nce upon a time, sixty years ago, a
little girl lived in the Big Woods of
Wisconsin, in a little gray house made
of logs.
The great, dark trees of the Big Woods
stood all around the house, and beyond them
were other trees and beyond them were more
trees. As far as a man could go to the north in
a day, or a week, or a whole month, there was
nothing but woods. There were no houses.
O
2
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
There were no roads. There were no people.
There were only trees and the wild animals
who had their homes among them.
Wolves lived in the Big Woods, and bears,
and huge wild cats. Muskrats and mink and
otter lived by the streams. Foxes had dens in
the hills and deer roamed everywhere.
To the east of the little log house, and to
the west, there were miles upon miles of trees,
and only a few little log houses scattered far
apart in the edge of the Big Woods.
So far as the little girl could see, there was
only the one little house where she lived with
her father and mother, her sister Mary and
baby sister Carrie. A wagon track ran before
the house, turning and twisting out of sight
in the woods where the wild animals lived,
but the little girl did not know where it went,
nor what might be at the end of it.
The little girl was named Laura and she
called her father, Pa, and her mother, Ma. In
those days and in that place, children did not
3
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
say Father and Mother, nor Mamma and Papa,
as they do now.
At night, when Laura lay awake in the
trundle bed, she listened and could not hear
anything at all but the sound of the trees whispering
together. Sometimes, far away in the
night, a wolf howled. Then he came nearer,
and howled again.
It was a scary sound. Laura knew that
wolves would eat little girls. But she was safe
inside the solid log walls. Her father's gun
hung over the door and good old Jack, the
brindle bulldog, lay on guard before it. Her father
would say:
"Go to sleep, Laura. Jack won't let the
wolves in." So Laura snuggled under the covers
of the trundle bed, close beside Mary, and
went to sleep.
One night her father picked her up out
of bed and carried her to the window so that
she might see the wolves. There were two
of them sitting in front of the house. They
4
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
looked like shaggy dogs. They pointed their
noses at the big, bright moon, and howled.
Jack paced up and down before the door,
growling. The hair stood up along his back and
he showed his sharp, fierce teeth to the wolves.
They howled, but they could not get in.
The house was a comfortable house. Upstairs
there was a large attic, pleasant to play
in when the rain drummed on the roof. Downstairs
was the small bedroom, and the big
room. The bedroom had a window that closed
with a wooden shutter. The big room had two
windows with glass in the panes, and it had
two doors, a front door and a back door.
All around the house was a crooked rail
fence, to keep the bears and the deer away.
In the yard in front of the house were two
beautiful big oak trees. Every morning as soon
as she was awake Laura ran to look out of the
window, and one morning she saw in each of
the big trees a dead deer hanging from a
branch.
5
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
Pa had shot the deer the day before and
Laura had been asleep when he brought them
home at night and hung them high in the trees
so the wolves could not get the meat.
That day Pa and Ma and Laura and Mary
had fresh venison for dinner. It was so good
that Laura wished they could eat it all. But
most of the meat must be salted and smoked
and packed away to be eaten in the winter.
For winter was coming. The days were
shorter, and frost crawled up the window
panes at night. Soon the snow would come.
Then the log house would be almost buried in
snowdrifts, and the lake and the streams
would freeze. In the bitter cold weather Pa
could not be sure of finding any wild game
to shoot for meat.
The bears would be hidden away in their
dens where they slept soundly all winter long.
The squirrels would be curled in their nests in
hollow trees, with their furry tails wrapped
snugly around their noses. The deer and the
6
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
rabbits would be shy and swift. Even if Pa
could get a deer, it would be poor and thin,
not fat and plump as deer are in the fall.
Pa might hunt alone all day in the bitter
cold, in the Big Woods covered with snow, and
come home at night with nothing for Ma and
Mary and Laura to eat.
So as much food as possible must be stored
away in the little house before winter came.
Pa skinned the deer carefully and salted
and stretched the hides, for he would make
soft leather of them. Then he cut up the meat,
and sprinkled salt over the pieces as he laid
them on a board.
Standing on end in the yard was a tall
length cut from the trunk of a big hollow tree.
Pa had driven nails inside as far as he could
reach from each end. Then he stood it up, put
a little roof over the top, and cut a little door
on one side near the bottom. On the piece
that he cut out he fastened leather hinges;
then he fitted it into place, and that was the
7
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
little door, with the bark still on it.
