They Wouldn't Leave the Wagon

from Little House on the Prairie

Pa & Ma are heading to Independence, out of Indian Territory, by choice before the soldiers come to remove them.  On their travels they come upon a covered wagon without horses, but the owners are sitting on the wagon tongue.

They were a man and a woman.  They sat looking down at their feet, and they moved only their heads to look when Pet and Patty stopped in front of them.


"What's wrong? Where are your horses?" Pa asked.

"I don't know," the man said.  "I tied them to the wagon last night, and this morning they were gone.  Somebody cut the ropes and took them away in the night."

"What about your dog?" said Pa.

"Haven't got a dog," the man said......    

"Well, your horses are gone," Pa told the man.  "You'll never see them again.  Hanging's too good for horse-thieves."
"Yes," the man said.


Pa looked at Ma, and Ma barely nodded.  Then Pa said, "Come ride with us to Independence." 
"No," said the man.  "All we've got is in this wagon.  We won't leave it."
"Why, man!  What will you do?"  Pa exclaimed.  "There may be nobody along here for days, weeks.  You can't stay here."
"I don't know," the man said.

"We'll stay with our wagon," the woman said.  She was looking down at her hands clasped in her lap, and Laura couldn't see her face; she could see only the side of the sunbonnet.
"Better come," Pa told them.  "You can come back for your wagon."
"No," the woman said.


They wouldn't leave the wagon; everything they owned in the world was in it.  So at last Pa drove on, leaving them sitting on the wagon tongue, all alone on the prairie.


Pa notifies the soldiers at Independence to send help out for the couple.

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I chuckled when I saw the store name Nood: New Objects of Desire
Sad commentary on our society.  Wanting more and more.  And yet usually less and less happy.

Give me the simplified life, Thank You.