Season

Lars Hanson is forced to close the mill due to bankruptcy, leaving Charles unable to pay his debt at the mercantile. Refusing to grovel to Harriet, he takes three jobs, including digging in the mud and shoveling horse manure while Mary leaves school to work as a seamstress, Laura does all the chores, and Caroline and Carrie tend to the farm. Charles comforts Laura when she becomes upset by Nellie's vicious teasing. The next time Nellie makes a comment, Laura gives her a big wallop that brings Nellie's aloft nose back to the ground. When the bill is paid, Nels is very proud of the Ingalls family and he says the he thinks that Charles is the richest man in Walnut Grove ... the richest in love.

Mary is failing in school and Charles discovers that her poor performance is due to her poor eyesight. She is excited to receive eyeglasses until the children at school begin to tease her. Afraid of becoming an unwed spinster, she purposely loses her glasses. When she sees that her teacher, Ms. Beadle, who also wears glasses, has a handsome lawyer boyfriend, Mary realizes how silly she was acting. She retrieves her glasses and goes on to beat Nellie in a history contest.

26. HAUNTED HOUSE September 24, 1975

On a dare from Nellie, Laura approaches a haunted house and accidentally befriends the strange old man, Mr. Pike, who lives there. She learns that Mr. Pike has been waiting for his wife, Lily, to return home for twenty years. She later learns that Mrs. Pike has been dead all this time but that Mr. Pike refused to accept it. With Laura's help, Mr. Pike deals with the loss of his wife and comes to terms with it.

27. IN THE BIG INNING October 1, 1975

After a humiliating loss the previous year, Walnut Grove is confident about the upcoming baseball game with their new ace pitcher, Jebediah Mumford. So confident that there are wagers on the game. However, when Jebediah's very religious wife, Margaret finds out of the gambling, she forbids Jebediah to play. Caroline comes up with a compromise to donate the winning to the church fund if Jebediah could play. Baseball wackiness ensues leading to a big brawl with Walnut Grove winning the game on a inside-the-park grand-slam by Charles

28. THE CAMPOUT October 8, 1975

Camping Oleson style! Mrs. Oleson, worried that the Ingalls children will better her Nellie and Willie in a leaf-gathering project for school, decides to accompany the Ingalls on a campout. Not used to roughing it, the Olesons make it a miserable time for everyone. Laura leads the Oleson's to a poison ivy patch. Harriet and Willie get poison ivy and Nellie falls into the river.

29. THE SPRING DANCE October 29, 1975

Laura and Grace Snider share a common problem: getting a particular person to ask them to the spring dance. Laura wants to invite Henry Sanderson to the Spring Dance, but he is not at all interested in girls. Grave Snider wants to go with Isiah Edwards but he doesn't seem interested either. Laura makes a deal with Willie to get her schoolmate, Henry, jealous. Meanwhile, Grace uses Doc Baker to get Mr. Edwards jealous. Their respective plan backfires on them and they end up asking the men to the dance.

30. REMEMBER ME (Part One) November 5, 1975

The Ingalls' neighbor, the widow Julia Sanderson, learns that she is going to die. She asks Charles to make sure that her three children find a good home. Despite the solemn situation, Julia refuses to succumb to sadness and makes the most of the few days she has left. And when she dies, her last words to her children and friends are for them to remember her with joy not sadness.
Note: Henry Sanderson suddenly becomes Carl Sanderson.

31. REMEMBER ME (Part Two) November 12, 1975

Charles has a difficult time finding a home for Julia Anderson's three orphaned children. Reluctantly, he decides to separate them to different families. Mr. Edwards, who has been helping Grace Snider take care of the children in the interim, doesn't want the children to suffer from being separated and realizes his own pain from being alone. He decides he doesn't want to be alone any longer....he asks Grace to marry him and they adopt all three children.

32. EBENEZER SPRAGUE November 19, 1975

Walnut Grove now has a bank, built by Hansen and Charles. The new banker, Mr. Ebenezer Sprague, is a cold and unfriendly man who believes everyone has a hidden agenda. He refuses a loan to Charles and refuses to make a donation intended to buy new books for the school. Laura unknowingly befriends Mr. Sprague while fishing but when he finds out her name, he believes Charles has sent her to persuade him to give her father the loan. But Laura was simply looking for a friend. Charles pays Sprague a visit and tells him he feels sorry for him because he has no friends and cannot give or take anything but money. Later on, a big box of new books arrive at the school from an unknown donor. But Laura knows it came from Mr. Sprague, who loosens up a little and becomes more likable.

33. AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW December 10, 1975

While fishing in a stream, Laura and her friend think they've found gold. Laura is excited by the thought of all the wonderful things she would be able to buy for her family. They spends several weeks sifting the stream for gold in secrecy. Laura has fantasies of Walnut Grove becoming Ingallsville because of her wealth and she dreams of riding in a white horse drawn carriage wearing a fancy white dress. She also dreams of living in a beautiful white castle. When they try to cash in, they learn it's fool's gold.

34. THE GIFT December 17, 1975

The children have collected some money to buy Reverend Alden a nice birthday present. The only ones not to chip in are Willie and Nellie, who, according to their mother are "different from all the other kids" (You betcha!). They want to buy a beautiful leather bound Bible. The rest of the kids have $ 1.67 and Mary is in charge of choosing the present and ordering it. Laura has an idea that would allow them to buy an expensive Bible for the Reverend. They buy a set of homeopathic medicine that they try to sell and earn money with. Unfortunately, they can't sell any, and are stuck with the bottles of medicine, minus a couple that they broke or lost. They are forced to go see the Reverend, explain the situation and gave him the box containing the bottles of medicine. Sunday, at Mass, the Reverend tells the congregation that he has one Bible that he cherishes above anything else, a very old Bible given to him by his father. It's the only one he uses (hint to the Olesons who were going to give him the superb leather bound Bible. he then thanks all the children for giving him...a wooden box to put his Bible in and protect it.

35. HIS FATHER'S SON January 7, 1976

John Sanderson, who was adopted by Mr and Mrs Edwards, is more of a poet than a farmer and is always lost in his books. Isaiah would like him to be different. He buys him a Winchester '73 for his birthday. Unfortunately, John doesn't like guns or hunting but doesn't want to hurt Isaiah. He gives him a letter, explaining why he does not want to go hunting. Isaiah "reads" it but doesn't react, leaving John thinking that he doesn't love him and does not care about his feelings. While hunting, they run into a bear, but John freezes and doesn't kill it. He runs home to get help, leaving Mr Edwards in a pool of blood. Afterwards, John feels guilty and is certain that Isaiah doesn't love him because of his lack of reaction to the letter. But he finds out that Isiah cannot read, and thus did not understand what was written on the letter. He reads it to him, and they finally understand each others intentions, and John realizes he does love him very much.

36. THE TALKING MACHINE January 14, 1976

Jason, a handsome young man, is very interested in new technologies, and in electricity, and Laura often helps him with his inventions. He flies kites with keys. Laura and Nellie are both infatuated with him and are trying to get his attention. Laura is jealous of Nellie because she feels Nellie can get anything she wants with her money. (Except friends, as Nels points out.) Nellie is furious because Jason accepted an invitation from Laura to have dinner with them. Nellie decides to get even, and uses a talking machine which records peoples voices. She gets Laura to her room and makes her talk about Jason, about how they are going to become scientists together and such, while Willie is secretly recording. Laura tells Nellie that she's in love with Jason and is even thinking about marriage. Nellie lets the whole class listen to the recording and Laura, ashamed, runs to her hiding place. She doesn't dare face Jason anymore. When she finally does, in school, she realizes that Jason feels the same for her.

37. THE PRIDE OF WALNUT GROVE January 28, 1976

Mary has earned the right to compete in a state wide math competition in Minneapolis but Charles can't afford to pay for the hotel and the train tickets. The Town Council decides to pay those costs because Mary will be representing Walnut Grove. Laura, who's jealous of Mary because she thinks she's much better than herself in many aspects. Charles decides to give Laura responsibilities in the house while Ma is away with Mary. She does her best to do everything right, and so does Mary, in Minneapolis. Laura does not succeed in everything she does (cooking, sewing, etc.) and Mary finishes second in the competition. She feels that she let down the whole town because she didn't finish first, but they don't really mind because she did the best she could, and she returns home to a hero's welcome.

