Phew-WEE!

Merry riding in wagon with cast of "Laura-Pioneer"
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"Pie! How did you get pie?" said Pa.

Laura was so amazed.

"What kind of pie is it?" asked Pa, tasting a piece. "Apple pie! Where did you get apples?"

"It's a blueberry pie," said Ma. "From the blueberries I saved from our garden."

"You are a wondrous," said Pa.

[Later:]

. . ."Now a nice chopped button," Ma said.

Laura brought Ma a button.

"Now some gravy," said Ma.

Laura brought Ma some gravy.

"Now please give me a match, Laura. . . .A button lamp," said Ma, and set the lamp by Mary. It only gave a little light.

When the bread had been made, Ma took the bread and put it on a shelf. "Time to go to sleep, Carrie," Ma said.

Laura stayed awake. She wanted to see what would happen in the morning. Everyone slept soundly. [pause for sleeping] Then the wagon jumped! Ma woke up. Laura woke up.

"What in the world is going on?" said Ma.

"A blizzard," said Laura.

It whirled round and round.

"Phew!" said Ma. "You stay in bed, Laura." Everyone had to stay in bed. Ma dressed warmly by the stove. They stayed in bed, listening to the sounds of the blizzard.

Pa was singing: "Slap, slap, the blizzard of the day! Oh, slap, slap, slap, the blizzard of the day!" he sang. The beds weren't made.

"Oh," Ma said, "What is it?"

"A blizzard," said Laura, "Don't you remember?"

"Oh, yes, but I was wondering what Pa was doing."

"It's his slap-slap song," said Laura.

. . ."Now that's enough," said Ma. "Washing day!" she reminded Laura. [seasons have changed?]

. . .Ma washed Laura in the creek. She scrubbed Laura top to bottom. "Feel free to splash about!" Ma said.

Ma put a new dress on Laura. Time to time, Laura said, "When is Pa coming back?"

"Soon," said Ma.

"But when is Pa coming back?"

"Soon!" said Ma. Laura kept saying that. Ma dressed her up and slowly combed her head and braided it. [Merry brushes doll's hair]

"Can you put my hair in a bun?"

"Of course I can," said Ma.

etc. etc. etc.

Oh, I can't keep up! This is a taste, verbatim (though I missed much of the dialogue and narration) of the rapid-fire dialogue Merry is spewing out lately, whenever she has a few moments. I hear her rattling behind me as I work at the computer, and I hadn't been paying close attention to the actual storyline until now. I have noticed that Merry has littered her bed so full of "stations" (kitchen, bathtub, etc.), that there is barely any room left for her to sleep.

And I have noted that more than once Ma has "thrown herself on the bed," and sighed "Phew-WEE!"

We've been reading "The Long Winter" and Merry is completely immersed in "Laura-Pioneer" world.

Merry enjoys being Laura--except when I ask Merry to perform some distasteful task, and then Merry is suddenly most emphatically her literal self again.

In other roles, Merry is once again filling the soil-spattered boots of "WORM QUEEN." We spent most of yesterday digging up impossibly heavy squares of sod and flipping them over to make beds for our strawberries and flowers. Merry hovered over my spade, plucking out long earthworms and rubbing them on her face and neck. "I kissed it!" she yelled at one point; at another she crammed a few in her magnifying box, and at another she queried, "Have you ever put a worm down your shirt?" I ceased telling her when I spotted a worm, and muttered to one as it anxiously squirmed back into the soil, "Don't worry, you're safe with me."

Elspeth spent much of the day banging about in the outdoor kitchen, gurgling tepid water from dirty receptacles, and sitting in her blue sled, looking contemplatively at the sky, until Merry pulled her over the grass.

But now it's time for me to go. I've got beds to make inside, beds to dig outside, (sounds like Pa needs to find a new job, too, since there's "no more food in this town") and the world is sunny and warm. Phew-WEE!