CHAPTER 20

Little Tent in the Big Woods

MANY FAMILIES HAD ALREADY MOVED TO THEIR PLOTS and now it was the Johnsons’ turn.

A green army truck with half a dozen men riding in the back and a Caterpillar tractor pulling a flatbed wagon bumped and grumbled down the half-empty row F and stopped in front of the Johnsons’ tent.

“They’re here, Mother!” Cally and Polly slipped through the tent flap and tugged on Mother’s skirt. “They’re here!”

As the movers jumped off the back of the truck, the team leader called out, “Let’s move it!” Pop took his place with the crew circling the tent. With one heave, the tent rose on its wooden platform and slid onto the back of the flatbed wagon.

Terpsichore helped load all her mint and vegetable starts onto the flatbed along with the tent.

When it was time to go, Mother and Matthew got in front with the driver of the truck, and Pop, Terpsichore, and the twins crowded into the open back.

The truck had just rumbled to a start when Terpsichore stood, gripping the side of the truck bed so hard her fingers were white. “Where’s Tigger? Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen her all morning! I have to find her!” She swung one leg over the side of the truck to jump off, but Pop pulled her down to sit.

“Terpsichore, we have to leave now. The crew has other families to move today, and I’m sorry but they can’t wait on a cat.”

“Tigger came all the way from Wisconsin to be with us. I can’t leave her! How will she find us?” She pictured Tigger coming back from her morning hunt for breakfast and finding an empty tent site. She’d howl mournfully and wonder why Terpsichore had abandoned her.

“Cats and dogs are good about finding their people, and Tigger is a smart cat,” Pop said. “And if she hasn’t found us by tomorrow, we can come back and look for her.”

Terpsichore’s mouth trembled and her eyes blurred with tears. “Tigger trusts me. I told her I would never leave her and now I’m leaving!”

Pop scooped Terpsichore into his lap. “I promise I’ll help you look for her, but we have to go.”

Mother looked through the window of the back of the cab and motioned for Terpsichore to sit next to her, but Terpsichore shook her head.

“We’ll help you look for her too,” said Cally, patting Terpsichore’s shoulder.

“Yes, we promise,” said Polly, patting the other shoulder.

The sympathy just made Terpsichore cry louder.

• • •

At the Johnsons’ lot, another crew was finishing clearing an acre for the tent and chore yard. Each time a fifty-foot tree fell and shook the ground, Cally and Polly clapped and yelled “Tim-berrr!” At first, Matthew howled and hid his face in Mother’s shoulder, but Cally and Polly’s enthusiasm was catching. Soon Matthew clapped and cheered along with the twins.

Mother pulled Terpsichore to her with the arm that wasn’t holding Matthew. “Tigger would be terrified to be around all this noise and commotion,” she said. “If we had brought her with us, she probably would have run off to hide.”

“But at least she would know where we’re going to live now,” Terpsichore said. But Mother was probably right. Saws scraped and screeched as they removed limbs from each tree. Roaring Caterpillar tractors pulled logs to trucks headed to the sawmill to be squared off on three sides.

Laura Ingalls’ father would have had to work weeks with his hand tools to do what the CCC crews could do in a day!

When there was enough land cleared for a barn, a house, and all the outbuildings, Pop helped the crew slide the tent off the flatbed truck to its new location.

Before leaving, the CCC dug the Johnsons a pit for their very own outhouse. Terpsichore held boards steady while Pop sawed and nailed. Most folks cut a crescent moon into an outhouse door for light and ventilation. Father cut out a J, for Johnson. Terpsichore still didn’t like outhouses, but at least now they didn’t have to share.

Terpsichore was happy for the long hours of sunlight. Before going to bed, she found a trowel and the mint plants she’d potted in nail kegs. She divided the clumps of mint and planted some along the road in front of the tent and some by each turning between the main camp and lot seventy-seven. Tigger had a good nose. She hoped the mint would help her find her way to her new home.