After the deer meat had been salted several
days, Pa cut a hole near the end of each
piece and put a string through it. Laura
watched him do this, and then she watched
him hang the meat on the nails in the hollow
log.
He reached up through the little door and
hung meat on the nails, as far up as he could
reach. Then he put a ladder against the log,
climbed up to the top, moved the roof to one
side, and reached down inside to hang meat on
those nails.
Then Pa put the roof back again, climbed
down the ladder, and said to Laura:
"Run over to the chopping block and fetch
me some of those green hickory chips—new,
clean, white ones."
So Laura ran to the block where Pa
chopped wood, and filled her apron with the
fresh, sweet-smelling chips.
Just inside the little door in the hollow log
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
Pa built a fire of tiny bits of bark and moss, and
he laid some of the chips on it very carefully.
Instead of burning quickly, the green chips
9
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
smoldered and filled the hollow log with thick,
choking smoke. Pa shut the door, and a little
smoke squeezed through the crack around it
and a little smoke came out through the roof,
but most of it was shut in with the meat.
"There's nothing better than good hickory
smoke," Pa said. "That will make good venison
that will keep anywhere, in any weather."
Then he took his gun, and slinging his ax
on his shoulder he went away to the clearing to
cut down some more trees.
10
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
Laura and Ma watched the fire for several
days. When smoke stopped coming through
the cracks, Laura would bring more hickory
chips and Ma would put them on the fire under
the meat. All the time there was a little
smell of smoke in the yard, and when the door
was opened a thick, smoky, meaty smell came
out.
At last Pa said the venison had smoked
long enough. Then they let the fire go out,
and Pa took all the strips and pieces of meat
out of the hollow tree. Ma wrapped each piece
neatly in paper and hung them in the attic
where they would keep safe and dry.
One morning Pa went away before daylight
with the horses and wagon, and that night he
came home with a wagonload of fish. The big
wagon box was piled full, and some of the fish
were as big as Laura. Pa had gone to Lake
Pepin and caught them all with a net.
Ma cut large slices of flaky white fish,
without one bone, for Laura and Mary. They
11
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
all feasted on the good, fresh fish. All they did
not eat fresh was salted down in barrels for the
winter.
Pa owned a pig. It ran wild in the Big
Woods, living on acorns and nuts and roots.
Now he caught it and put it in a pen made of
logs, to fatten. He would butcher it as soon as
the weather was cold enough to keep the pork
frozen.
Once in the middle of the night Laura
woke up and heard the pig squealing. Pa
jumped out of bed, snatched his gun from the
wall, and ran outdoors. Then Laura heard the
gun go off, once, twice.
When Pa came back, he told what had happened.
He had seen a big black bear standing
beside the pigpen. The bear was reaching into
the pen to grab the pig, and the pig was running
and squealing. Pa saw this in the starlight
and he fired quickly. But the light was dim
and in his haste he missed the bear. The bear
ran away into the woods, not hurt at all.
12
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
Laura was sorry Pa did not get the bear.
She liked bear meat so much. Pa was sorry,
too, but he said:
"Anyway, I saved the bacon."
The garden behind the little house had
been growing all summer. It was so near the
house that the deer did not jump the fence
and eat the vegetables in the daytime, and at
night Jack kept them away. Sometimes in the
morning there were little hoof-prints among
the carrots and the cabbages. But Jack's tracks
were there, too, and the deer had jumped right
out again.
Now the potatoes and carrots, the beets
and turnips and cabbages were gathered and
stored in the cellar, for freezing nights had
come.
Onions were made into long ropes, braided
together by their tops, and then were hung in
the attic beside wreaths of red peppers strung
on threads. The pumpkins and the squashes
were piled in orange and yellow and green
13
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
heaps in the attic's corners.
The barrels of salted fish were in the
pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on
the pantry shelves.
Then one day Uncle Henry came riding
out of the Big Woods. He had come to help Pa
butcher. Ma's big butcher knife was already
sharpened, and Uncle Henry had brought
Aunt Polly's butcher knife.
Near the pigpen Pa and Uncle Henry built
a bonfire, and heated a great kettle of water
over it. When the water was boiling they went
to kill the hog. Then Laura ran and hid her
head on the bed and stopped her ears with her
fingers so she could not hear the hog sque
nce upon a time, sixty years ago, a
little girl lived in the Big Woods of
Wisconsin, in a little gray house made
of logs.
