candy heart wrapped carefully in her handkerchief until she got home and could put it away to keep always. It was too pretty to eat.
Laura had only a corncob wrapped in a handkerchief, but it was a good doll. It was named Susan.
Ma made a pancake.