By the Shores of Silver Lake

The next morning, the Ingalls leave the temporary railroad camp, which is being taken down so that a new town can be built in its place, and head for Silver Lake. Although Laura describes the open prairie for Mary, she can’t put into words the strange, small feeling that the “endless waves of flowery grasses under the cloudless sky” (59) give her. Pa also senses that this prairie is somehow different from anywhere else they’ve traveled. Laura notices old buffalo wallows, and Pa tells her that it’s unlikely she will ever see one of the creatures: “They had been the Indians’ cattle, and white men had slaughtered them all” (62).

That evening, a rider with a red bandana and two pistols follows the wagon at a distance. Pa’s worries leave him when he spots a second rider, whom he recognizes as Big Jerry, a man of Indigenous American and French ancestry. Big Jerry and Pa exchange greetings, and Laura is awed by how elegantly the dark-haired man rides his white horse. However, Ma remains apprehensive despite Pa’s reassurances that Jerry will ensure the would-be robber won’t bother them.

The Ingalls reach the railroad camp at Silver Lake after nightfall.