The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder Page A

cried, clapping her hands and Ma said, smiling, to Mary, “That's my bright girl.”
    The y all looked at Mary who was looking at nothing with her large, beautiful blue eyes that had no sight in them. She smiled with joy when Ma praised her and then her face changed as the light does when a blizzard comes. For a minute she looked as she used to look when she could see, and she and Laura were quarreling. She never would give up to Laura because she was the older and the boss.
    Then her whole face blushed pink and in a low voice she said, "I didn't beat you, Laura. We're even.
    I can't remember another verse, either."
    Laura was ashamed. She had tried so hard to beat Mary at a game, but no matter how hard she tried she could never be as good as Mary was. Mary was truly good. Then for the first time Laura wanted to be a schoolteacher so that she could make the money to send Mary to college. She thought, “Mary is going to college, no matter how hard I have to work to send her.”
    At that moment the clock struck eleven times.
    “M y goodness, the dinner!” Ma exclaimed. She hurried into the kitchen to stir up the fire and season the bean soup. “Better put more coal in the heater, Laura,” she called. “Seems like the house hasn't warmed up like it should have.”
    It was noon when Pa came in. He came in quietly and went to the heater where he took off his coat and cap. “Hang these up for me, will you, Laura? I'm pretty cold.”
    “I ' m sorry, Charles,” Ma said from the kitchen. “I can't seem to get the house warm.”
    “No wonder,” Pa answered. "It's forty degrees below zero and this wind is driving the cold in. This is the worst storm yet, but luckily everyone is accounted for. Nobody's lost from town."
    After dinner Pa played hymn tunes on his fiddle, and all the afternoon they sang. The y sang:
    “There's a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar. . . .”
    And
    "Jesus is a rock in a weary land,
    A weary land, a weary land,
    Jesus is a rock in a weary land,
    A shelter in the time of storm."
    The y sang Ma's favorite, “There Is a Happy Land, Far, Far Away.” And just before Pa laid the fiddle in its box because the time had come when he must get to the stable and take care of the stock, he played a gallant, challenging tune that brought them all to their feet, and they all sang lustily,
    "Then let the hurricane roar!
    It will the sooner be o'er.
    We'll weather the blast
    And land at last
    On Canaan's happy shore!"
    The hurricane was roaring, the icy snow as hard as buckshot and fine as sand was whirling, swirling, beating upon the house.

ONE BRIGHT DAY
    That blizzard lasted only two days. Tuesday morning Laura woke up suddenly. She lay with her eyes wide open, listening to hear again what had awakened her. There was no sound at all. Then she knew. The stillness had startled her awake. There was no noise of winds, no swish! swish!
    of icy snow scouring the walls and roof and window.
    The sun was glowing bright through the frost on the window at the top of the stairs, and downstairs Ma's smile was like sunshine.
    “The blizzard's over,” she said. “It was only a two days' blizzard.”
    “You never can tell what a blizzard will do,” Pa agreed.
    “It may be that your hard winter won't prove to be so hard after all,” Ma said happily. "Now the sun is shining, they should have the trains running again in no time, and, Laura, I'm sure there will be school today. Better get yourself ready for it while I get breakfast."
    Laura went upstairs to tell Carrie and to put on her school dress. In the warm kitchen again she scrubbed her face and neck well with soap and pinned up her braids. Pa breezed in gaily from doing the chores.
    “Old Sol's bright and shining this morning!” he told them. “Looks like his face was well washed in snow.”
    Hashed brown potatoes were on the table and Ma's wild ground-cherry preserves shone golden in a glass bowl. Ma stacked a platter with toast