In this chapter introduces four-year-old Laura Ingalls along with her family’s gray house of logs in the woods of Wisconsin. Along with all the trees, many animals live in this area, including wolves. Although Laura finds their howling scary, Jack the bulldog and her father’s gun protect her when she is sleeping next to her sister, Mary. One night her Pa, Charles Ingalls, even carries her to the window to see two of them in front of the house.

The house is described as comfortable with a crooked rail fence and two oak trees in front. Laura discovers one day that two deer have been thrown over its branches. Pa had killed them, and they eat venison that night. He hunts all day now, and when he does not hunt he works to store the meat properly for winter. He goes through the process of smoking the meat with hickory chips. He also brings home fish and works on fattening a pig they own, although one day the pig is threatened by a bear and Pa uses his gun to scare it away. The Ingallses also own a garden for vegetables.

One day Uncle Henry comes over, and he and Pa slaughter the pig.