When Ma took off the churn-cover, there was the butter in a golden lump, drowning in the buttermilk. Then Ma took out the lump with a wooden paddle, into a wooden bowl, and she washed it many times in cold water, turning it over and over and working it with the paddle until the water ran clear. After that she salted it.

"The panther did not scream any more. Grandpa did not see it any more. But he knew that it was coming, leaping after him in the dark woods behind him. The horse ran with all its might.

"Grandpa, on his horse, was running away, from it just as a mouse runs from a cat.

"The horse, with Grandpa on him, ran fast, for it was frightened, too. But it could not get away from the panther. The panther followed through the dark woods. It was a hungry panther, and it came as fast as the horse could run. It screamed now on this side of the road, now on the other side, and it was always close behind.

They liked to be there, before the warm fire, with Black Susan purrring on the hearth and good dog Jack stretched out beside her. When they heard a wolf howl, Jacks head lifted and the hairs rose stiff along his back. But Laura and Mary listened to that lonely sound in the dark and the cold of the Big Woods, and they were not afraid.

But, the best time of all was at night, when Pa came home.

THE first snow came, and the bitter cold. Every morning Pa took his gun and his traps and was gone all day in the Big Woods, setting the small traps for muskrats and mink along the creeks, the middle-sized traps for foxes and wolves in the Woods. He set out the big bear traps hoping to get a fat bear before they all went into their dens for the winter.

After she had put the cream in the tall crockery churn and set it near the stove to warm, she washed and scraped a long orange-colored carrot. Then she grated it on the bottom of

The snow kept coming till it was drifted and banked against the house. In the mornings the window panes were covered with frost in beautiful pictures of trees and flowers and fairies. Ma said that Jack Frost came in the night and made the pictures, while everyone was asleep. Laura thought that Jack Frost was a little man all snowy white, wearing a glittering white pointed cap and soft white knee--boots made of deer-skin. His coat was white and his mittens were white, and he did not carry a gun on his back, but in his hands he hawww.99lib.netd shining sharp tools with which he carved the pictures.

"Then Grandpa caught a glimpse of it, as it leaped from treetop to treetop, almost overhead, "It was a huge, black panther, leaping through the air like Black Susan leaping on a mouse. It was many, many times bigger than Black Susan.

"I want the drumstick! I want the drumstick!

"Yankee Doodle went to town, He wore his striped trousies, He swore he couldnt see the town, There was so many houses.”

When Pa came back he had both a bear and a pig in the wagon. He had been going through the Woods, with a big bear trap in his hands and the gun on his shoulder, when he walked around a big pine tree covered with snow, and the bear was behind the tree.

With the paddle Ma packed butter tightly into the mold until it was full. Then she turned it upside-down over a plate, and pushed on the handle of the loose bottom. The little, firm pat of golden butter came out, with the strawberry and its leaves molded on the top.

They were quick at dodging and running, but once he caught them against the woodbox, behind the stove. They couldnt get past Pa, and there was no other way out.

"Do you know that a panther is a cat? a great, big, wild cat?”

"Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, Rest on Sunday.”

"Oh," Laura said, and she wriggled closer against Pas arm. She knew her Grandpa. He lived far away in the Big Woods, in a big log house. Pa began:

She put this in a little pan of milk on the stove and when the milk was hot she poured milk and carrot into a cloth bag. Then she squeezed the bright yellow milk into the churn, where it colored all the cream. Now the butter would be yellow.

"No, Laura, your Grandpa. My father.”

When they put their mouths close to the pane and blew their breath on it, the white frost melted and ran in drops down the glass. Then they could see the drifts of snow outdoors and the great trees standing bare and black, making thin blue shadows on the white snow.

"Grandpa leaned forward in the saddle and urged the horse to run faster. The horse was running as fast as it could possibly run, and still the Panther screamed close behind.

All alone in the wild Big Woods, and the snow, and the cold, the little was warm and snug and cosy. Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Bab９9ｌｉb•neｔy Carrie were comfortable and happy there, especially at night.

