Little House on the Prairie Episode Rating Graph

Mary, Adam, Hester Sue, the Wilders, and the Ingalls are all together for Christmas. The snow begins falling and soon they are snowed in by a blizzard. To pass time, several of them tell stories. Laura talks about the Christmas in Kansas when Mr. Edwards came.

A widowed mother named Julia Sanderson (Patricia Neal) learns she has a terminal illness and, with no close relatives to care for her three children, John Jr., Carl and Alicia, she gets Charles to promise to find the children a new home after she dies. Meanwhile, Laura and Mary rescue some abandoned puppies, and the relationship between Mr. Edwards and Grace Snider begins to blossom.

Charles must take a delivery to Mankato immediately and is unable to finish the addition to his house. Caroline hires a handsome man, Chris, to finish the house. Mary suspects that her Ma and Chris are falling in love.

As the Ingalls, Garveys and Olesons return to Walnut Grove they discover a town that is badly in need of repair. With a lot of hard work, from everyone around them, they're able to get the town back to its old self, helping a number of people who feel they are living in a dead town, like Lars Hanson.

When Mrs. Oleson meets Hester-Sue Terhune she is very disappointed to discover she is black. Hester-Sue has bought black children to join the rest of the blind school and they all continue the journey onwards to Walnut Grove. In the end it takes the words of a little blind black boy to teach her that prejudice is wrong, and Harriet comes to a crossroads in her life, whilst Adam will have to face his deepest fear as he comes to a crossing of his own.

The Christmas holiday is approaching and the members of the Ingalls family go about their holiday shopping in secrecy. Laura is able to buy her mom a stove that she wanted after she sells her horse to Mr. Oleson.

Mary is beginning to do worse in school because she has a hard time reading the blackboard. When Mary first gets her new glasses, she really likes them. The other school children begin to tease her. She purposely loses her glasses, until she realizes that her teacher, who wears glasses, has a boyfriend.

An overweight boy comes to school at Walnut Grove. The schoolkids pick on him because he is so heavy. Nancy persuades the boy to bully the other school children. The jokes of the school children get so bad that the obese boy decides to quit school. The school children then decide that enough is enough. They go over and apologize to him.

Almanzo asks for Laura's hand in marriage. Mr. Ingalls tells Almanzo to wait until Laura was eighteen. Not wanting to wait, Almanzo forces Laura to choose him or respect her father. Laura respects her father's wishes. Almanzo leaves town and causes Laura a lot of heartache. Harriet hires Percival Dalton to help her in the restaurant. Nellie and Percival fall in love and eventually Percival asks Nellie to marry him. Adam's father dies, which means that a new blind school wouldn't be built in Walnut Grove.

Laura and Mary start school for the first time. That is where they meet Nellie Oleson. Since Laura hasn't been to school before, she tries especially hard with her schoolwork. The students have to write an essay to present in front of the class. Laura recites what she would have written on the paper if she could have, instead of what was actually written on it.

Laura and Nellie are rivals for the affections of a classmate's heart. The two polar opposites are after Jason, the new kid at school who is into inventions. Both of them have crushes on Jason, but Jason - who is into inventions and electricity - only has feelings for Laura...

Mary falls in love with Seth. When Mary's eyesight starts to get worse, Charles takes her to a specialist. He is devastated when the specialist tells him that Mary will lose her sight. Charles is unable to tell Mary for a while that she is going blind. When Mary does go blind, the whole family suffers.

After Ms. Beadle sprains her ankle, Caroline becomes the substitute teacher. Caroline takes a special interest in helping an older student, Abel, learn to read. One day Mrs. Oleson shows up and causes Abel to quit school. Because of this Caroline quits, but returns after she convinces Abel to give school another chance.

A story of fear (for the brothers), heartache and love. Houston, an old man, takes care of two runaway orphans. The orphans were running away because the orphanage wants to separate them. Houston talks to the adopting parents and convinces them to take both of the kids.

Solomon Henry, an eleven year old black boy, runs away from his family because he's tired of everybody treating him different. He goes to live with the Ingalls. The Ingalls learn many important things and Laura learns an important lesson : Don't take things for granted. The Ingalls convince Solomon to be proud of his heritage. Solomon goes back to his family in the end.

Eliza Jane falls in love with Harv, but is afraid to tell him how she feels. Eliza Jane is devastated when she finds out Harv has somebody else in his life. Since Eliza Jane doesn't want to see Almanzo and Laura break up, she decides to leave and tells Almanzo to chase after Laura to tell her that she could teach in Walnut Grove. Laura and Almanzo then get married at the blind school.

