The Long Winter Trivia Quiz

Answer: Little French horse

"Dinner was ready when they went to the shanty. Ma looked sharply at Laura and asked, "Is the work too hard for her, Charles?"

"Oh, no! She's as stout as a little French horse. She's been a great help," said Pa."

Answer: Muskrat

"Pa was shaking his head. "We're going to have a hard winter," he said, not liking the prospect.

"Why, how do you know?" Laura asked in surprise.

"The colder the winter will be, the thicker the muskrats build the walls of their houses," Pa told her."

Answer: October

"It's a blizzard," Laura told her. "You and Mary stay under the covers." Her teeth chattered while she pulled on her clothes. Ma was dressing, too, beyond the curtain, but they were both too cold to say anything.

They met at the stove where the fire was blazing furiously without warming the air at all.

"A b-b-b-b-blizzard!" Ma chattered. "In Oc-October, I n-n-never heard of..." She put more wood in the stove and broke the ice in the water pail to fill the teakettle."

Answer: Seven months

""What was that about seven big snows?" Almanzo asked. Pa told him. The Indian meant that every seventh winter was a hard winter and that at the end of three time seven years came the hardest winter of all. He had come to tell the white men that this coming winter was a twenty-first winter, that there would be seven months of blizzards."

Answer: Suspenders

"I have ten cents," Laura said thoughtfully. "How many pennies have you, Carrie?" "I have five," Carrie told her. "We'd need twenty-five to get Pa a pair of suspenders," Laura said "He needs a new pair." "I have a dime," said Ma. "So that is settled. Laura, you and Carrie had better go and buy them as soon as Pa has gone to work tomorrow morning."

Answer: Sticks of hay

""Here is your breakfast fuel, Caroline," he said, laying his armful down by the stove. "Good hard sticks of hay. I guess they will burn all right." "Sticks of hay?" Laura exclaimed. "That's right, Laura." Pa spread his hands in the warmth above the stove."

Answer: Antelope

"There came a sunny day when the loose snow was rolling like drifts of smoke across the frozen white prairie. Pa came hurrying into the house. "There's a herd of antelope west of town!" he said, as he took his shotgun down from its hooks and filled his pockets with cartridges."

Answer: Mr. Foster

"On the Morgans, Almanzo and Mr. Foster took the lead. The cold wind made the horses eager to go. Mr. Foster did not know how to ride. He was as nervous as Lady and he was making her more nervous. He turned to speak to Mr. Foster and he saw Lady's saddle empty. Mr. Foster was jumping up and down, waving his gun and yelling. Crazy with excitement, he had jumped off Lady, let go her reins, and fired at the antelope that were to far away to hit."

Answer: Wheat

"This is the point. Somebody's got to go get that wheat that was raised south of town." "One thing's sure," he said. "You're not going to tackle any suck foolhardy trip alone. If you're bound and determined to do it, I'm going along with you. " "See here!" Almanzo exclaimed. "We can't both of us go!"

Answer: The trains stopped running

"Well," Pa answered reluctantly, "I hate to tell you." He cleared his throat. "The train isn't coming." "The railroad has stopped running trains, till spring."

Answer: Mother

"When will it get here?" Carrie asked breathless. "Any minute. Nobody knows when," Laura answered, and she ran downstairs singing:

"If you're waking call me early,
Call me early, mother dear."

Answer: The Christmas barrel

"His church had shipped them a Christmas barrel and he hoped the clothing would fit.

Pa and Mr. Boast came down the street carrying a barrel between them. They upended it through the doorway and stood it in the middle of the front room.. "Here's that Christmas barrel!" Pa called to Ma."

Answer: Having Christmas dinner in May

"Well, then, Mr. Boast, you bring Mrs. Boast day after tomorrow," Ma said. "Come as early as you can and we we'll celebrate the springtime with a Christmas dinner."

"We'll come! You bet we'll come!" Mr. Boast chortled. "Christmas dinner in May!"

Answer: Sage

The girls at one point got into an argument about this particular subject. Laura hated sage, and Mary hated onions.

Answer: Tea

"Ah that hits the spot." Pa said, "Tea's a man's drink in the wintertime."