Laura and Mary would run to climb on his knees and sit there while he warmed himself by the fire. Then he would put on his coat and cap and mittens again and go out to do the chores and bring in plenty of wood for the fire.

After this was done, Ma began the work that belonged to that day. Each day had its own proper work. Ma used to say:

Pa was keeping time with his foot, and Laura clapped her hands to the music when he sang, “And Ill sing Yankee Doodle-de-do, And Ill sing Yankee Doodle, And Ill sing Yankee Doodle-de-do, And Ill sing Yankee Doodle!”

"So I just brought home the bacon," Pa said.

"Your Grandpa?" Laura asked.

It was so big that if it leaped on Grandpa it could kill him with its enormous, slashing claws and its long sharp teeth.

"Like a woman," said Pa. "Like this." Then he screamed so that Laura and Mary shivered with terror., Ma jumped in her chair, and said, "Mercy, Charles! “

She churned for a long time. Mary could sometimes churn while Ma rested, but the dash was too heavy for Laura.

Pa looked, and then he took down his fiddle. He began to play and sing.

Laura loved to look at the lamp, with its glass chimney so clean and sparkling, its yellow flame burning so steadily, and its bowl of clear kerosene colored red by the bits of flannel. She loved to look at the fire in the fireplace, flickering and changing all the time, burning yellow and red and sometimes green above the logs, and hovering blue over the golden and ruby coals.

The bear had just killed the pig and was picking it up to eat it. Pa said the bear was standing up on its hind legs, holding the pig in its paws just as though they were hands.

"And there he saw some great big guns, Big as a log of maple, And every time they turned em round, It took two yoke of cattle.

"And every time they fired em off, It took a horn of powder, It made a noise like fathers gun, Only a nation louder.”

Laura and Mary watched, breathless, one on each side of Ma, while the golden little butterpats, each with its strawberry on the top, dropped on to the plate as Ma put all the butter through the mold. Then Ma gave them each a drink of good, fresh buttermilk on Saturdays, when Ma made the bread, they each had a little piece of dough to make into a little loaf. They might have a九九藏书 bit of cookie dough, too, to make little cookies, and once Laura even made a pie in her patty-pan.

Mary did not know how big a bears drumstick is.

Every morning there were the dishes to wipe; Mary wiped more of them than Laura because she was bigger, but Laura always wiped carefully her own little cup and plate.

They were cosy and comfortable in their little house made of logs, with the snow drifted around it and the wind crying because it could not get in by the fire.

When the cream was ready, Ma scalded the long wooden churn-dash, put it in the churn, and dropped the wooden churn-cover over it. The churn-cover had a little round hole in the middle 9 and Ma moved the dash up and down, up and down, through the hole.

Laura and Mary were allowed to eat the carrot 1 after the milk had been squeezed out. Mary thought she ought to have the larger share because she was older, and Laura said she should have it because she was littler. But Ma said they must divide it evenly. It was very good.

One morning he came back, took the horses and sled, and hurried away again. He had shot a bear. Laura and Mary jumped tip and down and clapped their hands, they were so glad. Mary shouted:

"You shouldnt frighten the children so Charles," Ma said. "Look how big their eyes are.

Laura and Mary were allowed to take Mas thimble and made pretty patterns of circles in the frost on the glass. But they never spoiled the pictures that Jack Frost had made in the night.

At first the splashes of cream showed thick and smooth around the little hole. After a long time, they began to look grainy. Then Ma churned more slowly, and on the dash there began to appear tiny grains of yellow butter.

Laura and Mary helped Ma with the work.

Pa shot the bear, and there was no way of knowing where the pig came from nor whose pig it was.

One game they loved was called mad dog. Pa would run his fingers through his thick, brown hair, standing it all up on end. Then he dropped on all fours and, growling, he chased Laura and Mary all around the room, trying to get them cornered where they couldnt get away.

After the days work was done, Ma sometimes cut paper dolls for them. She cut the dolls out of stiff white paper, and drew the faces with a pencil. Then from bits of colored paper she cut dresses and hats, ribbons and laces, so that Laura and Mary could dress their dolls beautifully.

