A long time ago, Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie left their little house in Wisconsin. They drove away and left it lonely and empty among the big trees, and they never saw that little house again. They were going to Indian country.
In the long winter evening Pa talked to Ma about the Western country. The land is flat and the grass grows thick and high. Animals run freely and there are no settlers. Only Indians live there.
It was a long, long way to Indian country. Almost every day the horses travelled as far as they could; almost every night Pa and Ma stopped in a new place. They rode across the wide Mississippi River before the ice broke, and crossed many other rivers and creeks.