After supper they all sat on the path before the door. Pa and Ma had boxes to sit on. Carrie cuddled sleepily in Ma’s lap, and Mary and Laura sat on the hard path, their legs hanging over its sharp edge. Jack turned around three times and lay down with his head against Laura’s knee.
They all sat quiet, looking across Plum Creek and the willows, watching the sun sink far away in the west, far away over the prairie lands.
At last Ma drew a long breath. “It is all so tame and peaceful,” she said. “There will be no wolves or Indians howling tonight. I haven’t felt so safe and at rest since I don’t know when.”
Pa’s slow voice answered, “We’re safe enough, all right. Nothing can happen here.”
The peaceful colors went all around the rim of the sky. The willows breathed and the water talked to itself in the dusk. The land was dark gray. The sky was light gray and stars prickled through it.
“It’s bedtime,” Ma said. “And here is something new, anyway. We’ve never slept in a dugout before.” She was laughing, and Pa laughed softly with her.
Laura lay in bed and listened to the water talking and the willows whispering. She would rather sleep outdoors, even if she heard wolves, than be so safe in this house dug under the ground.
Chapter 3
Rushes and Flags
Every morning after Mary and Laura had done the dishes, made their bed and swept the floor, they could go out to play.
All around the door the morning-glory flowers were fresh and new, springing with all their might out of the green leaves. All along Plum Creek the birds were talking. Sometimes a bird sang, but mostly they talked. “Tweet, tweet, oh twitter twee twit!” one said. Then another said, “Ghee, Chee, Chee,” and another laughed, “Ha ha ha, tiraloo!”
Laura and Mary went over the top of their house and down along the path where Pa led the oxen to water.
There along the creek rushes were growing, and blue flags. Every morning the blue flags were new. They stood up dark blue and proud among the green rushes.
Each blue flag had three velvet petals that curved down like a lady’s dress over hoops. From its waist three ruffled silky petals stood up and curved together. When Laura looked down inside them, she saw three narrow pale tongues, and each tongue had a strip of golden fur on it.
Sometimes a fat bumble-bee, all black velvet and gold, was bumbling and butting there.
The flat creek bank was warm, soft mud. Little pale-yellow and pale-blue butterflies hovered there, and alighted and sipped. Bright dragonflies flew on blurry wings. The mud squeezed up between Laura’s toes. Where she stepped, and where Mary stepped, and where the oxen had walked, there were tiny pools of water in their footprints.
Where they waded in the shallow water a footprint would not stay. First a swirl like smoke came up from it and wavered away in the clear water. Then the footprint slowly melted. The toes smoothed out and the heel was only a small hollow.
There were tiny fishes in the water. They were so small that you could hardly see them. Only when they went swiftly sometimes a silvery belly flashed. When Laura and Mary stood still these little fishes swarmed around their feet and nibbled. It was a tickly feeling.
On top of the water the water-bugs skated. They had tall legs, and each of their feet made a wee dent in the water. It was hard to see a water-bug; he skated so fast that before you saw him he was somewhere else.
The rushes in the wind made a wild, lonely sound. They were not soft and flat like grass; they were hard and round and sleek and jointed. One day when Laura was wading in a deep place by the rushes, she took hold of a big one to pull herself up on the bank. It squeaked.
For a minute Laura could hardly breathe. Then she pulled another. It squeaked, and came in two.
The rushes were little hollow tubes, fitted together at the joints. The tubes squeaked when you pulled them apart. They squeaked when you pushed them together again.
Laura and Mary pulled them apart to hear them squeak. Then they put little ones together to make necklaces. They put big ones together to make long tubes. They blew through the tubes into the creek and made it bubble. They blew at the little fishes and scared them. Whenever they were thirsty, they could draw up long drinks of water through those tubes.
Ma laughed when Laura and Mary came to dinner and supper, all splashed and muddy, with green necklaces around their necks and the long green tubes in their hands. They brought her bouquets of the blue flags and she put them on the table to make it pretty.