When P99lib.neta told this story, Laura and Mary shivered and snuggled closer to him. They were safe and snug on his knees, with his strong arms around them.

Laura liked the churning and the baking days best of all the week.

And at once there was no mad dog at all. There was only Pa standing there with his blue eyes shining, looking at Laura.

Grandpa said he would never again go the Big Woods without his gun.”

"No," said Laura.

But Laura and Mary loved to be scared like that.

And then, Pa told stories. When Laura and Mary begged him for a story, he would take them on his knees and tickle their faces with his long whiskers until they laughed aloud. His eyes were blue and merry.

"The horse screamed terribly, and ran. He was running away into the Big Woods, with the panther riding on his back and ripping his back with its claws. But Grandpa grabbed his gun from the wall and got to the window, just in time to shoot the panther dead.

Now came the best part of the churning. Ma molded the butter. On the loose bottom of the wooden butter-mold was carved the picture of a strawberry with two strawberry leaves.

There was plenty of fresh meat to last for a long time. The days and the nights were so cold that the pork in a box and the bear meat hanging in the little shed outside the back door were solidly frozen and did not thaw.

He settled Laura and Mary more comfortably on his knees and he said, "Ill tell you about Grandpa and the panther.”

The Story of Grandpa and the Panther "Your Grandpa went to town one day and was late starting home. It was dark when he came riding his horse through the Big Woods, so dark that he could hardly see the road, and when he heard a panther scream he was frightened, for he had no gun.”

"Well!" he said to her. "Youre only a little half-pint of cider half drunk up, but by Jinks! Youre as strong as a little French horse!

Sometimes, when Pa had walked his trap-lines quickly because the traps were empty, or when he had got some game sooner than usual, he would come home early. Then he would have time to play with Laura and Mary.

"At last the horse ran up to Grandpas house. Grandpa saw the panther springing. Grandpa burst jumped off the horse, against the door. He went through the door and slammed it behind him. The panther landed on the horses back, just where Grandpa had been.

In winter the cream was not yellow a99lib•nets it was in Summer, and butter churned from it was white and not so pretty. Ma liked everything on her table to be pretty, so in the wintertime she colored the butter.

One night Pa looked at Black Susan, stretching herself before the fire and running her claws out and in, and he said:

Then Pa growled so terribly, his hair was so wild and his eyes so fierce that it all seemed real. Mary was so frightened that she could not move. But as Pa came nearer Laura screamed, and with a wild leap and a scramble she went over the woodbox, dragging Mary with her.

That was Laura, because she was so small.

"Well, it is, said Pa. "Just imagine Black Susan bigger than Jack, and fiercer than Jack when he growls. Then she would be just like a panther.”

By the time the dishes were all wiped and set away, the trundle bed was aired. Then, standing one on each side, Laura and Mary straightened the covers, tucked them in well at the foot and the sides, plumped up the pillows and put them in place. Then Ma pushed the trundle bed into its place under the big bed.

Laura and Mary forgot all about the mad dog.

the old, leaky tin pan that Pa had punched full of nail-holes for her. Ma rubbed the carrot across the roughness until she had rubbed it all through the holes, and when she lifted up the pan, there was a soft, juicy mound of grated carrot.

He would come in from his tramping through the snowy woods with tiny icicles hanging on the ends of his mustaches. He would hang his gun on the wall over the door, throw off his fur cap and coat and mittens, and call: "Wheres my little half -pint of sweet cider half drunk up? “

Ma sat in her rocking chair, sewing by the light of the lamp on the table. The lamp was bright and shiny. There was salt in the bottom of its glass bowl with the kerosene, to keep the kerosene from exploding, and there were bits of red flannel among the salt to make it pretty. It was pretty.

When Ma wanted fresh meat for dinner Pa took the ax and cut off a chunk of frozen bear meat or pork. But the sausage balls, or the salt pork, or the smoked hams and the venison, Ma could get for herself from the shed or the attic.

"How does a panther scream?" Laura asked.

Then the fire was shining on the hearth, the cold and the dark and the wild beasts were all shut out, and Jack the brindle bulldog and Black Susan the cat lay blinking at the flames in the fireplace.