Nels' brother sends his 12-year-old son to Walnut Grove after repeated conflicts at home and school. When Mrs. Oleson interferes in her husband's plans to rehabilitate his nephew, Nels asks Charles to step in and teach the boy some values.

Charles takes a job refinishing woodwork for Thurman in exchange for a nice set of china to give to Caroline. Widow Thurman was a lovely, young lady. To keep his secret, Charles had to lie. After he tells the girls and Caroline different stories, everyone suspects that Charles is having an affair.

Andy Garvey's mother is embarrassed by her son's performance at school. She hires Nellie Oleson to tutor him. Nellie reveals to Andy how she gets such good grades. Nellie makes Andy keep the secret of Nellie cheating. Andy eventually admits what he has been doing and his mother makes sure that Nellie isn't able to cheat on the next test.

When Laura is playing along a creek, she finds a bottle with a note in it. The note read, ""Be my friend."" Laura convinces Pa to help her look for the person who sent the note. They end up finding a baby. Charles then searches for the parents of the child. The baby belongs to teen parents. The reason the mother left the baby for the Ingalls to find was because her dad was opposed to her being with the guy she conceived the child with. The young parents take the baby and try things again.

Adam and Mary move back to Walnut Grove so that Adam can start a law practice there. Adam's first case involves a person who has been swindling people in Walnut Grove. Adam believes the person is innocent until he finds out the truth. Adam convinces the jury to have pity on this man who was just trying to help out his family before he dies.

A blind person has a talent for painting. Her work is so good, it soon gets publicized. The person's biological mother comes and tries to make up for what happened in the past. Only after the blind person learns that her mother abandoned her so that she could have a better life did she agree to see her mother.

Reverend Alden gets sick while collecting donations. Caleb Hodgekiss, an ex-convict, helps the Reverend by giving him a place to stay and volunteering to get the donations from Walnut Grove. Caleb poses as a friend of the Reverend so that he might get donations which he initially planned to keep for himself.

The Ingalls settle on the banks of Plum Creek in Walnut Grove. To get the farm set up, Charles must take on several jobs at once. He promises one person that if he didn't get the job done in the specified time, the person could have his oxen.

Adam Simms and his son Luke move into town. Adam falls in love with Miss Beadle, while Luke and Nellie Oleson fall for each other. After Miss Beadle talks to Nellie about love and marriage, Nellie and Luke decide to get married.

The day before Christmas vacation started, Miss Beadle lets the children out early when she notices that a snowstorm is beginning. The children aren't able to make it home before the storm starts. The men of Walnut Grove search for the children while Doc Baker takes care of the frostbitten children that show up at the school.

Mrs. Olesen may finally get to drive those ""homely"" Ingalls from Walnut Grove for good when the family gets an inheritance from a wealthy relative. Against their better judgement, Charles spends the money on farm equipment and other things before finding out he used worthless Confederate funds to make the purchases.

Laura finds that balancing her teaching duties at school and managing Almonzo's orchard, while he and Charles are gone on a delivery trip to Arizona, too much to handle. Her heart-to-heart talk with a maturing Willie may hold the key to both their futures.

After the mill closes, Charles is unable to pay off his debt at the mercantile. Mr. Hanson is forced to close the mill after one of his big customers declares bankruptcy. This was after Hanson had already shipped them a bunch of lumber. Charles had been expecting two months worth of wages before Hanson was forced to close down. Charles must taken on several jobs at the same time. Mary gets a job to help the family, while Laura does the chores at home. When the bill finally gets paid, Nels tells Charles that he thinks Charles is the richest man in Walnut Grove, since he has a very loving family.

The school district's superintendent comes to Walnut Grove, looking for someone who can replace a teacher who has fallen and broken her leg. Eliza Jane recommends Laura. Almanzo thinks he has no chance of Laura falling in love with him.

Toby Noe wins a lottery of $5,000 and becomes a man of means. He buys the children a cartload of fireworks, for an annual celebration. Standish dupes Toby into losing all his money using cards and drink at the saloon. Everything comes to a head as the fireworks go off in the saloon. The Ingalls, Olesons, and Garveys get tired of the bustling city life during all this (Nels getting drunk and wins a whole pile of money), and they decide quickly to return to Walnut Grove. The Ingalls take Albert along with them.

