Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there lived a little girl named Laura. Laura lived with her Pa, Ma, big sister Mary and little sister Carrie in a little house near the banks of Plum Creek. 

Pa had been born with wandering feet. He had moved the family all around - Wisconsin to Kansas and back again, and then to Minnesota. But it wasn't enough. Pa talked with Ma and Ma talked with Pa.  The grasshoppers had driven them away from Plum Creek. They could go further West or they could just go further...to the Moon.

And that's just what they did. They packed up all of their belongings in their steam-powered wagon and rode back East. They stopped in Wisconsin to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Peter and Aunt Eliza and everyone else. Uncle Henry and Aunt Polly thought about coming with, but in the end, Pa and Ma were just going too far. They hugged and kissed the girls goodbye.

When they got all the way East, it was time to trade in their prairie pioneer goods for moon pioneer goods. Pa was a farming man, through and through. He had been learning about the new-fangled idea of hydroponic farming. Imagine - all that good food, no worries about weather or grasshoppers! Laura was so pleased at the thought.

While Pa bought his new farming machines and Ma bought food to last on the moon trip, Mary and Laura and Carrie were allowed to choose one piece of candy each. It was like Christmas to have all those choices! Before they knew it, the girls were following Ma back to the wagon. They fell asleep to the sound of Pa's fiddle, for the last time on Earth, and were woken by Ma in the grey light of the next morning.

Laura could hardly believe the size of their spaceship. She was used to Pa's snug cabins and the tightly packed wagon, but the ship held all of them and the four other families who were heading to their new home. She and Mary helped Pa carry on their travel supplies while Ma took care of Baby Carrie. They soon settled into their cabin, which had beds that fell from the wall and chairs with belts on them. When it was time to lift off, tilted back in their seats, Mary closed her eyes and clutched Laura's hand, but Laura could only stare out her window.

"What do you think of that view, half-pint?" Pa asked her over the roar of engines, eyes twinkling.

"Oh, Pa," she said, breathless. "It's so beautiful. Mary, the land looks so small now, only patches of greens and blue. It's as if we're looking down at a quilt."

"Remember what you see, Laura," Ma said in her gentle voice. "It does look like a patchwork. If you remember the patterns, we can make a wonderful quilt to remember our old home by."

"I will, Ma," Laura said. "Mary, the Earth is getting smaller and smaller now. We could play with it, it looks so tiny."

"Then what will we see, Pa?" Mary asked bravely.

"We'll see the stars, Mary," Pa said. "Twinkling and shining stars, for four days."

Laura waited impatiently for the bells to ring, signifying that they could get out of their chairs and explore the ship. Ma looked at her reprovingly when she started fidgeting, and she tried very hard to be still.  She kept her eyes trained outside the window, occasionally describing the view to Mary, who still refused to look, and waited to be outside the Earth's gravitational pull.

Finally, the bell chimed in their cabins. Laura quickly unbelted herself from the seat. "Oh, Pa, Ma, please may I go look around the ship?" she asked quickly.

"You may," Ma said. "You and Mary both may go, but you must be back in an hour. I will need your help then."

"Thank you, Ma!" Laura said happily, as Mary unbelted herself.

The two girls set off, skirts swirling as they prowled the hallways. They met another little girl who was moving with her family, named Minnie Johnson, and a big boy, one year older than Mary, named Cap Garland. Cap's big sister Florence was studying to be a teacher and hoped to be hired on the new settlement.

While Minnie and Mary talked about their new home on the Moon and what they hoped it would be like, Laura and Cap played with his baseball. He wouldn't usually play with a little girl, he said, but Laura had caught his escaping ball and thrown it back just like a boy. He said this in an admiring tone and Laura was pleased with the praise.

Soon enough, Mary reminded Laura their hour was up and they made their way back to the cabin to help Ma. Even though it was a short journey, there was work to be done and schoolwork to be studied.

Mornings were for chores and schoolwork. They ate their dinner in a common area with the other families, everyone bringing their own food. The adults talked about their plans for the new settlement. The government had been there years earlier and left it to be run by the scientists. Now it was open to settlers, 160 acres of land to those willing to go. Not many were, which was the way Pa liked it. The afternoons were free for playing, with supper bringing more discussion of their new lives.

The night before the landing, Mary and Laura were too excited to sleep. They whispered to each other most of the night. Ma and Pa didn't scold, for they were also talking softly to each other. Only Baby Carrie slept that night.

They belted themselves back into their chairs and even Ma had a hard time sitting still! Laura peeked out the window and saw the Moon coming closer and closer.

"Oh, Pa, I see it!" Laura said suddenly, excited. "I see the settlement." The airtight bubble that held their new home was in sight and growing larger and larger. Then it was right there and they landed with a thud that rattled everyone's bones.

Laura stared out her window, waiting for the bells to ring and allow them off. A group of men and women were waiting on the platform in their Sunday best, waving at the ship and waiting to greet them. Finally, the bells rang and the Ingalls family gathered their items. Laura followed Pa out of their cabin and towards the exit.

"A new frontier, half-pint," Pa said, smiling down at her. Laura slid her hand into his as Pa started humming, and they stepped out onto the Moon together.

Read more about Laura Ingalls and her pioneering family in these upcoming titles:

Little Bubble in the Big Sky

Hydroponic Boy

On the Crater of Blue Moon

By the Ice Floes of Crater Rock

The Long Eclipse

These Happy Lunar Years

The First Four Years (or, The First Three and Three-Quarter  Months)

Listen to the fic being read
Back to Misc. Index
Back to Index
E-mail Rina