Christmas When I Was Sixteen

The snow was scudding low over the drifts of the white world

outside the little claim shanty.

Winter On The Prairie

South Dakota

 It was blowing through the cracks in its walls and forming

 little piles and miniature drifts on the floor, and even on

 the desks before which several children sat, trying to study;

 for this abandoned claim shanty, which had served as

the summer home of a homesteader on the Dakota prairie,

was being used as a schoolhouse during the winter.

Old Claim Shanty In The Snow

The walls were made of one thickness of wide boards with cracks between,

and the enormous stove that stood nearly in the center of the one room could

scarcely keep out the frost, though its sides were a glowing red.

The children were dressed warmly and had been allowed to gather closely

around the stove following the advice of the county superintendent of schools

who, on a recent visit, had said that the only thing he had to say to them

was to keep their feet farm.

This was my first school; I'll not say how many years ago, but I was only

sixteen years old and twelve miles from home during a frontier winter.

I walked a mile over the unbroken snow from my boarding place every

morning and back at night. There were only a few pupils, and on this

particular snowy afternoon, they were restless, for it was nearing

4 o'clock and tomorrow was Christmas.

"Teacher" was restless too, though she tried not to show it, for she

was wondering if she could get home for Christmas Day.

It was almost too cold to hope for Father to come, and a storm was

hanging in the northwest which might mean a blizzard at any minute.

Still, tomorrow was Christmas-and then there was a jingle of sleigh bells

outside.  A man in a huge fur coat in a sleigh full of robes passed the window.

I was going home after all!

When one thinks of twelve miles now, it is in terms of motor cars and

means only a few minutes. It was different then, and I'll never forget that ride.

The bells made a merry jingle, and the fur robes were warm; but the weather

was growing colder, and the snow was drifting so that the horses must

break their way through the drifts.

"A Cold Ride"

 Garth Williams

(1912-1996)

American Illustrator

We were facing the strong wind, and every little while he, who later

became the "Man of the Place", must stop the team, get out in the snow,

and by putting his hands over each horse's nose in turn, thaw the ice from

where the breath had frozen over their nostrils.

Then he would get back into the sleigh and on we'd go until 

 once more the horses could not breath for the ice.

When we reached the journey's end, it was 40 degrees below zero; the

snow was blowing so thickly that we could not see across the street; and I

was so chilled that I had to be half carried into the house.

But I was home for Christmas, and the cold and danger were forgotten.

 A photograph of Laura Ingalls Wilder taken at the age of eighteen.

two years after her first teaching job. She would be a schoolteacher

 up until the time of her marriage to Almanzo in 1885.

Such magic there is in Christmas to draw the absent ones home,

and if unable to go in the body, the thoughts will hover there!

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred,

and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit,

become a child again at Christmastime.

"Christmas When I Was Sixteen"

(December 1924)

From the book, "Little House In The Ozarks"

A Laura Ingalls Wilder Sampler

The Rediscovered Writings

Laura Ingalls Wilder

(1867-1957)

American author and pioneer girl

Edited by Stephen W. Hines

(1991)

Guideposts Edition