56 pages • 1 hour read
Laura Ingalls WilderBy the Shores of Silver Lake
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1939A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “The West Begins”
The next morning, the Ingalls leave the temporary railroad camp, which is being taken down so that a new town can be built in its place, and head for Silver Lake. Although Laura describes the open prairie for Mary, she can’t put into words the strange, small feeling that the “endless waves of flowery grasses under the cloudless sky” (59) give her. Pa also senses that this prairie is somehow different from anywhere else they’ve traveled. Laura notices old buffalo wallows, and Pa tells her that it’s unlikely she will ever see one of the creatures: “They had been the Indians’ cattle, and white men had slaughtered them all” (62).
That evening, a rider with a red bandana and two pistols follows the wagon at a distance. Pa’s worries leave him when he spots a second rider, whom he recognizes as Big Jerry, a man of Indigenous American and French ancestry. Big Jerry and Pa exchange greetings, and Laura is awed by how elegantly the dark-haired man rides his white horse. However, Ma remains apprehensive despite Pa’s reassurances that Jerry will ensure the would-be robber won’t bother them.
The Ingalls reach the railroad camp at Silver Lake after nightfall. To Ma’s joyful surprise, some of their relatives from Wisconsin are there to greet them, including Uncle Henry, Cousin Charley, and Cousin Louisa. After Louisa feeds the Ingalls supper, Henry shows them to the freshly built shanty where the six of them will be staying.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Silver Lake”
The next morning, Ma and her daughters unpack their things, hang curtains to divide the shanty into tiny bedrooms and a living room, and make their new home “fresh and bright and snug” (73). Still, Ma leaves some of their belongings packed away, including a china figurine of a shepherdess, because they will leave once Pa chooses a homestead for them.
Laura watches the railroad workers file into the camp and listens to their songs. At Ma’s prompting, Pa warns the girls to stay away from the camp because “[t]here’s all kinds of rough men working on the grade and using rough language” (76). In the afternoon, Laura, Mary, and Carrie stroll along the lakeshore. Although Laura wishes to explore the marshy patches filled with wild birds, she can’t lead her sisters into the mire or leave them behind. Instead, she guides them to the open prairie, where they gather flowers and listen to birdsong. Mary revels in the beauty around her and reminds a guilty Laura to wear her sunbonnet. Laura describes to Mary the railroad camp with its stable, bunkhouse, and store and then spots a house off by itself at the lake’s northern end. When they return to the shanty, Carrie and Laura help Ma prepare supper while Mary rocks Grace and tells her baby sister about the lake’s wild birds.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Horse Thieves”
One night, Pa informs his family that the camp is on alert for horse thieves. Some of the men suspect that Big Jerry is involved with the gang of thieves, and Ma makes disparaging remarks about Indigenous Americans. However, Pa thinks that the men’s animosity toward Jerry stems from the fact that he “comes to camp after payday and wins all the boys’ money playing poker” (82). As further proof of Jerry’s character, Pa mentions his kindness toward Old Johnny, the frail and elderly man who carries water to the railroad workers. Pa fears the men will shoot Jerry on sight if he comes to the camp. That night, Pa leaves the shanty, and Ma and Laura wait up for him. Laura wants to go look for her father, saying, “I want to do something. I’d rather do something” (87). Ma concurs that she would prefer to take action as well, and she strokes her daughter’s hair as they sit in the dark and strained silence together. Hours later, Pa returns and cheerfully informs Ma and Laura that Jerry is all right and that “there’ll never be a horse stolen from Silver Lake camp” (88). His words prove true.
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Wonderful Afternoon”
As time passes, Laura settles into her weekly routine of chores, including laundry, washing dishes, and mending clothes. Mary relearns how to sew. Aunt Docia reaches the Silver Lake camp and gives Pa a “pretty, bright-red cow named Ellen” (92). Pa entrusts Laura with the responsibility of caring for Ellen. Every day, Laura and Lena feed, water, and milk their cows together. Because Lena is busy helping her mother, Laura rarely sees her cousin outside of milking times.
