Caddie Woodlawn

Since they are out of school, Tom, Caddie, and Warren fill their days with various adventures. At breakfast Mr. Woodlawn gives them work plowing the far field. The children are excited to plow without Robert’s help, and they run to get started.

Plowing is fun at first, but the task soon becomes monotonous. Tom suggests that they take turns, and while one person manages the plow, the other two sit by the fence and tell stories.

Tom tells Caddie the story of a farmer named Pee-Wee who lives by a lake. While Pee-Wee is plowing his field, a phoebe bird calls out “Pee-Wee,” and the farmer thinks he’s being made fun of, so he throws a rock at the bird. The rock hits his ox and kills him. Pee-Wee skins the ox and takes it to a shop to make some money. As he enters the store, he sees a rich man hide in a big churn during a game of I Spy. When the shopkeeper tells Pee-Wee that he won’t pay him for the ox hide, Pee-Wee suggests that the shopkeeper trade him the churn for the hide. After the shopkeeper agrees, Pee-Wee loads the churn in his wagon. The man inside begs for release and offers to pay Pee-Wee in exchange for his freedom. When Pee-Wee’s neighbors see his new bag of gold, Pee-Wee tells them that he got it for the ox hide. All his neighbors kill their oxen and try to sell the hides, but they are not successful and become angry at Pee-Wee.

Later, as Pee-Wee hoes potatoes with his wife, the bird calls his name again, and Pee-Wee angrily throws his hoe at the bird. The hoe hits his wife in the head and kills her. Pee-Wee sets her up on the side of the lake with produce on either side of her. When a man stops to ask about a sale, she doesn’t respond to his questions, so he punches her, causing her body to fall into the lake. Pee-Wee jumps out and accuses the man of killing his wife, and when the man offers to give him his carriage and horses, Pee-Wee agrees. His neighbors are envious of his new acquisition, so Pee-Wee tells them what he did, and they try the same without success. Again, his neighbors are angry with him.

The neighbors decide that they must rid themselves of Pee-Wee, so they put him in a “big hogshead barrel” (198) and set him by the lake to drown him. Before pushing him in, the men have a quick drink at the tavern. While they are inside, a shepherd hears Pee-Wee yelling. After Pee-Wee tells him what his neighbors intend to do, the shepherd offers to switch places with him, as he is old and tired and ready to die. After they’ve switched, Pee-Wee takes the shepherd’s sheep back to his farm. Once the neighbors have pushed the barrel into the lake, they go to Pee-Wee’s to divide up his property, but they find him there with the sheep. Pee-Wee explains that he found the sheep at the bottom of the lake and that there are plenty more for the rest of them. The greedy neighbors go into the lake to find sheep, and they never return. Pee-Wee gets all of their land and livestock.

At the end of the story, Caddie compliments Tom but hopes that Pee-Wee doesn’t get a happy ending. Tom concedes that Pee-Wee has nightmares sometimes. The story becomes a favorite among the Woodlawn children, and Caddie even tells it “over and over to [her] begging children and grandchildren” (200).

The “Little Steamer” (201) returns in the spring, and everyone is excited to have their link “with the outside world” (202) restored. Mrs. Woodlawn gives Mr. Woodlawn a huge pile of letters, including the one addressed to Annabelle, to take to the boat. Mr. Woodlawn takes the wagon with the children in the back.

When the boat skipper arrives, he tells the large crowd on the riverbank that Robert E. Lee has surrendered, and the war has ended. People cheer and chant.

At home that evening the Woodlawns listen to mother read from magazines and letters. At bedtime the family kneels to pray, asking “that Mr. Lincoln be made strong and wise to lead them back to peace and security” (204).

Over the next few days spring begins in earnest. Caddie heads to the “hill north of the house” (205). From there, Caddie can see the whole farm, and it is also where her sister Mary is buried. Caddie thinks she would have been around Hetty’s age. She likes to come to Mary’s graveside because it is a good place to think. Caddie weaves some flowers together and leaves them there for Mary.

