Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

The book is a composite of two authors, Rose Wilder Lane and Laura Ingalls Wilder, a daughter-and-mother pair. The introductory chapter, by Rose Wilder Lane, establishes a setting in De Smet, South Dakota, and introduces the remainder of the book. The second chapter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, is a day-by-day journal discussing events on a family relocation trip from De Smet to Mansfield, Missouri, during the summer of 1894. The third and final chapter, by Rose Wilder Lane, picks up the narrative where the journal leaves off and attempts to complete, or at least to round off, the journey.

Chapter 1, authored by Rose Wilder Lane, presents a photograph of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder, shortly after their marriage in De Smet, South Dakota; and also a photograph of Lane, as an infant. Within the chapter are photographs of Lane's church class...