This chapter is full of images that have stayed with me ever since my first reading of The Long Winter. To me, they’re full of burgeoning excitement.
Image 1: Pa and Mr. Boast walking down the street with the Christmas barrel between them.
Image 2: The family standing around the barrel waiting to see what’s underneath that brown paper.
Image 2: The “silk shawl!” Which Ma, fittingly, gets.
Image 3: The bright yarns and embroidery silks juxtaposed against Laura’s rough, hay-bitten fingers.
Image 4. The cranberries thumping and rolling around on the bottom of the barrel when Pa lifts up the turkey.
Mr. Boast has witnessed the festivities and runs home to tell Ellie that day after tomorrow (because the turkey needs to thaw, no doubt) will feature turkey at the Ingalls home for Christmas dinner – Christmas in May.
I wondered, but didn’t think of the need to thaw the turkey, thanks!
I love any stories with barrels like that. There was one in one of the first novels in the Caroline series, maybe it wasn’t actually a barrel though.
Also in the Pollyanna novel, for anyone who has seen the TV show when they were little, it is a nice novel as well.
I have always liked this chapter because it was a happy ending to such a trying time.
Most of us imagine a frozen turkey like we see during the holidays. This turkey probably looked (and tasted) much different than what we know. There are many wild turkeys where I live and believe me, dining on one of those is much different.
Back to my thoughts: it seemed that Laura tied up loose ends with the Christmas barrel. Baking powder to bake the biscuits (no more sourdough!); nice embroidery items for Laura, who used hers to make the Christmas presents; a silk shawl for Ma, who always gave but did not receive; and….being with friends after being alone with the family for so long.