“I declare,” she said, “you two play in the creek so much, you’ll be turning to waterbugs!”
Pa and Ma did not care how much they played in the creek. Only they must never go upstream beyond the little willow valley. The creek came around a curve there. It came out of a hole full of deep, dark water. They must never go near enough to that hole, even to see it.
“Some day I’ll take you there,” Pa promised them. And one Sunday afternoon he told them that this was the day.
Chapter 4
Deep Water
In the dugout Laura and Mary took off all their clothes and over their bare skins they put on old patched dresses. Ma tied on her sunbonnet, Pa took Carrie on his arm, and they all set out.
They went past the cattle path and the rushes, past the willow valley and the plum thickets. They went down a steep, grassy bank, and then across a level place where the grass was tall and coarse. They passed a high, almost straight-up wall of earth where no grass grew.
“What is that, Pa?” Laura asked; and Pa said, “That is a tableland, Laura.”
He pushed on through the thick, tall grass, making a path for Ma and Mary and Laura. Suddenly they came out of the high grass and the creek was there. It ran twinkling over white gravel into a wide pool, curved against a low bank where the grass was short. Tall willows stood up on the other side of the pool. Flat on the water lay a shimmery picture of those willows, with every green leaf fluttering.
Ma sat on the grassy bank and kept Carrie with her, while Laura and Mary waded into the pool.
“Stay near the edge, girls!” Ma told them. “Don’t go in where it’s deep.”
The water came up under their skirts and made them float. Then the calico got wet and stuck to their legs. Laura went in deeper and deeper. The water came up and up, almost to her waist. She squatted down, and it came to her chin.
Everything was watery, cool, and unsteady. Laura felt very light. Her feet were so light that they almost lifted off the creek bottom. She hopped, and splashed with her arms.
“Oo, Laura, don’t!” Mary cried.
“Don’t go in any farther, Laura,” said Ma.
Laura kept on splashing. One big splash lifted both feet. Her feet came up, her arms did as they pleased, her head went under the water. She was scared. There was nothing to hold on to, nothing solid anywhere. Then she was standing up, streaming water all over. But her feet were solid.
Nobody had seen that. Mary was tucking up her skirts, Ma was playing with Carrie. Pa was out of sight among the willows. Laura walked as fast as she could in the water. She stepped down deeper and deeper. The water came up past her middle, up to her arms.
Suddenly, deep down in the water, something grabbed her foot.
The thing jerked, and down she went into the deep water. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t see. She grabbed and could not get hold of anything. Water filled her ears and her eyes and her mouth.
Then her head came out of the water close to Pa’s head. Pa was holding her.
“Well, young lady,” Pa said, “you went out too far, and how did you like it?”
Laura could not speak; she had to breathe.
“You heard Ma tell you to stay close to the bank,” said Pa. “Why didn’t you obey her? You deserved a ducking, and I ducked you. Next time you’ll do as you’re told.”
“Y-yes, Pa!” Laura spluttered. “Oh, Pa, p-please do it again!”
Pa said, “Well, I’ll—!” Then his great laughter rang among the willow
s.
“Why didn’t you holler when I ducked you?” he asked Laura. “Weren’t you scared?”
“I w-was—awful scared!” Laura gasped. “But p-please do it again!” Then she asked him, “How did you get down there, Pa?”
Pa told her he had swum under water from the willows. But they could not stay in the deep water; they must go near the bank and play with Mary.
All that afternoon Pa and Laura and Mary played in the water. They waded and they fought water fights, and whenever Laura or Mary went near the deep water, Pa ducked them. Mary was a good girl after one ducking, but Laura was ducked many times.
Then it was almost chore time and they had to go home. They went dripping along the path through the tall grass, and when they came to the tableland Laura wanted to climb it.
Pa climbed part way up, and Laura and Mary climbed, holding to his hands. The dry dirt slipped and slid. Tangled grass roots hung down from the bulging edge overhead. Then Pa lifted Laura up and set her on the tableland.
