Ah, Spring on the prairie. A great time for everyone. Almanzo and Charles have their hands full between flowers and hobby horses. Story complete in one chapter.
The Hobby Horse
Spring had finally arrived on the Minnesota prairie and the land was filled with prairie flowers. Almanzo knew that Laura loved the roses so much that he gathered a bunch of them together and made several bouquets out of them. He had made so many more wooden vases that he didn’t know what to do with them. He had given some to Charles along with the wooden flowers, but nothing seemed to lift up Beth’s spirits than some beautiful real flowers. And he wanted to do just that. So he brought some down to the schoolhouse to surprise her.
He went during his lunch break which lately he’d been sharing with Charles. It was getting busy at the Feed and Seed and at Hanson’s Mill and Almanzo and Charles were working part time at both places to pick up the slack. Orders were coming in from everywhere.
Not only at the mill either. It seemed that Oleson's Mercantile had a demand for hobby horses and the Oleson's were looking for someone to make them. Not the rocking horse kind, Nels told them, although they might be considering that in the future. For now, the demand was for the stick version with the horse’s head attached. They knew that Almanzo and Charles were amazing woodworkers and Nels asked if it were possible to drop off some samples of their work. Almanzo agreed and brought some with him from home. But first, he wanted Beth's opinion. So he figured he drop some at the schoolhouse and some at the Mercantile.
But the flowers were the first thing on Almanzo’s mind this day, anyway. They’d discuss the horses later.
“I’ve got some real flowers this time, Charles. The prairie flowers are in bloom, especially the roses, which are Laura’s favorite. I’ve got tons of them and I thought of you.”
Charles smiled. “Why not son, but you’ll have to promise that you’ll give us a few bouquets when we join you for supper tonight.”
Almanzo smiled and nodded his head. They shook on it. "Be back in a jif," Almanzo told Charles."Going to drop those flowers off at the schoolhouse."
Just to be of the safe side, Manly looked around in every direction he could think of before entering. He wanted to make sure no one saw him coming or going.
He walked up the stairs slowly and quietly and slipped into the schoolhouse. He placed the flowers in the small wooden vase in the center of her desk making sure that she wouldn’t miss it.
He looked around for a piece of paper, something, anything he could write on, when he discovered a tablet and a pen tucked on the side of her desk. With a sly smile, Almanzo opened the tablet and ripped off a piece of the first blank paper he’d come to. He grabbed the pen, dipped it in the inkwell that sat on the desk and scrawled something on the front of it, folded the paper in half and placed it underneath the vase. He returned the tablet and the pen to its regular spot on the side of the desk. Satisfied, he picked his head up and looked around again. He moved his eyes from side to side, making doubly sure that no one was around to see him come and go.
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“’From a Secret Admirer’,” Willie said, turning the letter over in his hands.
Albert smiled. “Yeah, but he added something. It’s a heart with the initials M+B in the middle.”
“You know who that is?”
“Willie, everyone knows who that is,” Albert said, as he grabbed the note out of his hands and placed it under the vase. “Let’s get out of here before Almanzo or my sister get back.”
“Hey,” Willie said, turning around. “Look at those, Albert.” He pointed to the three hobby horse samples propped up on the wall next to the blackboard.
Albert nodded. “Yeah, Almanzo and Pa have been working on them. Your father came around to ask my father if he and Almanzo would like to make them for the store. Almanzo was supposed to bring some over there this morning. Guess he forgot.” Albert picked one up, placed the horse between his legs, pretending it was a real horse.
”I can’t understand why anyone who lives on the prairie would want anything like this,” Willie said as he straddled one himself. “Not when you can have a real horse.”
“Do you have one, Willie?” Albert asked. “I don’t, not yet anyway.”
But Willie wasn’t paying attention. He was too busy jumping around on the hobby horse.
“Giddy up, horsey,” he shouted, with a wide smile on his face.
That is until he broke it.
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“How many hobby horses did you get done, Almanzo?” Charles asked as they pooled their work together.
“We promised the Olesons thirty of them,” Almanzo said, picking up one of the wooden horses that Charles made. He compared it with the one that he made. They were identical. “There seems to be a lot of requests for the wooden ones on a stick.”
Charles came over to look. Both were intricately carved, both of them made from one piece of wood.
“What do you think?” Almanzo asked looking up at his father in law. “Do you think that Mrs. Oleson would accept them?”
Charles nodded. “They’re good, Almanzo. And if she likes them and they sell.…”
Älmanzo smiled. “We’ll see. When are we going?”
“Tomorrow afternoon,” Charles said, putting the finishing touches on the one he was working on. “This is my last one.”
“I just finished my last one,” Almanzo said, holding it up. “I compared it with yours. And Charles, I hope you’re right. Oh, and I also dropped some off at the schoolhouse for Albert and Beth to look over at lunchtime.”
“I talked Mrs. Oleson into those wooden flowers you made,” Charles said, smiling. “The customers love them. They’re selling like crazy.”
“And she’s keeping most of the profits,” Almanzo said, shaking his head. “Wonder if she’ll do the same with these.”
Charles nodded, but he wasn’t paying attention, not really. He had something else on his mind.
“Speaking of flowers..."
