The Award 4/5

That night Mary is studying by moonlight in the bedroom loft. Laura wakes up and asks Mary what she is doing. It turns out that Mary is doing her next day’s homework since she spent all her time at the shop studying for the exam because Miss Beadle spooked her. Mary also lets on that she plans on taking the exam and believes that if she wins Ma will be proud instead of furious. Laura is a little dubious about this and asks what will happen if Mary doesn’t win and Ma finds out about the exam. Mary pauses then says “I’ll just have to win.” Surely I can’t be the only person reminded of this.

The next day after school Mary runs over to the mercantile and promptly studies. Oh, it’s a montage of a day in the life of Mary Ingalls. She’s just like us! She reads books! She rakes straw near cows! She gets water from the creek! She yawns at school! Wasn’t that exciting?

It’s three weeks later and that means it is payday. Mr. Oleson hands Mary $1.50 and she runs over to the book shelf to get the replacement copy of the burned text. She hands over the dollar and walks away. Mr. Oleson offers a bag but Mary politely refuses. Phase one of Mary’s plan is complete.

Phase two is emphasized the next day as Miss Beadle finishes writing “EXAMiNATiON TOMORROW” on the blackboard. All caps and the underlining I can understand, but the lower case I’s are not sitting well with me. A little too MySpace, wouldn’t you agree xXBeadle69Xx? Anyway, she also verbalizes the reminder about the exam, letting the kids who aren’t taking it know that there will be an extra hour of recess. Laura’s face lights up at this, but Mary is non-responsive. Is she asleep? Poor kid. Laura tells her sister to hurry up, but Mary is going to stick around to talk to Miss Beadle. Mary returns the book and thanks the teacher for letting her borrow it. Miss Beadle asks if Mary has been working too hard these last few weeks. “I used to throw up,” she shares, referring to coping mechanisms for anxiety. Mary has no reaction to this, not even an “ew.” I can see that Miss Beadle is just trying to help, but this is a really awkward conversation to watch.

Back home Caroline is setting the table and comes across a half-dollar. Mary walks in and Ma asks if she knows where the money came from. Mary says the money was from her job and she wanted to put it towards fixing the barn. Caroline is concerned that fifty cents for three weeks work is incredibly unfair. Mary claims that she didn’t have to work that hard and she learned a lot. See, this is where Mary runs into unnecessary trouble. Ma already knows that the fire was caused by Mary studying, so revealing that the book got burned shouldn’t get Mary into any additional trouble. If Mary said she was working to pay for a replacement text, I think Ma would have been more than okay with that. Instead, Caroline is all suspicious now. Way to go, Mary.