Skip to content

How Much Do You Know About Mary?

  1. Where and when was Mary born?
    January 10, 1865, in Pepin, Wisconsin. This is the setting for The Little House in the Big Woods.
  2. What was Mary's middle name?
    Amelia
  3. When Mary was a little girl, what color were her hair ribbons?
    Blue. Laura's ribbons were pink.
  4. Laura's ragdoll was named Charlotte. What was the name of Mary's ragdoll?
    Nettie
  5. When Pa played "Mad Dog" with his daughters, Laura screamed, leaped, and scrambled over the wood-box. What did Mary do?
    Mary was so frightened she couldn't move, so Laura dragged her over the wood-box.
  6. What kind of quilt did Mary make in the Little House in the Big Woods?
    A nine-patch quilt
  7. When Laura and Mary found colorful beads at an abandoned Indian camp, what did Mary offer to do?
    She said that Carrie could have her beads. Laura wanted to keep the beads she found for herself, but she couldn't let Mary be better than she was, so she gave them to Carrie too.
  8. When Nellie Oleson wrinkled her nose, sniffed, and called Mary and Laura "country girls," Laura was furious. What did Mary say?
    "We are country girls."
  9. Laura received a little fur cape and muff at the Christmas party in On the Banks of Plum Creek. What was on the tree for Mary?
    A book, a pair of blue mittens, and a dark blue coat.
  10. What disease caused Mary to go blind?
    Scarlet fever. But in By the Shores of Silver Lake, Laura calls it brain fever. Some scholars think she might have had measles. Not including congenital blindness, measles and scarlet fever were the main causes of childhood blindness in the nineteenth century.
  11. Did Mary still do housework after she was blind?
    Yes. She made the beds and washed the dishes and cared for her younger sisters. She also sewed and knitted.
  12. What household item Mary make during one of the blizzards in The Long Winter?
    A rag rug.
  13. What did Mary say when Ma told Grace she was too heavy to sit in Mary's lap?
    "Oh no, Grace. I like to hold you, even though you are a big three year old girl."
  14. What was Mary's favorite psalm?
    The 23rd Psalm
  15. What song did the Ingalls family consider "Mary's song"?
    "Highland Mary"
  16. Where did Mary's mother keep Mary's "college fund"?
    In a red pocketbook under the bed.
  17. Although Mary is blind, she says, "We are glad to see you again, sir," Who was she glad to see?
    Mr. Edwards
  18. What did Mr. Edwards leave for Mary after he visited the family in South Dakota?
    A twenty-dollar bill--the equivalent of more than $1,000 today. He put it in her lap and no one noticed until she stood up after he left. It was quite a lot of money then, but they couldn't return it because they never saw him again.
  19. What did Ma pack for lunch on the day she and Pa took Mary to college?
    Fried blackbirds. The birds had destroyed the corn crop.
  20. What presents did Mary bring for her family the first time she visited them after going to college?
    A lamp mat for her mother, a handkerchief for her father, bracelets for Laura and Carrie, and a doll bed for Grace.
  21. What was the name of Mary's roommate her first year at college?
    Blanche
  22. When did Mary tell Laura, "I'll never see so well with anybody else"?
    On her visit home -- the last one before Laura's wedding.
  23. What was the name of Mary's husband?
    The real Mary never married. Only on the TV show did she have a husband.
  24. What did Mary think of her sister's books?
    She never read them. Mary died in 1928, four years before Laura published Little House in the Big Woods.



, ©2010, American Printing House for the Blind, Inc.