Of Mrs. Wilder's beloved "Little House" books, the N.Y. Herald Tribune says, "There should be some way of conveying to Mrs. Wilder two votes of thanks: one from American children for the stories they read to rags, the other from custodians of the past for her enrichment of its records . . . These books are events when they come out and investments for the future." In These Happy Golden Years, Laura, not yet sixteen, teaches school and boards with the Brewsters. The first week she didn't dare to hope that Pa would come twelve miles over the snow to take her home for the week end. But on Friday afternoon, just as she was dismissing class, the wind blowing through the cracks in the old schoolhouse seemed to have a strange silvery sound. Suddenly the whole air filled with the chiming of little silver bells, sleigh bells — Almanzo Wilder had come to take her home!

Only the thought of helping Pa keep Mary in the college for the blind made Laura stick out the seven homesick weeks. But they were over at last and she was home again, sleigh riding with the young people and spending delightful evenings at home. And when Mary came home from college for the blind on vacation, Pa and Ma and Carrie and Grace and Laura were all proud and happy to see how easily she had learned to move about, going from room to room as though she could really see.

In March the family moved out to Pa's claim and Laura got her second grade certificate and with it the job at the bright new schoolhouse nearby. With the money she earned they bought an organ for Mary. All that spring Almanzo came to take Laura buggy riding and together they broke in the wild colts he had bought.

It was a wonderful and exciting summer. There were singing school lessons in town, and the times Laura herself drove the wild colts, and finally there was the night Laura came home with Almanzo's engagement ring and Ma and Pa understood what Laura was too shy to say.

Winter on the claim flew by and with the spring came sewing for Laura's trousseau both by hand an on Ma's new sewing machine. When Laura's last term of teaching was over, she and Almanzo were married. Then Almanzo drove Laura across the friendly prairie to their own "Little House", the home he had built for her with his own hands.

"We wish these books could be a part of the literary experience of every American child." — Childhood Education

From the dust jacket