Almanzo nodded and smiled. “Yeah, I put them on her desk, but I think I might have gone too far with the From a Secret Admirer thing.”
“Is that all you left?”
Almanzo shook his head and smiled. “I added our initials to it.”
Charles nodded and smiled. “The sooner we get this work done, the sooner we get to go home.”
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“If you want get back at him, Laura, I have an idea.”
“You think I should?” Laura said, staring at the paper.
“I think he can take a little joke,” Albert said, “on the other hand…..”
Laura smiled, remembering the cinnamon chicken incident two years ago. She never understood why he had forgiven her for that little stunt. Nellie never had, but you really couldn’t compare the two of them, could you?
“Nah,” she said, looking down at the letter in her hands. “I don’t think so. I’ll just talk to him and ask him later on if he was….”
“Laura?”
She picked her head up and stared in Albert’s direction, but he wasn’t looking at her.
“Where are the hobby horse samples that were here earlier?”
“You mean the ones that Almanzo and Pa are working on for the Mercantile? What would they be doing here?”
“Almanzo brought three of them into the schoolroom for some reason, but they’re gone now, maybe he came by to pick…”
And then he heard the kids outside laughing and yelling “Giddy up” and “Go horsey" and Albert knew what had happened to them. He turned to face Laura and the two ran out to stop them.
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“Of course it was me, Beth” Almanzo said, looking her in eyes when he came to pick her up. “I left the initials there so that you’d know for sure.”
“Why’d you leave them there, Almanzo?”
“Just a little sample of what’s to come later and to cheer you up a bit. Your Pa has some of the excess. I made bouquets out of them. There’s so many that Percival is interested in them for centerpieces on the tables at Nellie’s.”
He wrapped her up in his arms, smiled and kissed her lightly. He released her, his arms around her shoulders this time. “Besides, I figured that you’d know right away who the secret admirer was, with or without the initials.”
“Hey brother in law,” Albert called out, “Are we ready to go?”
“Yeah, we are, except for one thing.” He turned to Laura. “I left one or two hobby horses for you and Albert to look at before your Pa and I drop them off at the Mercantile. Where are they?”
Albert looked at Laura and then back at Manly.
“Uh, Almanzo, you see…”
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“Well, at least we know they have to be made thicker and stronger,” Charles said, looking at Almanzo. They were outside against the corral fence of the Wilder farm. They switched places all the time, sometimes they’d have supper here, sometimes at the Ingalls' place and once in a great while, Nellie’s, but not that often.
“Maybe it was a good thing Willie grabbed them and gave them to the kids to try out,” Almanzo said. “I realized later that it wasn’t a good idea to leave them at the schoolhouse. Not too much lost there.”
“Nah,” Charles told him, lighting up his pipe. “No harm done. There’s more where those came from anyway.” He clapped Almanzo on the back. “The saving grace was those wooden flowers you made and the fresh prairie ones you picked. “
“Don’t forget those small wooden vases,” Almanzo grinned. “They’re beautiful all by themselves.”
Charles nodded. “We’ll get everything over to the Oleson’s tomorrow. “ He tapped the tobacco out of the pipe and waited for it to cool off before returning it to his pocket. “I think we did a good job, if I say so myself.”
Almanzo smiled. “I guess if Willie and the rest of the kids like them.” He looked at Charles. “Come on, Pop, dessert time. Beth’s got that apple pie you love so much.”
And they smiled at one another as Almanzo opened the door for his father in law.
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Laura’s Remembrance Book
Late Spring, 1886
Even though Manly and Pa didn’t mind what Willie had done, the Olesons did, well, Mr. Oleson did until he spoke to Mrs. Oleson about how much more money they were losing with Willie’s recklessness. And not only that, but he was growing boy and eating them out of house and home.
Manly said later that it really didn’t matter how they punished any of the Oleson children, they never seemed to learn anyway.
As far as Albert was concerned, well, he got extra chores to do, which, it seemed, he didn’t mind one bit. He claimed it kept him out of trouble and this way he could get serious about furthering his education. Pa couldn’t argue with that.
As for the hobby horses, it turned out they were a big hit until a major company mass produced them and Manly and Pa couldn’t keep up with the demand. It really didn’t seem to matter who made them because the minute Willie was given a horse to play with, that was the minute it was broken.
The flowers were another matter. Manly and I started our own garden of fresh flowers where we got to pick what we wanted when we wanted, except maybe in the winter when we used the wooden flowers. To tell you the truth, I think I preferred those the best. We never had to water them or keep them up and they lasted forever. And they were just as beautiful as the real flowers that we had growing in our garden or the wild flowers that grew on the prairie.
And they were the biggest hit at the Mercantile. Even Mrs. Oleson agreed.
Authors Note:
The original hobby horse, also known as ‘stick horses’, became popular in the sixteenth century. It got its name because a fake horse’s head was attached to a stick. There were also ‘barrel horses’ so called because four wooden legs and the fake head of a horse were attached to a barrel. Later on, springs were attached to the figure of a horse to create a riding toy for children.
Rocking horses became quite popular in the 1800’s, although there have been stories that they were around much earlier. By World War I, their popularity started to decline. These days, you can still find them as antiques or as a brand new children’s toy.
Almanzo’s and Charles’ “stick horses” were made of wood from the stick to the head.
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