Toward the Sunset
- Book 1 is called "The Land-Taking" which is, uh, literal. These settlers straight up take the land.
- A Norwegian family makes its way across the prairies of The United States. The dad's name is Per Hansa and he's travelling with his wife, Beret, and their three kids—Ole, Store-Hans, and And-Ongen.
- The family seems pretty worried about their journey. They were supposed to travel with a bigger group of Norwegian settlers. But they got separated earlier in their trip and now the family is trying its best to trace the same route that their friends took. How ominous is that?
- The family's been travelling for four weeks, and as you can imagine, they're tired and hungry and sick of travelling in a rickety old wagon.
- Little Store-Hans hops off the wagon and walks with his Pa, talking about all the great things he'll do when he's a man. He succeeds in entertaining Per Hansa with all his stories, at least.
- The narrator tells us that the great American prairies are beautiful, but also terrifying in a weird way.
- After the father (Per Hansa) has pushed them to travel a long way, he finally gives in and makes camp for the night. As they fall asleep, the children ask if they'll ever find the rest of their group. The father assures them they will, although he's quite unsure on the inside. He knows that he isn't on the right track because he hasn't seen any signs of his friends' camps.
- That night, Per Hansa can't sleep. So he gets up and explores the territory around his family's camp. While exploring, he finds the remains of an old campfire. That means he's on the right track and that his friends have been here recently! He finds some old horse dung and crumbles it in his hands to see how fresh it is. Which is gross, but understandable when you're in a life-and-death situation.
- He returns to his family's camp filled with hope and happiness. He sees that his wife Beret is sitting up for him when he gets back and asks her what's up. She says she's been awake all night and that she knows how lost they are. Hansa takes this opportunity to tell her about the campfire he found and assures her that they're on the right track.