The little settlement that weathered the long hard winter of 1880-81 has become a growing town. There is a wonderful Fourth of July celebration, and Laura goes to her first evening social. Spiteful Nellie Oleson reappears from Plum Creek and is more of a trial than ever to Laura. Things go well on the whole for the Ingalls and Mary is at last able to go to a college for the blind. Best of all, Almanzo Wilder asks permission to walk home from church with Laura, and exchanges with her the fashionable new "name cards." At the end Laura, now fifteen, receives her certificate to teach school.

"A book that you must not miss. We hope you are familiar with this whole series of books of the American frontier that Mrs. Wilder has written concerning her own history. The kindness, the neighborliness, the gayety, the resourcefulness, the patience, and most of all, the unassuming courage of the people who settled our middle west are here set down in a collection of stories that are true to American history as well as splendid reading." —Child Life

From the dust jacket