Little House on the Prairie

Charles has just delivered some freight to Mankato. As he is walking down the street, he hears a familiar voice yelling in a nearby saloon. Entering the place, he spots a drunk Edwards making a ruckus. He walks him out of the saloon and takes him to the river to sober up. Charles talks him into returning with him to Walnut Grove. Once there, he helps Charles unload the wagon while making an unfavorable impression upon the town's postmistress, Grace Snider. At the Ingalls, Laura is in bed with a minor tonsil infection as Pa returns. Mary and Caroline greet Mr. Edwards as he tactfully explains how he came to be there. He inquires about Half Pint and he and Charles decide to surprise her. Edwards is alarmed when he discovers that she has a fever and yells at Charles. Edwards promises Laura he will stay at least until she recovers from her illness.



Charles shows him where he can bunk in the barn. Edwards apologizes to Charles and explains that his first wife and daughter died of smallpox and he panicked when he saw Laura with a fever. At the dinner table, first Mary and then Caroline try to persuade Edwards to stay on. Edwards balks until Laura, from the loft and Carrie, at the table, chime in and he caves. Charles agrees to help him find a job at the mill. In bed, Caroline decides the widow Snider would be perfect for Edwards. At the mill, Hanson agrees to hire Edwards. As Edwards works at the mill, Grace Snider walks by. He tips his hat but she just ignores him. At the Ingalls, Doc Baker is examining Laura. At the mill, Edwards spies a jug in the water but it is empty. He fills it with water and stashes it. At the post office, Grace is locking up when she spies Edwards drinking from the jug. At the Ingalls, Edwards is greeted by a now healthy Laura. He gives her a present: a bottle of lemon verbena--just like Miss Beadle's. He promises to stay around for a spell.



"It was wonderful to have Mr. Edwards back with us again. He said it seemed like old times. Different house, different part of the country. But the same loving family." Charles is playing his fiddle as the family sits around the table relaxing after supper. The next morning, Caroline asks Edwards to stop at the post office after work to check on the mail. However, Charles sees right through her ruse.



At the Post Office, Edwards stops by to check on the mail but Grace is a little short with him. She watches him go back to the mill, pull out his jug and take a drink. Exasperated, she goes across to the mill and checks the jug. Edwards surprises her and she offers an apology. Edwards offers her a drink and she takes it just as Hanson happens by. At the farm, Charles and Caroline are doing chores around the barn when Edwards returns, singing his favorite ditty. He tells them that Walnut Grove has a fine post office but that they didn't have any mail. As Edwards heads into the house, Caroline congratulates herself on her matchmaking plans but Charles tells her not to get ahead of herself until she talks to Mrs. Snider.



At church on Sunday, Rev. Alden's sermon is on the perils of drink. Hanson glances surreptitiously at Mrs Snider. After church, Hanson makes it a point to discuss the sermon with Grace and Caroline and make a pointed comment that the problem afflicts women as well as men. Caroline invites Grace to supper but she declines. At supper, Edwards gets an idea from Mary's Sunday school happenings for how to make Grace more interested in him. At the creek, Edwards cons Laura into addressing an envelope for him and swearing to secrecy about the letter. Edwards intercepts the mail wagon and asks the driver to mail a letter for him when he reaches Mankato. At the mill, Hanson pays Edwards his week's pay.



At the Post Office, Grace notices a letter addressed to Edwards at the Ingalls. The letter smells of lemon verbena. Edwards arrives at the Post Office to check the mail and Grace gives him the letter. He smells the letter and then grabs a chair to read it. Of course, the paper is blank but he oohs and aahs just the same, smells it once more and then leaves. Later at the mill, Edwards is about to take a drink when he offers one to a passing Grace and she accepts. He connives her into accepting an invitation to dinner at the Ingalls. At the farm, Caroline is lamenting to Charles her lack of success in the matchmaking department when Edwards pulls up driving Grace in her buggy.



After dinner, the adults are celebrating outside the house. Charles is playing his fiddle and Edwards, Caroline and Grace are dancing a jig. Mary and Laura are watching this from their bedroom window. Afterward, Edwards takes Grace home. Edwards expresses his gratitude to the Ingalls for inviting him to Walnut Grove but Grace, mindful of the letter Edwards received from Mankato, is hesitant. Edwards invites Grace to go fishing with him and she accepts. He leaves, singing his familiar ditty. At the fishing hole, Laura has joined the couple and Grace comments on her perfume when Laura mentions that Edwards gave it to her and reminds him of when he put some on that envelope. Grace realizes that Edwards duped her with the letter from Mankato but she is not mad at him. At the mill, Hanson is pleased to see Grace coming over--until he sees her take a drink from Edwards' jug. Edwards is having coffee with Grace at her place when they get into an argument about church. Since his wife and daughter died, Edwards doesn't believe in God. Grace ends their date and refuses to see him again. At Oleson's, Caroline runs into Grace but she rejects any further contact with them.



After supper, Caroline visits Edwards in the barn loft and discovers he is leaving Sunday morning. Caroline asks him about Grace and he tells her that his non-belief in God is the reason they parted company. Caroline admonishes Edwards for punishing God and then tells him goodbye. Edwards recites his ditty softly...At church the next morning, the parishioners are singing a hymn when Edwards walks in and sits next to Grace.