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1-Page Summary of Little House On The Prairie
Overall Summary
The Ingalls family, who are in the late 1800s, hears that land is available for settlement. They pack up all their belongings and travel to Kansas so they can claim a good plot of land before it gets too competitive. Once there, Pa builds a house and stable, digs a well, and hunts for food on the prairie.
The family lives in a log cabin on the prairie. They interact with Native Americans, dangerous wildlife, and neighbors. The house is far away from other settlers but close to their animals—dog Jack, horses Pet and Patty, and a foal named Bunny. Laura loves playing outside every day with her sister Mary. She enjoys hearing Pa play his fiddle at night because it makes her feel closer to him after he’s been out working all day long.
A year after the family moves to Kansas, most of the Native Americans leave. Pa had just finished preparing fields and a garden when he learned that US soldiers would be coming through the territory to remove white settlers rather than allowing them to claim land. He immediately packed up everything in order to move on before they arrived.
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s youth and the target audience of young readers is reflected in her writing style. She writes from an innocent child’s perspective rather than that of a grown adult, perhaps to make the story more relatable for her young readers.
Chapter 1: “Going West”
In the late 1860s, Pa decides that Wisconsin is too crowded for his family, so he moves them to Kansas. He hears about a government program to open up land in Kansas and thinks it would be a good place to settle down.
Pa’s plan goes awry when he arrives at the spot where he was supposed to meet other settlers from Wisconsin who were also moving westward. The settlers never show up because of bad weather conditions, so Pa ends up being alone in an unfamiliar territory with his family.
The family sells their house, buys a covered wagon and makes the trip to Minnesota in the winter. They cross the Mississippi River into Wisconsin on an ice bridge that had just formed. Once they got to Minnesota, they slept at a cabin that was already occupied by someone else.
From Minnesota, the family travels through Iowa and Missouri until they reach Kansas. They cross many rivers while traveling, some of which are flooded because of snowmelt in winter. The water level drops down after a few days so they buy new horses to pull their wagon. The horses are wild but domesticated and named Pet and Patty by Laura and Mary.
The landscape changes from forest to open prairie, which Laura finds disorienting. The family is in the middle of a circle and can’t get out of it because they’re traveling in a wagon. Laura and Mary are bored by the unchanging landscape and lethargic from their tedious trip on the wagon. Finally, Pa sees trees on the horizon ahead that indicate water, so he decides to camp there for the night.
Chapter 2: “Crossing the Creek”
The family reaches a creek, which is in the middle of a prairie. Pa decides to cross it and then realizes that the water gets deeper halfway through. He has no choice but to get out of the wagon and swim alongside his horses to lead them across. Mary and Laura are frightened by this unexpected turn of events, but Laura stands up in the wagon anyway so she can watch what’s happening. Ma keeps her hand on the reins while Pa leads his team across safely. The family is relieved when they reach dry land at last, but soon realize that their dog Jack—who they thought could swim—is missing! They’re all very upset about losing him, especially Laura who was fond of Jack and worried about how he would fare without them looking after him anymore. Later on, she asks her father if dogs go to heaven like people do because she thinks Jack will be lonely without them around anymore now that he’s gone away from home with no one there for him or any other dog friends nearby either (it seems unlikely there were many other dogs around where they lived). Pa says yes; he believes that God takes care of everyone equally regardless whether you’re human or an animal living on Earth with us humans (although we might not always understand why things happen as they do sometimes).
