By the Shores of Silver Lake

The voice belongs to Mr. Boast, the homesteader who went back east to get married. The Ingalls welcome Robert and Ellie Boast inside the warm house, and Ma and Laura prepare a supper of fried pork, potatoes, biscuits, and gravy. Laura notes that Mrs. Boast, who has “soft brown” hair and blue “long-lashed eyes” (184), looks only a little older than Mary. Although traveling in the winter is inadvisable, the young couple made the trek because they feared that they would lose out on their chance for a homestead if they waited to go west with the crowds in the spring. Ma and Pa worry that they may be too late to claim the tract of land Pa picked out. Together, the Ingalls and the Boasts sing a Christmas song. Ma confides to Laura that she doesn’t know what she’ll do for Christmas presents for their unexpected guests but resolves to “manage somehow” (187).

When Laura comes downstairs on Christmas morning, she finds that Mrs. Boast is already helping Ma prepare breakfast. The table is set, and on all of the plates rest presents—“small packages and larger packages, some wrapped in colored tissue paper and others in plain wrapping paper tied with colored string” (188). Mary is horrified by the idea of opening gifts when they have none for their guests, but Laura reassures her that their mother will find a solution. Carrie and Grace wait with barely contained excitement for Pa and Mr. Boast to come inside so they can all sit down for breakfast and open their presents. Ma gives Mrs. Boast her best handkerchief and gives Mr. Boast the new wristlets she’d knitted for Pa. Mary made Pa some warm socks, and Laura sewed him a silk necktie. Ma loves the apron her daughters made for her and sees an act of providence in the new handkerchief she receives from Mary. Laura is surprised and grateful that her mother and sisters made her an apron from the same red-flowered calico they used for Ma’s apron. Everyone admires how happy and charming Grace looks in the blue coat and swan’s-down hood Ma made for her. Mr. and Mrs. Boast give the three older girls little bags of Christmas candy.

After all the gifts are opened, the Ingalls and Boasts enjoy a breakfast of cornmeal mush, fried potatoes, biscuits, gravy, and applesauce. Later that morning, Laura happily discovers that Mrs. Boast shares her sense of curiosity, and Lara teaches her how to make sourdough biscuits. For Christmas dinner, the two families feast to their hearts’ content on roasted rabbit with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, pickles, and canned peaches. When everyone is stuffed to the verge of bursting, Ma reveals one last culinary treat, an apple pie. After dinner, Laura and Pa help the Boasts settle in the little house that had served as the surveyors’ office. Mrs. Boast surprises everyone with a bag of popcorn, and they all enjoy the “crispy crackly melting-soft corn” (201). Laura muses that this is the best Christmas yet.

On New Year’s, Mrs. Boast invites the Ingalls over to dinner. She prepares oyster soup, biscuits with honey, raspberry sauce, and popcorn. The weather is mild, and Pa plans to set out for the land office to claim a homestead the next day. However, the snow suddenly returns, forcing him to postpone the journey. Mrs. Boast plays in the snow with Laura and Carrie and lets Laura borrow armfuls of newspapers. Ma excuses Laura from helping with supper so she can read aloud “a wonderful story, about dwarfs and caves where robbers lived and a beautiful lady who was lost in the caves” (207). This is the first time Mary and Laura have encountered a serialized story, and Mary suggests that Laura read one part each day to make the tale last longer. Mrs. Boast often spends her days sewing and talking with the Ingalls. When their conversation turns to the subject of homesteads, Ma says that this is “the last move [they’re] going to make” because she wants her daughters to “lead a civilized life” (209). However, Laura is less enamored with the idea of settling down because she still dreads becoming a schoolteacher. On many a joyful evening, the Boasts and Ingalls sing along while Pa plays his fiddle.

One Sunday evening, two ministers come to the surveyors’ house. Reverend Alden knows the Ingalls from their time at Plum Creek, and he is accompanied by the young Reverend Stuart. They are on their way to Huron to establish a new church. Reverend Alden praises Mary as “a rare soul” and “a brave spirit” (217) and informs Ma that there is a college for people with blindness in Iowa. His words give Ma and Mary hope, but they are concerned about how much such an education would cost. Laura promises her sister that she will become a teacher so she can help to pay for Mary’s college education.

The ministers spend the night in the surveyors’ house and lead a service for the Ingalls and the Boasts in the morning. Reverend Alden plans to return in the spring to start a church at Silver Lake once he helps Reverend Stuart settle in at Huron. The new town on the lake will be called De Smet in honor of a French missionary priest. Pondering how many settlers will soon be coming in the spring, Pa resolves to head for the land office in Brookings and claim his homestead the next day.

The evening after the ministers continue on their journey, five men headed to Huron reach Silver Lake. Pa insists that they welcome the strangers into their house for fear that they will lose their way and freeze to death in the night, but Ma doesn’t trust the men and gives Laura a “strong sliver of wood” (225) to secure the girls’ door. Ma waits until the strangers are gone the next morning before telling her daughters they can come downstairs. Pa delays his trip to Brookings because of the strangers’ arrival. After the first night, more and more travelers come every night, and the Ingalls enjoy “no more singing, no more comfortable suppers or cosy evenings” (226). At Ma’s insistence, Pa charges the travelers 25 cents for a meal and 25 cents to stay the night.

The first week of March, Pa finally begins his journey to Brookings. At Pa’s request, Mr. and Mrs. Boast stay with the Ingalls while he’s away. One night, more than 15 men stay at the surveyors’ house, and Laura helps Ma and Mrs. Boast with the exhausting work of cooking and washing dishes for the crowd. After Ma and the girls retreat upstairs for the night, the men become intoxicated and fight among themselves. Laura is alarmed by the crashes and raised voices coming from downstairs, but Ma tells her to go to sleep. Three men come to Silver Lake to build stores for the new town of De Smet, and Ma reluctantly agrees to take them on as boarders.

As the days pass and Pa remains absent, Laura realizes Pa is having trouble securing the homestead. She wonders if the family will have to go to Oregon to find unclaimed land. Ma refuses to let anyone besides her three boarders stay in the house, but she, Laura, and Mrs. Boast stay up “far into the night” (234), cooking and washing dishes for the innumerable travelers passing through.

Pa returns on the fourth day after securing their chosen homestead with great difficulty. When he arrived at the office, so many people gathered there that Pa spent the whole day waiting in line without food and still wasn’t seen. Another man wanted the same piece of land he had chosen, which was “the only piece left vacant anywhere near this townsite” (235), so Pa spent the night on the land office’s doorstep. In the morning, the man with the competing claim tried to start a fight. Mr. Edwards, an old friend of the Ingalls, intervened and helped Pa enter the office first. Pa tells his family that he’s made a bet with Uncle Sam that they can live on their newly claimed 160 acres of land for five years and asks them to “help [him] win the bet” (237). They readily agree.