AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Just then she felt a hand on the coat collar, helping her, and she heard a voice say, “Good evening, Mr. Ingalls.”
She looked up into the face of Almanzo Wilder.
He did not say anything and neither did she, until they were out of the church and following Pa’s lantern along the snowy path. The wind had died down. The air was very cold and still, and there was moonlight on the snow.
Then Almanzo said, “I guess I ought to have asked you if I may see you home.”
“Yes,” Laura said. “But anyway, you are.”
“It was such a tussle, getting out of that crowd,” he explained. He was silent a minute and then asked, “May I see you home?”
Laura could not help laughing, and he joined in.
“Yes,” Laura said. She wondered again why he was doing this, when he was so much older than she. Mr. Boast, or any friend of Pa’s, might see her safely home if Pa was not there to do it, but now Pa was there. She thought he had a pleasant laugh. He seemed to enjoy everything. Probably his brown horses were tied on Main Street, so he was going that way, anyway.
“Are your horses tied on Main Street?” she asked him.
“No,” he answered. “I left them on the south side of the church, out of the wind.” Then he said, “I am making a cutter.”
Something in the way he said it gave Laura a wild hope. She thought how wonderful it would be to go sleighriding behind those swift horses. Of course he could not mean to ask her, still she felt almost dizzy.
“If this snow holds, there ought to be some good sleighing,” he said. “It looks like we’re going to get another mild winter.”
“Yes, it does, doesn’t it?” Laura answered. She was sure now that he would not ask her to go sleighing.
“It takes some little time to build just right,” he said, “and then I’m going to paint it, two coats. It won’t be ready to take out till some time after Christmas. Do you like to go sleighing?”
Laura felt as if she were smothering.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I never went.” Then boldly she burst out, “But I’m sure I would like to.”
“Well,” he said, “I’ll come around some time in January and maybe you’d like to go for a little spin and see how you like it. Some Saturday, say? Would that suit you?”
“Yes. Oh, yes!” Laura exclaimed. “Thank you.”
“All right, then I’ll be around, in a couple of weeks if this weather holds,” he said. They had come to the door, and he took off his cap and said good night.
Laura fairly danced into the house.
“Oh, Pa! Ma! what do you think! Mr. Wilder’s making a cutter, and he’s going to take me sleigh-riding!”
Pa and Ma glanced at each other, and it was a sober glance. Laura quickly said, “If I may go. May I? Please?”
“We will see when the time comes,” Ma answered. But Pa’s eyes were kind as he looked at Laura and she was sure that when the time came, she could go sleigh-riding. She thought what fun it must be, to go speeding swiftly and smoothly through the cold, sunny air, behind those horses. And she could not help thinking in delight, “Oh, won’t Nellie Oleson be mad!”
Chapter 25
Unexpected In December
Next day was blank and limp. They would not try again to have Christmas without Mary. The only presents hidden away were for Carrie and Grace, and though Christmas was not until tomorrow, they had opened that morning the small Christmas box from Mary.
There.would be a whole week without school. Laura knew that she should improve the time in study, but she could not settle down to her books.
“It’s no fun studying at home when Mary isn’t here to study with,” she said.
Dinner was over and the house all in order, but it seemed empty without Mary in her rocking chair. Laura stood looking around the room as though searching for something she had lost.
Ma laid down her church paper. “I declare I can’t get used to her being gone, either,” she said. “This piece by a missionary is interesting, but I have read aloud to Mary for so long that I can’t properly read to myself.”
