The Prairie Child

A March blizzard rattles Casa Grande as Chaddie McKail confronts her husband about his attachment to a teacher living in their home. Arthur Stringer's prairie novel follows family life through Chaddie's frank, sharply humorous account. Duncan, whom she calls Dinky-Dunk, responds to her hurt with teasing defiance. Their argument is interrupted when the children, Dinkie and Poppsy, tumble down the stairs in a dresser drawer, leaving their mother to tend their injuries.

Chaddie's account brings household mishaps into close contact with questions of loyalty, motherhood and loneliness. Her elaborate comparisons give the marital exchanges a comic edge, while the middle excerpt shows how deeply anger and distress can unsettle the home. Her son's affectionate approach offers a moment of comfort amid that strain. Readers interested in frontier fiction will find the prairie setting viewed through domestic concerns, with the demands of marriage and raising children shaping the story's emotional stakes.