It really was like a table. That ground rose up high above the tall grasses, and it was round, and flat on top. The grass there was short and soft.
Pa and Laura and Mary stood up on top of that tableland, and looked over the grass tops and the pool to the prairie beyond. They looked all around at prairies stretching to the rim of the sky.
Then they had to slide down again to the lowland and go on home. That had been a wonderful afternoon.
“It’s been lots of fun,” Pa said. “But you girls remember what I tell you. Don’t you ever go near that swimming-hole unless I am with you.
Chapter 5
Strange Animal
All the next day Laura remembered. She remembered the cool, deep water in the shade of the tall willows. She remembered that she must not go near it.
Pa was away. Mary stayed with Ma in the dugout. Laura played all alone in the hot sunshine. The blue flags were withering among the dull rushes. She went past the willow valley and played in the prairie grasses among the black-eyed Susans and goldenrod. The sunshine was very hot and the wind was scorching.
Then Laura thought of the tableland. She wanted to climb it again. She wondered if she could climb it all by herself. Pa had not said that she could not go to the tableland.
She ran down the steep bank and went across the lowland, through the tall, coarse grasses. The tableland stood up straight and high. It was very hard to climb. The dry earth slid under Laura’s feet, her dress was dirty where her knees dug in while she held on to the grasses and pulled herself up. Dust itched on her sweaty skin. But at last she got her stomach on the edge; she heaved and rolled and she was on top of the tableland.
She jumped up, and she could see the deep, shady pool under the willows. It was cool and wet, and her whole skin felt thirsty. But she remembered that she must not go there.
The tableland seemed big and empty and not interesting. It had been exciting when Pa was there, but now it was just flat land, and Laura thought she would go home and get a drink. She was very thirsty.
She slid down the side of the tableland and slowly started back along the way she had come. Down among the tall grasses the air was smothery and very hot. The dugout was far away and Laura was terribly thirsty.
She remembered with all her might that she must not go near that deep, shady swimming-pool, and suddenly she turned around and hurried toward it. She thought she would only look at it. Just looking at it would make her feel better. Then she thought she might wade in the edge of it but she would not go into the deep water.
She came into the path that Pa had made, and she trotted faster.
Right in the middle of the path before her stood an animal.
Laura jumped back, and stood and stared at it. She had never seen such an animal. It was almost as long as Jack, but its legs were very short. Long gray fur bristled all over it. It had a flat head and small ears. Its flat head slowly tilted up and it stared at Laura.
She stared back at its funny face. And while they stood still and staring, that animal widened and shortened and spread flat on the ground. It grew flatter and flatter, till it was a gray fur laid there. It was not like a whole animal at all. Only it had eyes staring up.
Slowly and carefully Laura stooped and reached and picked up a willow stick. She felt better then. She stayed bent over, looking at that flat gray fur.
It did not move and neither did Laura. She wondered what would happen if she poked it. It might change to some other shape. She poked it gently with the short stick.
A frightful snarl came out of it. Its eyes sparkled mad, and fierce white teeth snapped almost on Laura’s nose.
Laura ran with all her might. She could run fast. She did not stop running until she was in the dugout.
“Goodness, Laura!” Ma said. “You’ll make yourself sick, tearing around so in this heat.”
All that time, Mary had been sitting like a little lady, spelling out words in the book that Ma was teaching her to read. Mary was a good little girl.
Laura had been bad and she knew it. She had broken her promise to Pa. But no one had seen her. No one knew that she had started to go to the swimming-hole. If she did not tell, no one would ever know. Only that strange animal knew, and it could not tell on her. But she felt worse and worse inside.
That night she lay awake beside Mary. Pa and Ma sat in the starlight outside the door and Pa was playing his fiddle.
“Go to sleep, Laura,” Ma said, softly, and softly the fiddle sang to her. Pa was a shadow against the sky and his bow danced among the great stars.
