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Laura’s heart beat hard and thick. She could feel its beating in her throat, and wild thoughts fluttered so fast in her mind that she did not know what any of them were.
“We must trust in the Lord to do all things for our best good,” said Reverend Alden. “Shall we have a short prayer meeting, all of us together, when you’ve finished the dishes?”
“Yes, Brother Alden, I should like that,” said Ma. “I am sure we all would.”
When the dishes were done and their hands washed, Ma and Laura took off their aprons and smoothed their hair. Reverend Alden and Mary were talking together earnestly while Mrs. Boast held Grace, and Mr. Boast and the two homesteaders were talking to Reverend Stuart and Pa about the wheat and oats he intended to raise as soon as he could get his sod broken. When Ma came in, Reverend Alden stood up and said they would all have the refreshment of prayer together before saying good night.
They all knelt down by their chairs, and Reverend Alden asked God, Who knew their hearts and their secret thoughts, to look down on them there, and to forgive their sins and help them to do right. A quietness was in the room while he spoke. Laura felt as if she were hot, dry, dusty grass parching in a drought, and the quietness was a cool and gentle rain falling on her. It truly was a refreshment. Everything was simple now that she felt so cool and strong, and she would be glad to work hard and go without anything she wanted herself, so that Mary could go to college.
Then Mr. and Mrs. Boast thanked Brother Alden and went home, and Laura and Carrie brought Carrie’s bed downstairs. Ma made it down on the floor by the stove.
“We’ve only the one bed,” Ma apologized, “and I’m afraid there are not covers enough for it.”
“Don’t worry, Sister Ingalls,” said Reverend Alden. “We’ll use our overcoats.”
“We’ll be very comfortable, I’m sure,” said Reverend Stuart. “And glad we are to have found you folks here. We thought we had to go all the way to Huron, until we saw your light and heard you singing.”
Upstairs, Laura helped Carrie unbutton in the dark. She tucked the hot flatiron close against Mary’s feet in the bed. As they all snuggled tight together to get warm under the icy-cold covers, they heard Pa and the travelers still talking and laughing around the fire.
“Laura,” Mary whispered, “Reverend Alden told me there are colleges for blind people.”
“What, for blind people?” Carrie whispered.
“Colleges,” whispered Laura, “where they get college educations.”
“How can they?” Carrie asked. “I thought you had to read, to study.”
“I don’t know,” Mary said. “Anyway, I couldn’t go. It must cost something. I don’t suppose there’s any chance I could.”
“Ma knows,” Laura whispered. “Reverend Alden told her too. Maybe you can, Mary. I do hope you can.” She took a deep breath and promised, “I will study hard, so I can teach school and help.”
In the morning the travelers’ voices and a clatte
r of dishes woke her and she sprang out of bed to dress and hurry downstairs to help Ma.
Outdoors was crisp and cold. Sunshine gilded the frosty windows, and in the house everyone was hearty and cheerful. How the travelers did enjoy that breakfast! They praised everything they ate. The biscuits were light and flaky, the fried potatoes were brown and finely hashed, the slices of fat pork were thin and crisp, and the gravy was smooth and brown and creamy. There was hot brown-sugar syrup, and plenty of fragrant steaming tea.
“This meat is delicious,” Reverend Stuart said. “I know it is just fat salt pork, but I never tasted any like it. Would you tell me how you cook it, Sister Ingalls?”
Ma was surprised, and Reverend Alden explained, “Scotty’s going to stay out here in this missionary field. I’ve only come out to get him started. He’ll be baching and doing his own cooking.”
“Do you know how to cook, Brother Stuart?” Ma asked, and he said he expected to learn by experience. He had brought supplies; beans, flour, salt, tea, and salt pork.
“The meat is easy,” said Ma. “Cut the slices thin, and set them to parboil in cold water. When the water boils, pour it off. Then roll the slices in flour and fry them brown. When they are crisp, take them out onto a platter, and pour some of the fat off. Save it to use for butter. Then brown some flour in the fat left in the frying pan, pour in some milk, and keep stirring it as it boils until the gravy is just right.”
“Would you mind writing it down?” said Reverend Stuart. “How much flour, and how much milk?”
“Goodness!” said Ma. “I never measure, but I guess I can make a stab at it.” She got a sheet of paper and her little pearl-handled pen and the ink bottle, and wrote down her receipts for fried salt pork and gravy, and for sour-dough biscuits and bean soup and baked beans, while Laura cleared the table quickly and Carrie ran to ask Mr. and Mrs. Boast to come over for a preaching service.
It seemed odd to have church on Monday morning, but the travelers were starting on the last stage of their journey to Huron, and no one wanted to lose this opportunity to hear a sermon.
Pa played the fiddle, and they all sang a hymn. Reverend Stuart, with Ma’s receipts in his pocket, made a short prayer for guidance in all their worthy endeavors. Then Reverend Alden preached the sermon. After that, Pa’s fiddle gaily and sweetly played and they all sang:
“There is a happy land, far, far away,
Where saints in glory stand, bright, bright as day,
Oh, to hear the angels sing glory to the Lord, our King…”
