The School Board's Visit

...She had been so angry that it was hard to remember exactly what she had said. "I said that you have as much to say about the school as anybody. Then I said, 'It's too bad your father doesn't own a place in town.Maybe if you weren't just country folks, your father could be on the school board.'"

"Oh, Laura, " Ma said sorrowfully. "That made her angry."

"I wanted to," said Laura. "I meant to make her mad. When we lived on Plum Creek she was always making fun of Mary andme because we were country girls. She can find out what it feels like, herself."

"Laura, Laura," Ma protested in distress. "How can you be so unforgiving? That was years ago."...

Pa said..."So Nellie twisted what you said and told it to Miss Wilder, and that's made all this trouble. I see...Well, Laura, maybe you have learned a lesson that is worth while. Just remember this, 'A dog that will fetch a bone, will carry a bone.'"

Littl e Town On The Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1941 Harper and Bros.