Laura was tired of sitting quietly and being good on Sunday. She wanted to play. Instead of spanking her, her father told her a story about how Sunday was much stricter when her grandfather was a little boy.
“So you see, Laura and Mary,” Her father said, “you may find it hard to be good, but you should be glad that it isn't as hard to be good now as it was when your grandfather was a boy.”
audio 1
“Did little girls have to be as good as that?” Laura asked and her mother said:
“It was harder for little girls. They had to behave like little ladies all the time, not only on Sundays. Little girls could never slide downhill, like boys. Little girls had to sit in the house and stitch on samplers.” Samplers were pieces of cloth used for learning how to sew.
“Now run along and let your mother put you to bed,” said her father. Then he took his fiddle out of its box. The word fiddle is a folksy name for a violin.1
audio 2
Laura and Mary lay in their trundle bed (a bed in a box) and listened to the Sunday hymns (religious songs), for even the fiddle must not sing the week-day songs on Sundays.
“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,” Her father sang, with the fiddle. Then he sang:
Shall I be carried to the skies,
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
Laura began to float away on the music and then she heard a noise. There was her mother by the stove, getting breakfast. It was Monday morning and Sunday would not come again for a whole week.
audio 3
Footnote:
1. Fiddle is the usual word used when playing folk music. Nowadays a country-music fiddle may have a different bridge and synthetic rather than steel strings, but there wasn't a distinction in the 19th century.
(The original book is in the public domain under Hong Kong copyright law. This simplified copy is under my new copyright.)
The Little House in the Big Woods
Chapter 1 - Part 1: Introduction
Chapter 1 - Part 2: Wolves in the Night
Chapter 1 - Part 4: Smoked Meat
Chapter 1 - Part 5: Food for Winter
Chapter 1 - Part 6: Butchering Time
Chapter 1 - Part 7: After Butchering Time
Chapter 1 - Part 9: Winter Night
Chapter 1 - Part 10: About the Author & Where to Find the Book
Chapter 2 - Part 1: Winter Days and Winter Nights
Chapter 2 - Part 2: Jack Frost
Chapter 2 - Part 3: Laura and Mary Helped Mother with the Housework
Chapter 2 - Part 4: Churn on Thursday
Chapter 2 - Part 5: The Best Time of All
Chapter 2 - Part 6: Her Father Began to Play his Fiddle and Sing
Chapter 2 - Part 7: Father Told Stories
Chapter 2 - Part 8 - The Story of Grandfather and the Panther
Chapter 3 - Part 1: Introduction (The Long Rifle)
Chapter 3 - Part 2: Making Bullets
Chapter 3 - Part 3: Cleaning the Gun
Chapter 3 - Part 4: Loading the Gun
Chapter 3 - Part 5: Where and Why to Keep a Gun
Chapter 3 - Part 6: The Story of her Father and the Voice in the Forest Part 1
Chapter 3 - Part 7: The Story of her Father and the Voice in the Forest Part 2
Chapter 4 - Part 1: Christmas in the Forest
Chapter 4 - Part 2: Making a Gift for his Wife
Chapter 4 - Part 3: Christmas is Coming
Chapter 4 - Part 4: Children Make Pictures in the Snow
Chapter 4 - Part 5: Prince & the Blue Dress (part 1 of 3)
Chapter 4 - Part 6: Prince & the Blue Dress (part 2 of 3)
Chapter 4 - Part 7: Prince & the Blue Dress (part 3 of 3)
Chapter 4 - Part 8: Christmas Morning
Chapter 4 - Part 9: Santa Claus Only Gives Presents to Children
Chapter 4 - Part 10: Breakfast, Dinner and Goodbye
Chapter 5 - Part 2: The Weekly Bath
Chapter 5 - Part 3: Being Quiet
Chapter 5 - Part 4: The Story of Grandfather's Sledge and the Pig (part 1 of 4)
Chapter 5 - Part 5: The Story of Grandfather's Sledge and the Pig (part 2 of 4)
Chapter 5 - Part 6: The Story of Grandfather's Sledge and the Pig (part 3 of 4)
Chapter 5 - Part 7: The Story of Grandfather's Sledge and the Pig (part 4 of 4)
Chapter 5 - Part 8: Sunday Music
Chapter 5 - Part 9: Birthday Spanking
by John Larrysson
A native English speaker who has been teaching practical English in Hong Kong for over two decades.
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