38. A MATTER OF FAITH February 4, 1976

Pa and the girls go on a trip and leave Ma alone at the house so she can finish baking pies for the church fair. She notices a little scratch on her leg but doesn't think much of it. That scratch seems to exhaust her and gets more serious. At night, she has to go outside to bring the cow back in the barn and she collapses under the rain. The wound gets more and more serious and she keeps fainting. Reverend Alden and Mrs. Foster come over to pick her up but the door is closed. He thinks she's left the house when in fact, she's right behind the door, in pain. He sees Charles and they both wonder what's up with Caroline, and Charles rushes back home. In the meantime, we think Caroline is ready to cut off her foot or part of her leg as she had read in the Bible. In fact, She had to burn out the infection. After a good hard prayer, and with the help of Doc Baker, the family manages to keep the Lord from calling Caroline by His side.

39. THE RUNAWAY CABOOSE February 11, 1976

Mary, Laura, and Mr. Edwards' adopted son, Carl, accompany Charles and Edwards to the train depot in Springfield. The children wander into a caboose that starts to roll downhill. Mr. Edwards rides to a rail switch to divert that train uphill but does not make it on time. Charles rides to catch up with a train from Sleepy Eye on a collision course with the caboose. He is able to board the train in time for it to reverse course and slow down the caboose.

40. TROUBLEMAKER February 25, 1976

Ms. Beadle has trouble maintaining order in the classroom when the older students return to school after harvest season. The school board decides to hire a new teacher, Hannibal Applewood, to handle the problem. Applewood develops a dislike for Laura and she unjustly bears the brunt of his quick temper. When Charles sees Applewood's behavior in class, he calls a school board meeting. When his methods are questioned, Applewood explodes into a ramble about order and then resigns. Charles convince Ms. Beadle to return to school with the promise that children would behave.

41. THE LONG ROAD HOME March 3, 1976

Charles and Mr. Edwards take a job delivering explosives along with two other men, Murphy and Henry Hill. On their trek, they deal with road obstructions, bandits, animosity between Murphy (who is white) and Henry (who is black), and, of course, possibly getting blown up by the nitroglycerin. At the end, the men share a bond from their experience.

42. FOR MY LADY March 10, 1976

Charles takes a job refinishing woodwork for the lovely, young, widow Thurman in exchange for a set of fine china. He tries to keep it a secret to surprise Caroline and has to tell a few white lies. Caroline and the girls hear conflicting stories and suspects the worst -- that Charles is having an affair with the widow Thurman. Their fears are laid to rest when Charles surprises Caroline with the china.

43. CENTENNIAL March 17, 1976

A property tax increase causes turmoil in Walnut Grove which threatens the Independence Day celebration. Charles' co-worker at the mill, Yuri, a recent Russian immigrant loses his property when he unable to pay. Despite his misfortune, Yuri is still happy to be in America and explains to the town that in Russia there are no freedoms under the czar's rule. For all its' faults, America is still the best place to live.

44. SOLDIER'S RETURN March 24, 1976

Ganville Whipple, the son of Mrs. Whipple, the town seamstress, returns home to Walnut Grove after serving in the Civil War. He is still haunted by memories of the war. His best friend, Roy, died when Ganville ran away and hit instead of fighting with t he rest of the troops. When his best friends son, Roy Jr. sees him, he begins asking questions, which brings back haunting memories of leaving Roy Sr. on his deathbed. He begins giving music lessons, and gives Mary free lessons on his toy piano in exchange for her writing out music sheets for him. When Ganville later needs morphine, which he began taking in the war, Doc Baker refuses. Later that night he goes back and steals it. When he relives the experience of leaving Roy Sr., he overdoses on morphine.

45. GOING HOME March 31, 1976

After a tornado destroys his crop, Charles decides to sell the land to a couple who previously owned the land, and return to the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Mary and John Jr. (Edwards' adopted son) share their first kiss when they express their love for one another before she leaves. After reminiscing about their time in Walnut Grove, Charles realizes that he made the decision without considering the rest of the family. The older couple sees the Ingalls really wants to stay, and change their mind about buying the property. With their support, he gains the strength to try again and decides to stay in Walnut Grove.