Everything was beautiful and good, except Laura. She had broken her promise to Pa. Breaking a promise was as bad as telling a lie. Laura wished she had not done it. But she had done it, and if Pa knew, he would punish her.
Pa went on playing softly in the starlight. His fiddle sang to her sweetly and happily. He thought she was a good little girl. At last Laura could bear it no longer.
She slid out of bed and her bare feet stole across the cool earthen floor. In her nightgown and nightcap she stood beside Pa. He drew the last notes from the strings with his bow and she could feel him smiling down at her.
“What is it, little half-pint?” he asked her. “You look like a little ghost, all white in the dark.”
“Pa,” Laura said, in a quivery small voice, “I—I—started to go to the swimming-hole.”
“You did!” Pa exclaimed. Then he asked, “Well, what stopped you?”
“I don’t know,” Laura whispered. “It had gray fur and it—it flattened out flat. It snarled.”
“How big was it?” Pa asked.
Laura told him all about that strange animal.
Pa said, “It must have been a badger.”
Then for a long time he did not say anything and Laura waited. Laura could not see his face in the dark, but she leaned against his knee and she could feel how strong and kind he was.
“Well,” he said at last, “I hardly know what to do, Laura. You see, I trusted you. It is hard to know what to do with a person you can’t trust. But do you know what people have to do to anyone they can’t trust?”
“Wh—at?” Laura quavered.
“They have to watch him,” said Pa. “So I guess you must be watched. Your Ma will have to do it because I must work at Nelson’s. So tomorrow you stay where Ma can watch you. You are not to go out of her sight all day. If you are good all day, then we will let you try again to be a little girl we can trust.
“How about it, Caroline?” he asked Ma.
“Very well, Charles,” Ma said out of the dark. “I will watch her tomorrow. But I am sure she will be good. Now back to bed, Laura, and go to sleep.”
The next day was a dreadful day.
Ma was mending, and Laura had to stay in the dugout. She could not even fetch water from the spring, for that was going out of Ma’s sight. Mary fetched the water, Mary took Carrie to walk on the prairie. Laura had to stay in.
Jack laid his nose on his paws and waggled, he
jumped out on the path and looked back at her, smiling with his ears, begging her to come out. He could not understand why she did not.
Laura helped Ma. She washed the dishes and made both beds and swept the floor and set the table. At dinner she sat bowed on her bench and ate what Ma set before her. Then she wiped the dishes. After that she ripped a sheet that was worn in the middle. Ma turned the strips of muslin and pinned them together, and Laura whipped the new seam, over and over with tiny stitches.
She thought that seam and that day would never end.
But at last Ma rolled up her mending and it was time to get supper.
“You have been a good girl, Laura,” Ma said. “We will tell Pa so. And tomorrow morning you and I are going to look for that badger. I am sure he saved you from drowning, for if you had gone to that deep water you would have gone into it. Once you begin being naughty, it is easier to go on and on, and sooner or later something dreadful happens.”
“Yes, Ma,” Laura said. She knew that now.
The whole day was gone. Laura had not seen that sunrise, nor the shadows of clouds on the prairie. The morning-glories were withered and that day’s blue flags were dead. All day Laura had not seen the water running in the creek, the little fishes in it, and the waterbugs skating over it. She was sure that being good could never be as hard as being watched.
Next day she went with Ma to look for the badger. In the path she showed Ma the place where he had flattened himself on the grass. Ma found the hole where he lived. It was a round hole under a clump of grass on the prairie bank. Laura called to him and she poked a stick into the hole.
If the badger was at home, he would not come out. Laura never saw that old gray badger again.
Chapter 6
Wreath of Roses
Out on the prairie beyond the stable there was a long gray rock. It rose up above the waving grasses and nodding wild flowers. On top it was flat and almost smooth, so wide that Laura and Mary could run on it side by side, and so long that they could race each other. It was a wonderful place to play.