One day, Pa agrees to take Laura to see the railroad’s construction. Ma dislikes the idea of her daughter being around the workers and urges her to “be well-behaved and ladylike” (96). Pa and Laura watch as men use plows and shovel-like scrapers to level the ground for railroad tracks. He explains how the workers will smooth out the dirt before placing the railroad ties and rails. Laura happily spends the whole afternoon watching the teams of workers move together like clockwork and pictures the completed railroad in her mind.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Payday”
The Ingalls family has been at the Silver Lake camp for two weeks, and Pa is busy calculating the workers’ pay, a task Laura wishes that she could help with. The paymaster delivers the money for Pa to distribute, and Ma hides the cash in a bag of flour because anyone seeking to steal it would look in the store rather than the shanty. On payday, the workers grow disgruntled that they’re receiving wages for two weeks rather than a full month and form a mob outside the store. Ma and Laura anxiously watch as “the dark mass of men was growing larger very fast” (113). Pa calmly explains the pay schedule and refuses to allow the mob into the store. When it looks like the scene may become violent, Big Jerry breaks the tension by calling the men away for a night of drinking and card games. The next day, Big Jerry leads the workers to join a riot at a larger railroad camp nearby. That night, Pa recounts to Ma how a mob of almost a thousand intoxicated men stormed the store at Stebbins’ camp and “strung up the paymaster” (118), although he survived. Laura is irate that the paymaster acquiesced to the men’s demands and defiantly declares that neither she nor Pa would do so. However, Ma praises the man for taking the sensible route. The rough and wild events of the past few days make Mary long to return to Plum Creek, but Laura has no desire to go back.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Wings Over Silver Lake”
Winter’s approach brings scores of migrating birds, including herons, ducks, and geese, to Silver Lake. Pa hunts geese and ducks for the family’s meals and accidentally shoots a swan, which he regretfully describes as “too beautiful to kill” (124). Ma and the girls gather the feathers to make bedding. The migrating birds stir up Laura’s wanderlust, and she asks Pa if they can travel further west with Uncle Henry’s family. Pa shares Laura’s desire “to fly like the birds” (126), but he explains that they must settle down on a homestead so that he can keep his promise to Ma and send the girls to school. Laura’s heart sinks even lower when Pa adds that she will have to become a teacher like Ma and her maternal grandmother before her, a dream Mary intended to fulfill before her blindness. Laura resigns herself to following her parents’ wishes for her future.
Chapters 7-12 Analysis
In the novel’s second section, the Ingalls’ adventures continue at the Silver Lake railroad camp. Chapter 7 explores the strong bond between Laura and her father by presenting them as kindred spirits, adding this element to The Strength of Family Bonds. The chapter is entitled “The West Begins,” and there is something almost mythical about the West’s significance in Pa and Laura’s imaginations. They share the strange, indescribable feeling that “there was something else here [in the prairie] that was not anywhere else. It was an enormous stillness that made you feel still. And when you were still, you could feel great stillness coming closer” (60). Although the prairie is empty and still when the Ingalls reach it, it wasn’t always this way. Settlers displaced the Indigenous Americans and wiped out the buffalo they depended on for survival. Big Jerry, the novel’s only Indigenous character, first appears in Chapter 7. Both the narration and the Ingalls’ dialogue about Jerry contain racist and dated language. The “noble savage” stereotype paints an idealized picture of Indigenous peoples, often presenting them as untouched by the corruption of civilization and possessing a spiritual unity with nature unequaled by others. Similarly, the narrator refers to Jerry as “the wild man” (65) and praises his horsemanship in a way that is ultimately dehumanizing: “The horse and the man moved together as if they were one animal” (65). The language may be romanticized, but it still echoes a stereotype. Additionally, Ma perpetuates overtly negative racist stereotypes of Indigenous Americans by regarding Jerry with fear and suspicion even though he protects the Ingalls from a bandit.
