Season 1 Episode 17 “The Plague”- Little House on the Prairie

There are rats in Mr. Peterson’s cornmeal storage shed. He sells his cornmeal cheaper than Mr. Hansen, so many of the poor families in the area buy Mr. Peterson’s cornmeal. Mr. Hansen wonders how Mr. Peterson can sell his cornmeal so cheap and where he must be getting his supply.

The Bolton family bought many bags of cornmeal from Mr. Peterson. Mr. Bolton is very grateful for it. He thinks that Mr. Peterson is doing a great service to all the families in the area by selling his cornmeal so cheap.

The Ingalls family is eating dinner and Laura begins complaining of a sore molar. Her father looks at it and decides she needs to see the doctor. Charles takes Laura to see Doctor Baker. He examines the tooth and tells Laura that he needs to pull it out. Dr. Baker tries to help Laura feel better about it by telling that the tooth fairy will bring her money for her tooth. Mr. Bolton comes in the office and asks the doctor if he will come to his home and examine his son, who has had a fever for two days. The doctor goes to the Bolton home and finds that the boy has a very high fever and that Mrs. Bolton also has a fever. The doctor is not sure what they are suffering from. He does not notice the fleas in the bag of cornmeal on the floor.

It’s bedtime and Laura is counting her teeth and dreaming of all the money she’ll get when they all fall out. She would love to buy a bunch of candy at the Oleson’s store. Meanwhile, Dr. Baker is doing all he can to cool down the sick Bolton family members with ice. Mrs. Bolton dies, but the son is still hanging on. Dr. Baker starts to wonder if the sickness is Typhus.

At the end of the Sunday service, Dr. Baker comes into the church and announces that Mrs. Bolton has passed away and that he thinks that it was Typhus. He tells everyone to stay at home and not to let their children go to school until he makes sure the threat is gone.

The Ingalls children are home studying and Charles is going out to hunt for some food for the family. The girls ask Charles how one gets Typhus. He tells them that is comes from fleas that are on rats.

While Charles is out hunting, he comes across a run-away wagon. The driver has collapsed and his wife is lying in the back of the wagon. Charles takes them to Doctor Baker’s office in town. It looks like they have Typhus as well. The doctor tells Charles that his is exposed to the disease now and that he can’t go home until the threat of spreading it is gone. He asks Charles to help him make the church into a hospital, to get supplies from the Oleson’s, and to let the Reverend know that they will be using the church. Charles also rides home and won’t let his family approach him. He tells them that he’s been exposed to typhus and will be in town helping. They are all very worried about him.

Charles tells the Reverend about the hospital and he insists on coming along to help. They go around to the farms, gathering all the sick. When he arrives at the Bolton’s no one is in the house. He finds Mr. Bolton under a tree on the hill, holding his dead son. Mr. Bolton won’t admit that his son is dead and is pretending that he is just sleeping. He asks Charles to leave them alone.

Charles stops by to tell his friend, Mr. Edwards, about the spread of Typhus. Mr. Edwards invites Charles in for some of his cornmeal cakes, but Charles declines and tells him he is exposed to Typhus and can’t come in. He asks Mr. Edwards to keep an eye on Caroline and the girls if anything happens to him. Charles continues on his rounds and collects eleven more people from the farms all over the area. The doctor can’t figure out how the disease is spreading since most of the families haven’t been in contact with each other.

Charles, the Doctor, and the Reverend work night and day helping the sick and burying the dead. Charles stops by his home every few days to let them know he’s alright. He’s very tired and weary from all the work and death. Caroline is extremely worried about him and they are sad from the possibility of becoming sick.

When Charles comes back to the hospital, he notices his friend, Mr. Edwards amongst the sick. He had brought himself in that afternoon.

The town seems abandoned because everyone is staying at home. Dr. Baker gets more ice and is having trouble getting up the stairs with it. Charles comes to assist him. The Doctor expresses his frustrations to Charles about not knowing where the source of the disease is coming from. He can’t understand how it is spreading because the sick are coming from all over but none of them live near the ones that are infected.

Charles goes back to the hospital to tend to the sick again and a young girl calls to him. She asks him if her parents are alright and wonders if she will die. She says she is not afraid of dying because the angels will be there to greet her like the Reverend told them in church. More people continue dying. Mr. Edwards is conscious and Charles makes a joke about Edwards’ cornmeal cakes making him sick. Mr. Edwards makes a comment about his cornmeal not being as fancy as Mr. Hansen’s but it was cheaper to buy from Mr. Peterson. Suddenly Charles realizes that most of the people he collected that are sick had cornmeal in their homes that came from Mr. Peterson.

Charles and the Doctor run over to Mr. Peterson’s storage shed. It is locked, so they go to his office, where they find Mr. Peterson collapsed in his bed. They get the keys and open the shed to find it infested with rats. They lock it up again and burn it to the ground. All the people finally get better and Mr. Edwards recovers as well. Charles invites him home for a good supper. Caroline and the girls come out to greet them and are overjoyed to have him home again.