The path that went by the little house had become a road. Almost every day Laura and Mary stopped their playing and stared in surprise at a wagon slowly creaking by on that road.
Wild animals would not stay in a country where there were so many people. Pa did not like to stay, either. He liked a country where the wild animals lived without being afraid. He liked to see the little fawns and their mothers looking at him from the shadowy woods, and the fat, lazy bears eating berries in the wild-berry patches.
In the long winter evenings he talked to Ma about the Western country. In the West the land was level, and there were no trees. The grass grew thick and high. There the wild animals wandered and fed as though they were in a pasture that stretched much farther than a man could see, and there were no settlers. Only Indians lived there.
One day in the very last of the winter Pa said to Ma, "Seeing you don't object, I've decided to go see the West...."
...So Pa sold the little house. He sold the cow and calf. He made hickory bows and fastened them upright to the wagon box. Ma helped him stretch white canvas over them.
-Little House on the Prairie
This is a drawing of our covered wagon in which we're heading West. That is Jonathan and Josiah on their horses up front.
The dog's name is Jack, I think. I can't quite be sure. It might be Roverandom or something.
-posted by LGT