The characters reach the setting that gives the novel its title at the end of Chapter 7. The generous hospitality of the Ingalls’ relatives from Wisconsin contributes to the theme of The Strength of Family Bonds. Chapter 8 develops the theme further by depicting a beautiful, peaceful day on which Laura, Mary, and Carrie explore their new home together. Although Laura wishes to venture into the swamp, she behaves responsibly and prioritizes her sisters’ safety. Mary also looks after her sisters, such as when she reminds Laura to wear her sunbonnet and tells Grace about the birds. Although the family is beginning to settle into the shanty at Silver Lake, Ma is adamant that this residence is not their home. She tells Pa that she won’t unpack the china shepherdess yet, explaining, “We aren’t living here, we’re only staying till you get our homestead” (74). This is the first mention of the shepherdess, which becomes a symbol of home.
The peaceful mood of Chapter 8 is followed by the suspense of Chapter 9. This chapter develops Laura’s relationship with her mother, which is usually seen as less close than her relationship with Pa. Ma and Laura are not kindred spirits in the way that Laura and her father understand each other. However, they are united in how much they dislike the inaction of waiting for Pa’s return. This suggests that Ma’s quiet, composed behavior may not come as naturally to her as her restless daughter supposes. In addition, Chapter 9 presents some of the dangers that the novel’s sole Indigenous American character faces on the prairie. The railroad workers automatically assume that Big Jerry is connected to the recent disappearances of horses from railroad camps, and Pa fears that they will shoot Jerry on sight. Unfortunately, the narrative appears to confirm the workers’ assumptions that Jerry is a criminal rather than challenge the racist stereotype. If Jerry is not one of the horse thieves, he at least has substantial sway over their decisions. This explains why Pa is certain that the thieves won’t target the Silver Lake camp after he meets with Jerry.
Chapter 10 develops the theme of The Strength of Family Bonds by showing how different Laura’s relationships with her two parents are. This chapter is called “The Wonderful Afternoon” because Laura revels in having some time with just her and Pa. To make things even more wonderful for the protagonist, Laura is able to ask as many questions as she likes and learn about something entirely new to her. Their afternoon watching the railroad workers underlines Laura and Pa’s mutual fascination with technology. On the contrary, Ma is concerned with tradition rather than innovation. She has a narrow view of gender roles: “She said that she wanted her girls to know how to behave, to speak nicely in low voices and have gentle manners and always be ladies” (95). Laura’s curiosity and excitement chafe against these rules. Because she is transitioning from childhood to adolescence, Laura will only experience more tension between herself and her mother’s expectations regarding “ladylike” behavior as she grows older.
The novel’s suspense soars again in Chapter 11 due to the confrontation over pay. Big Jerry comes to Pa’s rescue once more, but the mob’s anger can only be directed rather than quelled completely. During the hubbub, Laura and Mary overhear the rough language their parents cautioned them about, and they have starkly different reactions: The older sister misses her peaceful home in Minnesota, but Laura thrives on adventure and “did not want ever to go back to Plum Creek” (122). As in Chapter 9 earlier in this section, the protagonist witnesses frightening events from the periphery and is not in the middle of the action.
The section closes with Chapter 12, “Wings over Silver Lake.” The birds’ migration gives Wilder a perfect opportunity to showcase the beauty of the setting and her skill with nature imagery: “All those golden autumn days the sky was full of wings” (125). Additionally, the author uses the birds to illustrate Pa and Laura’s bond and shared urge to travel: “‘I know, little Half-Pint,’ said Pa, and his voice was very kind. ‘You and I want to fly like the birds’” (126). However, both Laura and Pa are rooted in place by their promises to their loved ones. Laura’s familial obligations increase in Chapter 12 with the revelation that her parents want her to become a teacher when she grows up. This development also connects to the theme of Adaptation to Change because Ma originally wanted Mary to be a teacher, but this expectation falls to Laura now that Mary is blind. For Laura, The Transition From Childhood to Adolescence doesn’t just mean taking on more chores; it means being tasked with carrying on a family legacy and fulfilling her mother’s dreams. As the novel continues, the free-spirited protagonist struggles to balance her desires and others’ expectations.
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By Laura Ingalls Wilder
