Little House on the Prairie

When a new banker, Mr. Sprague, arrives in Walnut Grove he seems determined to dislike everything and everyone in the place. Charles wants to be able to strike up some kind of acquaintanceship with him because he is a genial man at the best of times, and he requires an important loan which only Mr. Sprague can grant him. Mr. Sprague gives him an outright 'no' upon application.



Things aren't looking good until the banker runs into Laura partaking of her favourite pastime. Fishing. Seems that Mr. Sprague enjoys the same thing too and the pair of them get to talking before fate intervenes and brings the banker and the Ingalls family together in a most unlikely way.



Not a bad episode but I feel the script could have been a bit stronger in some areas and that would have made it much better.

Mr. Sprague becomes Walnut Grove's first banker, but his curt and abrupt way of dealing with the townsfolk endears him to no one--except Laura Ingalls. After Jack scares Sprague's horse and causes his buggy to crash, Laura's apologetics and disarming sweetness charm him into becoming her "fishing buddy". He's unaware, however, that Mr. Ingalls, whom he's already had a disagreement with regarding a loan, and Mrs. Ingalls, whom he's already had a disagreement with over contributing money for new school textbooks, are her parents. When he finds out, Sprague accuses Laura of trying to "get on his good side", for the sake of her parents. In reality, Laura has no idea that her new friend is the mean banker everyone's talking about.

Charles confronts Sprague about his cold-heartedness, and in true LHOTP form, the school soon finds itself in possession of a crate of brand new McGuffey Readers, and the Ingalls have a new dinner guest. A fine episode that introduces a semi-recurring character to the show.