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A pioneer father and young girl building a wooden door for a log cabin on the Kansas prairie, 1870s, painted style
The Door
A Prairie Reader · Level 2
🪵 Historical Fiction 🏡 Pioneer Life 📖 12 Pages
A small log cabin on the open Kansas prairie with tall grass all around and no door in the doorway, 1870s
Page 1
Pa built a little log house on the prairie.
But it did not have a door yet.
A patchwork quilt hanging in the open doorway of a log cabin, moonlight and prairie visible beyond, wolves in the distance
Page 2
A quilt hung where the door should be.
At night, the wolves howled close by.
A bearded pioneer father carrying an axe walking toward tall oak trees on the prairie, 1870s
Page 3
Pa said he would make a door.
He took his axe and walked to the tall oak trees.
🪓 Pioneers had to make everything by hand — even doors!
A pioneer father splitting oak logs into thick flat slabs with an axe, a young girl nearby, prairie setting
Page 4
Pa split the oak logs into thick, flat slabs.
Laura helped carry the smaller pieces.
Thick oak slabs laid side by side on the ground forming a door shape, prairie cabin in background
Page 5
He laid the slabs side by side on the ground.
They fit together tight.
A pioneer father pegging two cross pieces across oak slabs with wooden pegs, building a door on the ground
Page 6
Pa cut two shorter pieces and laid them across.
He used wooden pegs to hold it all together.
A young pioneer girl handing wooden pegs to her father who hammers them into a door, close up, warm light
Page 7
Laura handed Pa the pegs one by one.
He hammered each one in by hand.
A pioneer father cutting leather strips from a deer hide to make hinges for a door, log cabin
Page 8
Pa made strong hinges from strips of deer hide.
He nailed the leather tight to the door and the wall.
🦌 Pioneers used deer hide for hinges, ropes, and even clothes!
A pioneer father and young girl together lifting a heavy oak door and hanging it in the cabin doorway
Page 9
Together they lifted the heavy door.
Pa hung it on the leather hinges.
A young pioneer girl pulling a latch-string to open a new wooden door on a log cabin, smiling, warm sunset light
Page 10
Now the door could swing open and shut!
Laura pulled the latch-string, and the door swung wide.
A finished wooden door on a log cabin on the prairie at golden hour, warm and safe
Words I Learned
door log house prairie quilt axe split slabs pegs hinges leather latch-string pioneer
What would you build with your own hands?
Talk about it with a grown-up! 🪵