Little House On The Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder Read Free Book Online

was like a part of the night and the moonlight and the stillness of the prairie. He came to the doorway, singing:
    “By the pale, silver light of the moon—”
    Softly Ma said, “Hush, Charles. You'll wake the children.”
    So Pa came in without a sound. Jack followed at his heels and lay down across the doorway. Now they were all inside the stout walls of their new home, and they were snug and safe. Drowsily Laura heard a long wolf-howl rising from far away on the prairie, but only a little shiver went up her backbone and she fell asleep.

THE WOLF-PACK
    All in one day Pa and Mr. Edwards built the stable for Pet and Patty. They even put the roof on, working so late that Ma had to keep supper waiting for them.
    There was no stable door, but in the moonlight Pa drove two stout posts well into the ground, one on either side of the doorway. He put Pet and Patty inside the stable, and then he laid small split logs one above another, across the door space. The posts held them, and they made a solid wall.
    “Now!” said Pa. “Let those wolves howl! I'll sleep, tonight.”
    In the morning, when he lifted the split logs from behind the posts, Laura was amazed. Beside Pet stood a long-legged, long-eared, wobbly little colt.
    When Laura ran toward it, gentle Pet laid back her ears and snapped her teeth at Laura.
    “Keep back, Laura!” Pa said, sharply. He said to Pet, “Now, Pet, you know we won't hurt your little colt.” Pet answered him with a soft whinny. She would let Pa stroke her colt, but she would not let Laura or Mary come near it. When they even peeked at it through the cracks in the stable wall, Pet rolled the whites of her eyes at them and showed them her teeth. They had never seen a colt with ears so long. Pa said it was a little mule, but Laura said it looked like a jack rabbit. So they named the little colt Bunny.
    When Pet was on the picket-line, with Bunny frisking around her and wondering at the big world, Laura must watch Baby Carrie carefully. If anyone but Pa came near Bunny, Pet squealed with rage and dashed to bite that little girl.
    Early that Sunday afternoon Pa rode Patty away across the prairie to see what he should see. There was plenty of meat in the house, so he did not take his gun.
    He rode away through the tall grass, along the rim of the creek bluffs. Birds flew up before him and circled and sank into the grasses.
    Pa was looking down into the creek bottoms as he rode; perhaps he was watching deer browsing there. Then Patty broke into a gallop, and swiftly she and Pa grew smaller. Soon there was only waving grass where they had been.
    Late that afternoon Pa had not come home.
    Ma stirred the coals of the fire and laid chips on them, and began to get supper. Mary was in the house, minding the baby, and Laura asked Ma, “What's the matter with Jack?”
    Jack was walking up and down, looking worried. He wrinkled his nose at the wind, and the hair rose up on his neck and lay down, and then rose up again. Pet's hoofs suddenly thud-ded. She ran around the circle of her picket-rope and stood still, whickering a low whicker.
    Bunny came close to her.
    “What's the matter, Jack?” Ma asked. He looked up at her, but he couldn't say anything.
    Ma gazed around the whole circle of earth and sky. She could not see anything unusual.
    “Likely it isn't anything, Laura,” she said.
    She raked coals around the coffee-pot and the spider and onto the top of the bake oven. The prairie hen sizzled in the spider and the corncakes began to smell good. But all the time Ma kept glancing at the prairie all around.
    Jack walked about restlessly, and Pet did not graze. She faced the northwest, where Pa had gone, and kept her colt close beside her.
    All at once Patty came running across the prairie. She was stretched out, running with all her might, and Pa was leaning almost flat on her neck.
    She ran right past the stable before Pa could stop her. He stopped her so hard that she almost sat down. She was trembling all