The Grace That Leads Us Home: A Short Story Prequel to What Once Was Lost

She focuses her goals on keeping Mary in college, but seems unsure about what she wants for herself. This comes to a head when she throws down her schoolbooks in a tantrum, declaring that she wants something to change and she is tired of having to act like an adult.

Later that night, Pa reveals that the elders of the town are founding a literary society; far from what the name suggests, it is a weekly source of entertainment for the townsfolk, ranging from spelling competitions to a minstrel show. The literary meetings become Laura's primary reason for endurance, and with something to look forward to she is happy to study again.

At around the same time as the literary meeitngs, Almanzo Wilder begins escorting Laura home from church.

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By Christmastime, Almanzo once again sees Laura home, and offers to take her on a sleigh ride after he completes the cutter he is building. At home, Laura is met by Mr. The school superintendent comes and tests Laura though she is two months too young, he never asks her age , and she is awarded a third-grade teaching certificate.

The eighth book in the series, These Happy Golden Years takes place between and As the story begins, Pa is taking Laura 12 miles from home to her first teaching assignment at Brewster settlement. Laura, only 15 and a schoolgirl herself, is apprehensive as this is both the first time she has left home and the first school she has taught.

This first teaching job proves difficult for her. Laura must board with the Brewsters in their two-room claim shanty, sleeping on their sofa. The Brewsters are an unhappy family and Laura is deeply uncomfortable observing the way husband and wife quarrel. In one particularly unsettling incident, she wakes in the night to see Mrs Brewster standing over her husband with a knife.

It is a bitterly cold winter, and neither the claim shanty or the school house can be heated adequately. The children she is teaching, some of whom are older than she is herself, test her skills as a teacher. Laura grows more self-assured through her time there, and successfully completes the two-month assignment, with all five of her pupils sorry to see her go. To Laura's surprise and delight, homesteader Almanzo Wilder with whom she became acquainted in Little Town on the Prairie appears at the end of her first week of school in his new two-horse cutter to bring her home for the weekend.

Already fond of Laura and wanting to ease her homesickness, Almanzo takes it upon himself to bring her home and back to school each weekend. The relationship continues after the school term ends. Sleigh rides give way to buggy rides in the spring, and Laura impresses Almanzo with her willingness to help break his new and often temperamental horses, Barnum and Skip.

Laura's old nemesis, Nellie Oleson , makes a brief appearance during two Sunday buggy rides with Almanzo. Nellie's chatter and flirtatious behavior towards Almanzo annoy Laura. Shortly thereafter, Nellie moves back to New York after her family loses their homestead. Laura's Uncle Tom Ma's brother visits the family and tells of his failed venture with a covered wagon brigade seeking gold in the Black Hills.

Laura helps out seamstress Mrs. McKee by staying with her and her daughter, Mattie, on their prairie claim for two months to "hold it down" as required by law. The family enjoys summer visits from Mary. The Ingalls family finances have improved to the point that Pa can sell a cow to purchase a sewing machine for Ma. Laura continues to teach and work as a seamstress, and Almanzo invites Laura to attend a new "singing school" with him and her classmates. On the last evening of singing school, while driving Laura home, Almanzo — who has by now been courting Laura for three years — proposes to Laura.

During their next ride, Almanzo presents Laura with a garnet-and-pearl ring and they share their first kiss. Several months later, after Almanzo has finished building a house on his tree claim, he asks Laura if she would mind getting married within a few days as his sister and mother have their hearts set on a large church wedding, which Pa cannot afford. Laura agrees, and she and Almanzo are married in a simple ceremony by the Reverend Brown.

After a wedding dinner with her family, Laura drives away with Almanzo and the newlyweds settle contentedly into their new home. The ninth book in the series, The First Four Years novel , and the final book to feature Laura as the protagonist, follows the earliest years of Laura and Almanzo's marriage. Found after Wilder's death, the book was published in its original draft form in The First Four Years derives its title from a promise Laura made to Almanzo when they became engaged.

Laura did not want to be a farm wife, but she consented to try farming for three years. At the end of that time, Laura and Almanzo mutually agreed to continue for one more year, a "year of grace". Over the course of the novel, which is set near De Smet, South Dakota , Laura and Almanzo's daughter, Rose , is born, they lose their unnamed son shortly after his birth, suffer a bout of diphtheria that leaves Almanzo in poor health for the rest of his life, and lose their house in a fire.

The book ends at the close of that fourth year, on a rather optimistic note. In reality, a two-year drought and several other tragic events eventually drove the Wilders into debt and from their land. They later founded a successful fruit and dairy farm in Mansfield, Missouri, where they lived comfortably until their respective deaths. The Laura Years is also the title of one 5-volume boxed set published in , which comprises volumes 1 and 3—6.

None of the Ingalls family appears in it, and Almanzo Wilder does not otherwise appear in the series until late in the sixth book, so "The Laura Years" has some merit as title or subtitle of this 5-volume selection. The box cover displays headings "The Early Years Collection: The Days of Laura Ingalls Wilder: Dozens of non-fiction books about the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and several about other family members have been published, including more than one dozen by William Anderson , a schoolteacher in Michigan. These lists are likely to be incomplete.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. September Learn how and when to remove this template message. Little House in the Big Woods.

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By the Shores of Silver Lake. The Long Winter novel. Little Town on the Prairie. These Happy Golden Years. The First Four Years novel. Young Pioneer , p. The Iowa Story pp. Archived from the original on Prologue Winter , Vol. History of South Dakota Vol.

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Free Guitar Lesson Pack. For God So Loved the World. Item s unavailable for purchase. Rochester, as an Englishman, looks down on Antoinette because she is a Creole. Antoinette is not English and yet her family history privileges her as a white woman. Lee Erwin describes this paradox through the scene in which Antoinette's first house is burned down and she runs to Tia, a black girl her own age, to "be like her". Antoinette is rebuffed by violence from Tia, leading to her seeing Tia "as if I saw myself.

Like in a looking glass". Erwin argues that "even as she claims to be seeing "herself," she is simultaneously seeing "the other", that which only defines the self by its separation from it, in this case literally by means of a cut. History here, in the person of a former slave's daughter, is figured as refusing Antoinette", the daughter of a slave owner. In Wide Sargasso Sea , Rhys draws attention to colonialism and the slave trade by which Antoinette's ancestors had made their fortune. The novel does not shy away from uncomfortable truths about British history that had been neglected in Bronte's narrative.

Trevor Hope remarks that the "triumphant conflagration of Thornfield Hall in Wide Sargasso Sea may at one level mark a vengeful attack upon the earlier textual structure". The destruction of Thornfield Hall occurs in both novels; however, Rhys epitomises the fire as a liberating experience for Antoinette. If Thornfield Hall represents domestic ideas of Britishness, then Hope suggests Wide Sargasso Sea is "taking residence inside the textual domicile of empire in order to bring about its disintegration or even, indeed, its conflagration.

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For other uses, see Wide Sargasso Sea disambiguation. Archived from the original on 28 September Retrieved 2 January Archived from the original on 16 December History and Narrative in Wide Sargasso Sea ". A Forum on Fiction. A novel that sings: