The Gift

Season 2, Episode 11, Aired
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Episode Summary

Reverend Alden's birthday is coming up, and the Sunday School children have raised enough money to purchase a gift. School treasurer Mary is elected to order the gift and present it to the Reverend, but with only $1.67 to spend, it's obvious that they can't afford anything fancy...until Laura coaxes Mary into taking a dangerous gamble to double the money.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (2)

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  • The Sunday School class need to buy a gift for Reverend Alden's birthday, but they only have a very small amount of money ...

    8.0
    "Great"
    By Lady_Lancaster, Dec 12, 2011 Report Abuse
    One dollar and sixty-seven cents is not a lot of money when you wanto to buy your Reverend a lovely new bible for his upcoming birthday, but that's all the cash the Sunday School class have and none of the bibles in the catalogue are that cheap and so, Laura hatches what she considers to be an ingenius plan - she sends for some mail order patent medicines which supposedly cure just about everything and intends to sell them door to door. A reluctant Mary had given her the money from the Sunday School fund. Nellie Oleson learns that the class are going to buy him a bible and sets about making sure that she and her family present him with the best one available while Laura learns a hard lesson about quack medicines - nobody will buy them, not even for 25 cents a bottle!

    The dilemma is fixed, however, when Reverend Alden speaks during his Sunday sermon about how the ratty old bible that he carries used to belong to his father and that he would never part with it, but he is delighted with the lovely wooden 'case' the Sunday School class have given him to keep it in! Ah well, at least the medicines were worth something!moreless

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  • The Ingalls girls learn a hard lesson in business when their plan to raise cash for Rev. Alden's birthday gift goes awry.

    8.0
    "Great"
    By ceosmom, May 08, 2011 Report Abuse
    In this endearing episode, the Sunday school students decide to pool their money to buy Reverend Alden a new bible for his birthday. The collected $1.67 is entrusted to Mary, who finds a nice one in a catalog and plans to order it immediately. Laura, who thinks he should have one "with real gold lettering on the cover", talks Mary into buying one for $4. She also finds a way to pay for it--or so she thinks. She uses the original funds to buy medicine to sell door-to-door for a profit. Various sales techniques fail to sell even a single bottle. The girls, terrified of what their classmates will think, confess their mistake to Charles, and to reverend Alden, just before Sunday services. In typical LHOTP fashion, the reverend quickly changes his sermon to one on "the gift of love", whereupon he holds up a wooden box(which we know contains the medicine), and thanks the children of the class for this "lovely bible case...how did you know my old bible was falling apart, and needed a case"? A subplot involves the Oleson children's refusal to donate to the fund; they buy their own bible for him, but don't give it to him after he announces from the pulpit that, "when you're a reverend, everyone gives you a bible, but never a bible case". The Oleson kids get "served", which is always satisfying.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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    • In the church scene at the end, if you look closely to where Doctor Baker is sitting, you can see the heart shape that says "Jason Loves Laura" from the episode The Talking Machine, also from Season 2, which is unusual since this episode was aired before The Talking Machine. Edit
    • Lurene Tuttle, here playing the elderly Mrs. Molson, was a very well-known radio actress. She went on to become an acting coach as well, and her only child, a daughter, married famous movie score composer John Williams ("Star Wars", "Superman", and many others.) Edit
    • Isn't it ironic that Laura's the one who suggests that the Sunday School children keep their gift idea a secret from everyone, but then she's the first one to almost blab it to her parents in the very next scene? Edit

  • Notes

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    • Filming Locations: Filmed at Big Sky Ranch, Simi Valley, with Sierra location scenes filmed at Basin Creek, Tuolumne and 1975 stock clip of Shay Locomotive No. 3 at Red Hills, Chinese Camp, California, and Paramount Studios, Hollywood, California. Edit

  • Quotes

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    • Laura: Ma'am, I'm a poor child, and I need your help. My Ma died, and my Pa's awful sick. Woman: Oh, that's terrible! Laura: That's why I'm doing everything I can to help. I'm selling Dr. Briskin's Homopathic Remedies. Woman: Selling? You? Laura: Yes, ma'am. This one is for colic, and this one is for diseases of the heart, and this one is for stomach troubles. Any sickness you have, I've got the cure for it. Woman: If that's true, why is your mother dead and your father sick? Edit
    • Mary: Laura, it's not our money! Laura: But we'll be doubling it. What's wrong with that? Mary: Laura! Laura: Well, you know what Pa said about taking chances. You just have faith and work hard, and everything will turn out all right. Mary: He said mostly. Laura: Well, there's two of us, and that's a lot of mostly! Edit
    • Laura: You just have to take a chance sometimes, don't you, Pa? Charles: That's part of being alive. Laura: Like when we came across the prairie? Charles: Sure. Some folks would have been afraid of what they might run into, so they just didn't try it. Laura: And everything worked out, didn't it, Pa? Charles: That it did. Mary: What if it hadn't? Charles: Well, then you just take a deep breath and start over. Laura: But mostly, everything works out, doesn't it, Pa? Charles: Yeah, mostly--if you have faith and work hard. Edit

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