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

right away to fetch that family up on the High Prairie, where they would soon get well in the good air.
    One thing had led to another, until Pa was starting home later than he had meant. He took a short cut across the prairie, and as he was loping along on Patty, suddenly out of a little draw came a pack of wolves. They were all around Pa in a moment.
    “It was a big pack,” Pa said. “All of fifty wolves, and the biggest wolves I ever saw in my life. Must be what they call buffalo wolves. Their leader's a big gray brute that stands three feet at the shoulder, if an inch. I tell you my hair stood straight on end.”
    “And you didn't have your gun,” said Ma.
    “I thought of that. But my gun would have been no use if I'd had it. You can't fight fifty wolves with one gun. And Patty couldn't out-run them.”
    “What did you do?” Ma asked.
    “Nothing,” said Pa. “Patty tried to run. I never wanted anything worse than I wanted to get away from there. But I knew if Patty even started, those wolves would be on us in a minute, pulling us down. So I held Patty to a walk.”
    “Goodness, Charles!” Ma said under her breath.
    "Yes. I wouldn't go through such a thing again for any money. Caroline, I never saw such wolves. One big fellow trotted along, right by my stirrup. I could have kicked him in the ribs. They didn't pay any attention to me at all. They must have just made a kill and eaten all they could.
    “I tell you, Caroline, those wolves just closed in around Patty and me and trotted along with us. In broad daylight. For all the world like a pack of dogs going along with a horse. They were all around us, trotting along, and jumping and playing and snapping at each other, just like dogs.”
    “Goodness, Charles!” Ma said again. Laura's heart was thumping fast, and her mouth and her eyes were wide open, staring at Pa.
    “Patty was shaking all over, and fighting the bit,” said Pa. "Sweat ran off her, she was so scared. I was sweating, too. But I held her down to a walk, and we went walking along among those wolves. They came right along with us, a quarter of a mile or more. That big fellow trotted by my stirrup as if he were there to stay.
    "Then we came to the head of a draw, running down into the creek bottoms. The big gray leader went down it, and all the rest of the pack trotted down into it, behind him. As soon as the last one was in the draw, I let Patty go.
    “She headed straight for home, across the prairie. And she couldn't have run faster if I'd been cutting into her with a rawhide whip. I was scared the whole way. I thought the wolves might be coming this way and they might be making better time than I was. I was glad you had the gun, Caroline. And glad the house is built. I knew you could keep the wolves out of the house, with the gun. But Pet and the colt were outside.”
    “You need not have worried, Charles,” Ma said. “I guess I would manage to save our horses.”
    “I was not fully reasonable, at the time,”
    said Pa. “I know you would save the horses, Caroline. Those wolves wouldn't bother you, anyway. If they had been hungry, I wouldn't be here to—”
    “Little pitchers have big ears,” Ma said. She 92 meant that he must not frighten Mary and Laura.
    “Well, all's well that ends well,” Pa replied.
    “And those wolves are miles from here by now.”
    “What made them act like that?” Laura asked him.
    “I don't know, Laura,” he said. "I guess they had just eaten all they could hold, and they were on their way to the creek to get a drink.
    Or perhaps they were out playing on the prairie, and not paying any attention to anything but their play, like little girls do sometimes. Perhaps they saw that I didn't have my gun and couldn't do them any harm. Or perhaps they had never seen a man before and didn't know that men can do them any harm.
    So they didn't think about me at all."
    Pet and Patty were restlessly walking around and around, inside the barn. Jack walked around the