The great, dark trees of the Big Woods
stood all around the house, and beyond them
were other trees and beyond them were more
trees. As far as a man could go to the north in
a day, or a week, or a whole month, there was
nothing but woods. There were no houses.
O
2
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
There were no roads. There were no people.
There were only trees and the wild animals
who had their homes among them.
Wolves lived in the Big Woods, and bears,
and huge wild cats. Muskrats and mink and
otter lived by the streams. Foxes had dens in
the hills and deer roamed everywhere.
To the east of the little log house, and to
the west, there were miles upon miles of trees,
and only a few little log houses scattered far
apart in the edge of the Big Woods.
So far as the little girl could see, there was
only the one little house where she lived with
her father and mother, her sister Mary and
baby sister Carrie. A wagon track ran before
the house, turning and twisting out of sight
in the woods where the wild animals lived,
but the little girl did not know where it went,
nor what might be at the end of it.
The little girl was named Laura and she
called her father, Pa, and her mother, Ma. In
those days and in that place, children did not
3
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
say Father and Mother, nor Mamma and Papa,
as they do now.
At night, when Laura lay awake in the
trundle bed, she listened and could not hear
anything at all but the sound of the trees whispering
together. Sometimes, far away in the
night, a wolf howled. Then he came nearer,
and howled again.
It was a scary sound. Laura knew that
wolves would eat little girls. But she was safe
inside the solid log walls. Her father's gun
hung over the door and good old Jack, the
brindle bulldog, lay on guard before it. Her father
would say:
"Go to sleep, Laura. Jack won't let the
wolves in." So Laura snuggled under the covers
of the trundle bed, close beside Mary, and
went to sleep.
One night her father picked her up out
of bed and carried her to the window so that
she might see the wolves. There were two
of them sitting in front of the house. They
4
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
looked like shaggy dogs. They pointed their
noses at the big, bright moon, and howled.
Jack paced up and down before the door,
growling. The hair stood up along his back and
he showed his sharp, fierce teeth to the wolves.
They howled, but they could not get in.
The house was a comfortable house. Upstairs
there was a large attic, pleasant to play
in when the rain drummed on the roof. Downstairs
was the small bedroom, and the big
room. The bedroom had a window that closed
with a wooden shutter. The big room had two
windows with glass in the panes, and it had
two doors, a front door and a back door.
All around the house was a crooked rail
fence, to keep the bears and the deer away.
In the yard in front of the house were two
beautiful big oak trees. Every morning as soon
as she was awake Laura ran to look out of the
window, and one morning she saw in each of
the big trees a dead deer hanging from a
branch.
5
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
Pa had shot the deer the day before and
Laura had been asleep when he brought them
home at night and hung them high in the trees
so the wolves could not get the meat.
That day Pa and Ma and Laura and Mary
had fresh venison for dinner. It was so good
that Laura wished they could eat it all. But
most of the meat must be salted and smoked
and packed away to be eaten in the winter.
For winter was coming. The days were
shorter, and frost crawled up the window
panes at night. Soon the snow would come.
Then the log house would be almost buried in
snowdrifts, and the lake and the streams
would freeze. In the bitter cold weather Pa
could not be sure of finding any wild game
to shoot for meat.
The bears would be hidden away in their
dens where they slept soundly all winter long.
The squirrels would be curled in their nests in
hollow trees, with their furry tails wrapped
snugly around their noses. The deer and the
6
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
rabbits would be shy and swift. Even if Pa
could get a deer, it would be poor and thin,
not fat and plump as deer are in the fall.
Pa might hunt alone all day in the bitter
cold, in the Big Woods covered with snow, and
come home at night with nothing for Ma and
Mary and Laura to eat.
So as much food as possible must be stored
away in the little house before winter came.
Pa skinned the deer carefully and salted
and stretched the hides, for he would make
soft leather of them. Then he cut up the meat,
and sprinkled salt over the pieces as he laid
them on a board.
Standing on end in the yard was a tall
length cut from the trunk of a big hollow tree.
Pa had driven nails inside as far as he could
reach from each end. Then he stood it up, put
a little roof over the top, and cut a little door
on one side near the bottom. On the piece
that he cut out he fastened leather hinges;
then he fitted it into place, and that was the
7
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
little door, with the bark still on it.
