Laura and Mary were wading by the creek, admiring the pretty blue flags and red and pink blooming
book buds and looking forward to
adventures in pond scum (though Mary did not like to get that dirty), when Ma's voice called from the dug-out house. "Girls, come in soon for dinner. I've made prairie
chicken spaghetti." As they followed the path home, they passed Pa, working hard on some frighteningly tall
bookshelves of doom for their new house. "Laura, pass me that
fuse #8 so I can place it in this shelf," he said. "It will be perfect for the
year of reading Ma is planning, just as soon as we finish digging the well, plowing the fields and making bedsteads and a new roof and a rocking chair and a stove."
They continued on the path, hearing the sounds of chickens in the henhouse cackling "bawkbawkbawk!" and a mockingbird overhead echoing,
"bookbookbook! bookbookbook!" When they reached the dugout, Ma smiled at them. "Girls you look so pretty in your blue calico dresses, just like two
blue rose girls! Come here, there's someone I want you to meet." A nice looking lady came forward from the corner where they kept
a chair, a fireplace and a tea cozy, holding some books in her hands. "Hello girls, I'm
Jen Robinson," she said, "And I
gottabook for you!" Laura was so happy inside; she had loved reading ever since she first learned her
big A, little a. Miss Robinson told them she was a tutor for a young girl in the nearby town, but when she wasn't busy
educating Alice, she loved to share books with her neighbors. "Prairie life is so busy" she said with a smile, "But
there's always time for a book."
That night, as Laura lay on her straw pallet, she heard the sounds of pa's fiddle gently echoing through the night:
"Oh she came from California with a book upon her knee,
For oh she was a mother of a reader."(All blogs taken from whoever was lucky enough, or unlucky enough, to be in my bloglines this morning. And it just occurred to me, what a shame
Midwestern Lodestar didn't post anything today...)
Labels: blogs
