Of course it's her birthday. It was on this day in 1867, Charles Dickens' 55th birthday, less than two years after Lincoln's assassination, when Charles & Caroline Ingalls welcomed their second daughter into the world. Because of the books she would write, we know about her parents, her sisters, certainly a great deal more about what it felt like to live in her times. Legions of little girls dress up in cotton print dresses and poky bonnets. Folks go gallivanting across the countryside as I did this past summer, down to Independence, KS [a thrill, small but genuine, driving over a bridge, catching sight of the sign Verdigris River]; up to De Smet, So. Dakota & elsewhere, all to visit the places where the restless Ingallses settled themselves and in doing so, they have their own adventures, snapping pictures and gathering blog fodder.

Ah well. Gotta go. My little sister's on the phone. Laura, born when I was almost 11 - my folks let me name her after my favorite author.