The Best Time of All

It is amazing how fast the days fly, even now in winter. There is always a lot to do and it takes longer now with the endless piling on of boots and snowpants and mittens and hats and such, and then to undo everything in reverse again.

There never seems to be quite enough time in the day for the best things, like sleep, and thinking.

But there is always a little time for the story my daughter brought home from the library this week.

...
One night when Pa was greasing the traps he watched Black Susan come in, and he said:
"There once was a man who had two cats, a big cat and a little cat."
Laura and Mary ran to lean on his knees and hear the rest.
"....So he made a big cat hole in his door for the big cat. And then he made a little cat-hole for the little cat."
There Pa stopped.
"But why couldn't the little cat--" Mary began
"Because the big cat wouldn't let it," Laura interrupted.
"Laura, that is very rude. You must never interrupt," said Pa.
"But I see," he said, "that either one of you has more sense than the man who cut the two cat-holes in his door."
Then he laid away his traps, and he took his fiddle out of its box and began to play.
That was the best time of all.

-- Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1867-1957, Little House in The Big Woods

Hear a story about a fiddler and his popular tune here.

Learn more about the fiddle tunes Charles Ingalls played here.