357 pages
English language
Published Jan. 2, 2007 by HarperTrophy.
The Ingalls family had fared badly in Plum Creek, Minnesota. They were in debt. Mary was blind now. So Pa went West to work at a railroad camp in Dakota Territory where he could make as much as fifty dollars a month! Then he sent for his wife and four children, and they became the first settlers in the new town of De Smet. But the railroad brought hordes of land-hungry people from the East. Had Pa waited too long to file his homestead claim? - Back cover.
Man this family moved around a lot.
This was another enjoyable mostly-lighthearted tale about the Ingalls family moving yet again. This time Pa got a job doing payroll for some railroad workers with the intention of claiming a homestead once the work was done.
I still enjoy Pa's optimism in these stories, and the fact that he can build a shanty in less than a day.
