live like kings

The phrase "live like kings" is the Ingalls family's recurring promise of a prosperous future in the West, first spoken by Pa after acquiring seeds and a plough, and repeated when spring planting begins. It encapsulates the family's hopes for the rich prairie land and their belief in the opportunities of the frontier, even as it stands in tension with the realities of Indian removal and the eventual government order to leave.

The Promise of the West

Pa's vision of the West, which he shared with Ma during the long winter evenings in Wisconsin, was one of abundance and freedom. He described a land where "the land is flat and the grass grows thick and high," where animals run freely and only Indians live. This dream of a place with no settlers and plentiful game was the foundation for the family's decision to leave their comfortable home, despite Ma's hesitation about the cold weather and the comfort they would be leaving behind. The phrase "live like kings" became the verbal embodiment of this dream, a promise of a life of plenty in a land that seemed to offer everything.

The Plough, the Seeds, and the First Promise

The promise was first made concrete when Pa returned from Independence with a plough and a variety of seeds. He had traded the bundle of furs for these essential tools of farming, and he brought back tobacco seeds, corn seeds, and the seeds of many vegetables like carrots and potatoes. At the happiest supper the family had enjoyed in a long time, Pa declared to Ma, "I tell you, Caroline, when these seeds grow in this rich land of ours, we'll be living like kings!" This moment marked a turning point, as the family's abstract dream of the West began to take the tangible form of a farm, with the plough ready to break the rich, treeless, stoneless soil.

The Work of the Land

The promise was tied to the hard work of transforming the prairie. Pa worked diligently with Pet and Patty, the horses pulling the heavy plough to break up the grassy earth and turn it over. The land was rich, and Pa liked it because there wasn't a tree or stone in it, making it ideal for planting. This labor was the necessary counterpart to the dream of living like kings; the abundance they hoped for was not a gift but something to be earned through the sweat of their labor and the strength of their animals. The plough itself became a symbol of this transformation, a tool that would turn the wild prairie into a productive farm.

The Promise Renewed in Spring

After the long winter and the threat of the prairie fire, the promise was renewed with the arrival of spring. One morning the whole prairie was green, and Pa hurried into the field with the horses and his plough. Mary and Laura helped Ma plant the seeds for the vegetables, and they were all happy because spring had come. It was then that Pa repeated his promise: "Soon we'll have vegetables to eat and we'll live like kings!" This second utterance of the phrase came at a moment of hope and renewal, when the family's hard work seemed about to bear fruit and the dream of prosperity felt within reach.

The Dream Against the Reality of Removal

The promise of living like kings was shadowed by the reality of the family's situation. Pa had explained to Laura that when white settlers arrive in a place, the Indians have to move away, and that the government makes them. He told her, "That's why we're here. Lots of white people are going to come and live here. We came first to choose the best land." This understanding of the West as a place of opportunity for white settlers was built on the displacement of the Indians, a fact that the family accepted as natural and inevitable. The dream of prosperity was thus inseparable from the colonial project of expansion, and the phrase "live like kings" carried with it the unspoken cost of that expansion.

The Unfulfilled Promise

The promise of living like kings was ultimately unfulfilled. The government in Washington, which had told the settlers it was all right to build their houses in Indian Territory, now decided to send soldiers to make them leave. Pa, his face red and his eyes like blue fire, refused to wait to be taken away like a criminal. "We're going now!" he declared, and the family prepared to leave the little house on the prairie. As they drove away, Pa said to Ma, "It's a great country, Caroline. But there will be wild Indians and wolves here for many years." The dream of a settled life of abundance was replaced by the reality of constant movement, and the promise of living like kings dissolved into the uncertainty of the road, where "you never know what will happen next, nor where you will be tomorrow, when you are travelling in a covered wagon."