It's Wednesday.
Pa began to unhitch Pet and Patty in the middle of the morning, and Laura and Mary knew it was really true; they really were going away from there. Ma didn't say anything. She went into the house and looked around, at the dishes not washed and the bed only partly made, and she lifted up both hands and sat down. Mary and Laura went on doing the dishes. They were careful not to let them make a sound. They turned around quickly when Pa came in. He looked like himself again, and he was carrying the potato-sack. He said here she is to Ma, and his voice sounded natural. He asked Ma to cook a plenty for dinner, and said that they had been going without potatoes, saving them for seed, and now they would eat them up. So that day for dinner they ate the seed potatoes. They were very good, and Laura knew that Pa was right when he said that there was no great loss without some small gain. After dinner he took the wagon bows from their pegs in the barn. He put them on the wagon, one end of each bow in its iron strap on one side of the wagon box, and the other end in its iron strap on the other side. When all the bows were standing up in their places, Pa and Ma spread the wagon cover over them and tied it down tightly. Then Pa pulled the rope in the end of the wagon cover till it puckered together and left only a tiny round hole in the middle of the back. There stood the covered wagon, all ready to load in the morning. Everyone was quiet that night. Even Jack felt that something was wrong, and he lay down close to Laura when she went to bed. It was now too warm for a fire, but Pa and Ma sat looking at the ashes in the fireplace. Ma sighed gently and said that a whole year gone. But Pa answered, cheerfully what a year was amount to, and they had all the time there was.
