Little heathens : hard times and high spirits on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression / Mildred Armstrong Kalish.

1: The family -- Foreground -- Great-Grandpa Jonathan -- Aunt Belle -- Thanksgiving -- 2: Building character -- Oral influences -- Literary influences -- Religious influences -- Thrift -- Medicine -- Chores -- Farm food -- An especially pleasant chore -- Water windmill -- Milking and other nightly chores -- Wash day -- Outhouses -- 3: Fall/Winter -- Country school: Monroe Number 6 -- Box social -- Gathering nuts -- Gathering wood -- Winter is Icumen in, Lhude sing Goddamm! -- Town school: Garrison -- 4: Spring/Summer -- Leisure time -- Gardening -- Spring in Yankee Grove -- May baskets -- Birds -- Animal tales -- Raccoons and other critters.

A memoir from a schoolteacher of growing up in the heart of the Midwest during the Great Depression describes life on an Iowa farm during a time of endless work, resourcefulness, no tolerance for idleness or waste, family, and kinship.