After the deer meat had been salted several
days, Pa cut a hole near the end of each
piece and put a string through it. Laura
watched him do this, and then she watched
him hang the meat on the nails in the hollow
log.
He reached up through the little door and
hung meat on the nails, as far up as he could
reach. Then he put a ladder against the log,
climbed up to the top, moved the roof to one
side, and reached down inside to hang meat on
those nails.
Then Pa put the roof back again, climbed
down the ladder, and said to Laura:
"Run over to the chopping block and fetch
me some of those green hickory chips—new,
clean, white ones."
So Laura ran to the block where Pa
chopped wood, and filled her apron with the
fresh, sweet-smelling chips.
Just inside the little door in the hollow log
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
Pa built a fire of tiny bits of bark and moss, and
he laid some of the chips on it very carefully.
Instead of burning quickly, the green chips
9
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
smoldered and filled the hollow log with thick,
choking smoke. Pa shut the door, and a little
smoke squeezed through the crack around it
and a little smoke came out through the roof,
but most of it was shut in with the meat.
"There's nothing better than good hickory
smoke," Pa said. "That will make good venison
that will keep anywhere, in any weather."
Then he took his gun, and slinging his ax
on his shoulder he went away to the clearing to
cut down some more trees.
10
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
Laura and Ma watched the fire for several
days. When smoke stopped coming through
the cracks, Laura would bring more hickory
chips and Ma would put them on the fire under
the meat. All the time there was a little
smell of smoke in the yard, and when the door
was opened a thick, smoky, meaty smell came
out.
At last Pa said the venison had smoked
long enough. Then they let the fire go out,
and Pa took all the strips and pieces of meat
out of the hollow tree. Ma wrapped each piece
neatly in paper and hung them in the attic
where they would keep safe and dry.
One morning Pa went away before daylight
with the horses and wagon, and that night he
came home with a wagonload of fish. The big
wagon box was piled full, and some of the fish
were as big as Laura. Pa had gone to Lake
Pepin and caught them all with a net.
Ma cut large slices of flaky white fish,
without one bone, for Laura and Mary. They
11
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
all feasted on the good, fresh fish. All they did
not eat fresh was salted down in barrels for the
winter.
Pa owned a pig. It ran wild in the Big
Woods, living on acorns and nuts and roots.
Now he caught it and put it in a pen made of
logs, to fatten. He would butcher it as soon as
the weather was cold enough to keep the pork
frozen.
Once in the middle of the night Laura
woke up and heard the pig squealing. Pa
jumped out of bed, snatched his gun from the
wall, and ran outdoors. Then Laura heard the
gun go off, once, twice.
When Pa came back, he told what had happened.
He had seen a big black bear standing
beside the pigpen. The bear was reaching into
the pen to grab the pig, and the pig was running
and squealing. Pa saw this in the starlight
and he fired quickly. But the light was dim
and in his haste he missed the bear. The bear
ran away into the woods, not hurt at all.
12
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
Laura was sorry Pa did not get the bear.
She liked bear meat so much. Pa was sorry,
too, but he said:
"Anyway, I saved the bacon."
The garden behind the little house had
been growing all summer. It was so near the
house that the deer did not jump the fence
and eat the vegetables in the daytime, and at
night Jack kept them away. Sometimes in the
morning there were little hoof-prints among
the carrots and the cabbages. But Jack's tracks
were there, too, and the deer had jumped right
out again.
Now the potatoes and carrots, the beets
and turnips and cabbages were gathered and
stored in the cellar, for freezing nights had
come.
Onions were made into long ropes, braided
together by their tops, and then were hung in
the attic beside wreaths of red peppers strung
on threads. The pumpkins and the squashes
were piled in orange and yellow and green
13
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
heaps in the attic's corners.
The barrels of salted fish were in the
pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on
the pantry shelves.
Then one day Uncle Henry came riding
out of the Big Woods. He had come to help Pa
butcher. Ma's big butcher knife was already
sharpened, and Uncle Henry had brought
Aunt Polly's butcher knife.
Near the pigpen Pa and Uncle Henry built
a bonfire, and heated a great kettle of water
over it. When the water was boiling they went
to kill the hog. Then Laura ran and hid her
head on the bed and stopped her ears with her
fingers so she could not hear the hog sque
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