Little House On the Prairie

Hansen's Mill closes when a major customer declares bankruptcy, leaving Lars unable to pay Charles two months' back pay.

Mary is excited to receive a pair of brand-new glasses, but her excitement fades when other students relentlessly tease her, even after Miss Beadle points out her own pair of glasses.

Charles wants to seed a new field and decides to obtain a loan from the new banker, Ebenezer Sprague. The cold-hearted gentleman refuses to trust Charles and his family until Laura unwittingly befriends him at the fishing hole.

It's Walnut Grove vs. Sleepy Eye in the annual baseball battle. Star pitcher Mumford appears to be an ace up Walnut Grove's sleeve, until his wife discovers the townspeople are betting heavily on the game's outcome.

Laura goes into a haunted house when Nellie dares her to do it. She becomes a friend of the old man that lives there, Mr. Pike. She finds out that he is waiting for his wife to return. After Laura learns that Mrs. Pike died years ago, she helps Mr. Pike cope with the death of his wife.

Laura wants to go to the annual Spring Dance with Henry Henderson, while Grace Snider hopes Mr. Edwards will ask her out. But both men, young and old, are too shy to ask the girls.

Mrs. Oleson invites herself along on the Ingalls family campout after she concludes that Laura and Mary will have the upper hand collecting leaves for a science project. The Ingallses and Olesons seem to mix like water and oil throughout the trip.

A widowed mother named Julia Sanderson learns she has a terminal illness and has no close relatives willing to care for her three children, John Jr., Carl and Alicia. Charles promises Mrs. Sanderson the children will find a new home.

While fishing in a stream, Laura and her friend Jonah find pyrite and mistake it for gold. Laura spends her days amassing the "gold dust" and begins fantasizing about her family being very, very rich...and the Olesons being dirt-poor.

The children of Walnut Grove pool their money to buy Reverend Alden a new Bible and entrust Mary with the cash. Mary and Laura decide to invest their money in medicines that, upon their sale, could easily double their money and thus allow them to buy one really great gift for their beloved minister.

Mr. Edwards and John Jr. feel estranged from each other, and an upset Mr. Edwards tries to make his son join him in his backwoods way of life.

Laura and Nellie vie for the affections of a new schoolboy named Jason, who is very adept with new contraptions. While Laura accompanies Jason in all his experiments, Nellie tries to use a brand new "talking machine" to gain his affection.

Mary enters a statewide math competition, but Charles can't afford to pay the travel expenses necessary for her to compete.

Charles and the girls go on a camping trip, with Caroline planning to join them later. Caroline scratches herself on a piece of baling wire, and the minor scratch soon turns into a serious infection.

At a train station, Mary, Laura, and Carl wander into a caboose. Without warning, the caboose begins to move, and it soon is on a crash course with an oncoming train.

Miss Beadle is relieved of her duties as schoolmarm when the misbehavior of several of the older students becomes too much. In her stead is Hannibal Applewood, a strict disciplinarian whom students call "Mr. Crabapple" in disdain.

During a recession, Charles and Mr. Edwards take a job handling highly explosive liquid dynamite along a rough and dangerously winding road.

To buy Caroline a new set of china, Charles secretly takes a woodworking job for an attractive young widow. The problem is, Mrs. Oleson plants a suggestion in Mary's mind that there is more going on than woodworking behind closed doors.

Walnut Grove prepares to celebrate the nation's centennial, but the party is threatened with cancellation when their taxes go up. A Russian immigrant, Yuli Pyatakov, gives an impassioned speech about what it's like to live in America, and that he loves his new land despite its faults. The townsfolk are inspired to resume the celebration.

Mrs. Whipple's son, Granville, returns to Walnut Grove to resume his career as a music teacher. He becomes close to Mary Ingalls, who offers to copy music in exchange for lessons.

MThe Ingalls family's crops and farm lie in ruin, due to a devastating tornado that sweeps through Hero Township.