Hetty starts up the hill toward Caddie. At first Caddie is annoyed, thinking that Hetty has something to tell. However, Hetty just wants to spend time with Caddie, expressing that it’s nice to hang out, just the girls. Caddie realizes that Hetty is lonely because Minnie is “too young, and Tom, Caddie, and Warren [have] no room in their adventures for a tagging and tattling little sister” (208). As Caddie wonders if Hetty’s loneliness accounts for her always wanting to tell people things, Hetty sees the circuit rider approaching.

The girls go tell their father, who is eager to tell Mr. Tanner about the end of the war. Mr. Tanner brings news that “Abraham Lincoln has been shot” (209).

As spring turns to summer, Tom, Caddie, and Warren head to Chimney Bluffs to pick blueberries, but they are cautious because rattlesnakes are often in that area. Tom walks ahead of the others with a stick to poke the underbrush and discovers a four-foot-long snake skeleton. He quickly picks it up, marveling at the sound of its rattle when he shakes it. Caddie alerts them to a live rattlesnake coiled and watching them. They run all the way home.

School resumes, and the children look wistfully outside while Miss Parker delivers her lessons. The family receives a letter from Annabelle accepting their invitation to visit. Her letter is formal and polished; Tom wonders if she talks in the same manner. Caddie often thinks of Annabelle while she is at school; Caddie is excited to meet her, but she is also worried.

Indian John’s dog follows Caddie to school each day, and when other kids say he’s ugly and terrible, Caddie claims him as her own. On a warm afternoon the dog scratches at the door, comes to the window, and howls and barks. Miss Parker urges Caddie to check her dog, and when Caddie goes to the window to address him, she sees a prairie fire approaching the school. Miss Parker gets the students out and sends Caddie to town for help. Obediah grabs a large board and beats down the flames. His brother joins him, and Obediah orders Tom to grab a shovel and dig a trench around the school to protect it. When Tom has trouble breaking the dry ground, Obediah hands Tom the board and takes over the ditch digging. By the time Caddie returns with men from town, the boys have saved the school. Everyone works to put out the remaining fire and save the town.

After the children return to the school building, Miss Parker praises Obediah for his bravery and heroism. She also reminds the children that they owe thanks to Indian John’s dog. She opens the door to let him inside, and the children crowd around and pet him.

Clara and Caddie go with their parents to pick up Annabelle at the steamer. When Annabelle steps off the boat, Caddie is struck by how delicate and cultivated she is. On the way home Caddie feels awkward and uncomfortable. As Annabelle alights from the wagon at the farm, Hetty offers her flowers. Annabelle doesn’t take them, saying she doesn’t want to get her gloves dirty. As everyone else heads inside, Caddie compliments Hetty’s flowers, and when Hetty offers them to her, she takes them appreciatively.

That night Annabelle tells all about Boston. Mrs. Woodlawn is excited to hear the news, and Mr. Woodlawn realizes what a sacrifice it was for his wife to move to Wisconsin. Tom and Caddie grow “tired of Annabelle’s city airs” (227) and are insulted when she calls Dunnville rustic and “too quaint” (227). Before heading to bed, Annabelle tells Tom that she wants to learn about their “savage country [... and be] just as uncivilized” (227) as he is during her trip. Tom and Caddie’s eyes meet with an “impish twinkle” (228).

The following morning, Tom, Caddie, and Warren discuss how to mess with Annabelle. Annabelle comes downstairs in a beautiful dress with many buttons. After breakfast, the children take Annabelle out for a riding lesson, and Hetty tags along. Tom retrieves Pete, the horse notorious for bumping children off his back, and Hetty is shushed by Caddie when she tries to point out his mistake. Pete does his usual routine of scraping “Annabelle neatly off into the dust” (231). Annabelle dazedly insists horses don’t behave that way in Boston.

The children next take Annabelle to salt the sheep. As they head toward the pasture, Caddie notes that Annabelle is “not a crybaby” (233) and wonders if they should stop playing tricks on her, but she shrugs it off. Hetty tries to warn Annabelle to put the salt on the ground. Caddie shushes her, and Tom tells Annabelle to do as she pleases. Annabelle goes into the pasture, and the sheep gather around her to the point where she can’t move and they’re stepping all over her. Annabelle screams, and Tom tells her, “Drop the salt and run” (234), which takes some work. As she emerges, they realize that the sheep have eaten all the buttons off her dress and her sun hat is “rakishly dangling from the left horn of a fat old ram” (235).