Chapter 8 Dance at Grandmother & Grandfather's House
Part 1 - Going to Grandmother and Grandfather's House
Early Monday morning everybody got up early, in a hurry to go to Grandfather's house. Laura's father wanted to be there to help with the work of gathering and boiling the maple tree sap. (Sap is like the blood of a tree and sap from the maple tree is used to make sweet maple syrup.) Her mother would help Grandmother and her aunts make good things to eat for all the people who were coming to the dance.
Breakfast was eaten and the dishes washed and the beds made by lamplight. Laura's father packed his fiddle carefully in its box and put it in the big sledge that was already waiting at the gate. A fiddle looks like a violin.
The air was cold and the sunlight was not bright, when Laura and Mary and her mother with Baby Carrie were tucked in snug and warm under the robes on the straw, or dried grass, in the bottom of the sledge. The horses shook their heads and danced, making the sledge bells ring merrily and away they went on the road through the forest to Grandfather's house.
The snow was wet and smooth in the road, so the sledge slipped quickly over it and the big trees seemed to be hurrying by on either side. After a while there was sunshine in the forest and the air sparkled. The yellow sunlight lay between the shadows of the tree trunks. The snow was coloured faintly pink in the light of the sunrise. All the shadows were thin and blue and every little curve of snowdrift and every little track in the snow had a shadow.
Laura's father showed her the tracks or footprints of the wild animals in the snow at the side of the road. He saw the small, leaping tracks of cottontail rabbits, the tiny tracks of field mice and the stitching-like tracks of snowbirds. There were larger tracks, like dogs' tracks, where foxes had run and there were the tracks of a deer that had run away into the forest.
The air was growing warmer already and her father said that the snow wouldn't last long.
It did not seem long until they were coming out of the forest and into the clearing at Grandfather's house. All the sledge bells were jingling. Grandmother came to the door and stood there smiling, calling to them to come in.
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 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
Chapter 6 - Part 1 - Introduction (Two Big Bears)
Chapter 6 - Part 2 - Getting Ready to Go
Chapter 6 - Part 3 - Milking Sukey the Cow (1 of 2)
Chapter 6 - Part 4a - Milking Sukey the Cow (2 of 2)
Chapter 6 - Part 4b - Review Questions: Milking Sukey
Chapter 6 - Part 4c - Answers for Review Questions
Chapter 6 - Part 5 - Her Father Has Not Come Home
Chapter 6 - Part 6 - The Story Of Her Father And The Bear In The Way (1 of 2)
Chapter 6 Part 7a - The Story of Her Father and the Bear in the Way (2 of 2)
Chapter 6 Part 7b - Review Questions: The Bear in the Way
Chapter 6 Part 7c - Answers for Review Questions
Chapter 6 Part 8 - Evening with Father
Chapter 6 Part 9 - When idiots see a bear: Hey let's feed the real live teddy bear!
Chapter 7 Part 1 Introduction - Maple Syrup
Chapter 7 Part 2 - The snow is melting
Chapter 7 Part 4 - Grandfather prepares to make maple syrup
Chapter 7 Part 5 - Grandfather harvests maple syrup
Chapter 7 Part 6 - Why is it called a sugar snow?
Chapter 7 Part 7 - Delaine Dress
by John Larrysson
A native English speaker who has been teaching practical English in Hong Kong for over two decades.
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