A college-educated farmer named Joe moves to Walnut Grove with his pregnant wife. He tells the Walnut Grove-area farmers of a new hybrid of corn that would produce good crops, to which the farmers are very enthused. They decide to buy some of this new seed. While on the way back to Walnut Grove with the seed, Joe gets into an accident, as the farmers wait for his return.

Laura connects with a sweet, shy classmate named Olga Nordstrom, who happens to have been born with a short leg. Charles has an idea that can change Olga’s entire life, but the challenge will be convincing the child’s stubborn widowed father.

The school children have saved up some money to buy the Reverend a birthday present. They give the money to Mary, who is in charge of buying the present. Laura convinces Mary to buy something that they could sell to people with the hope that they could buy Reverend Alden a better gift. The plan backfires.

In the beginning, things look very good for the Ingalls until a bad hailstorm ruins their crops. Charles and some other farmers must leave to look for work. They end up working in a quarry. While Charles is away, Caroline is able to get the women of Walnut Grove to join together to harvest the remaining crops.

Laura feels ignored and left out when Charles spends all of his time with Albert and the calf given to Albert. Albert runs away after overhearing Charles and Caroline talking about Laura not feeling that she is part of the family anymore. Laura takes Albert's calf to the fair and wins first place. She dedicates the award to Albert. Albert, who is secretly hiding and watching the show, comes out when he hears Laura's heartfelt words.

The Olesons get themselves invited onto the Ingalls family campout, after Nellie complains that it will give Laura and Mary an advantage for the school holiday project of leaf-collecting. The two men bond while fishing and their wives try to improve their relationship, but the children continue to clash. However, when Nellie falls into a river, her later false account of what happened brings out the same Mrs. Oleson. Back at the school, the result of the leaves project gives some satisfaction to Laura and Mary.

Albert, Mary and Jonathan - all deeply impacted by the fire at the School For the Blind - continue to deal with their emotions. Charles helps Jonathan realize that his alcoholism has taken a toll on his son, Andy, while Mary snaps out of her shock when she hears the melody of the music box Albert had purchased for her as a gift. But Mary's initial panic soon becomes Albert's when he finally understands his carelessness caused the fire that killed her baby and best friend's mother. Albert runs away, leading Charles and a reformed Jonathan to frantically search for the lad.

While studying for an optional history exam in the barn, Mary accidentally knocks over a reading lamp and starts a fire. Caroline punishes Mary by telling her she couldn't take the exam. Mary doesn't tell Ms. Beadle this until the day of the exam.

Mary starts to be able to distinguish light from dark and the Ingalls believe she is regaining her sight. Mary is taken to the specialist only to discover that a brain impulse was causing her to see light when she felt the heat from the sun coming through a window. While Mary is away, Albert and Laura fix up Mr. Edwards' old home. However, the only colors of paint that the mercantile has is pink and purple. Mary returns and talks to Laura in the old Edwards' cabin. Laura tells Mary that her and Albert were building a club house. Mary tells Laura she is glad she can't see the room after Laura tells her what colors they used.

Pa decides to take Laura hunting with him. When Charles and Laura are getting settled down for the night, Laura trips over her dad's gun and sets it off. Charles is badly wounded. Laura runs to get help, but the only person she can find is a blind person, Sam. Since Sam just recently became blind, he knew his way around somewhat. After getting lost a few times, Sam and Laura finally find Mr. Edwards' home. Mr. Edwards gets a doctor, who saves Mr. Ingalls. Thanks to Laura, Sam learned that just because he was blind didn't mean he had to stay at home and do nothing.

Charles and Caroline are going to have another baby. Caroline constantly refers to the baby as he. Caroline delivers the baby sooner than expected causing Charles to be the doctor. The baby ends up being a girl, Grace.

Believing that her jealousy was responsible for her infant brother's death and that her parents would rather have a son than a spare daughter, Laura climbs the highest hill she can find, hoping to get as close to God as possible to ask Him to take her instead and return the baby boy to the family. While Charles and Mr. Edwards desperately search for her, Laura meets Jonathan, a mystical mountain man who seems to have been sent purposely to guide her through this life-changing experience.

In this episode starring twins Lindsey and Sidney Greenbush, Charles takes a job on a telephone crew that is working in southern Minnesota, which requires him to be away from home for several weeks. Carrie, heartsick for her Pa and craving attention, only manages to get into everybody else's way, so the lonesome tyke creates an imaginary friend, Alyssa, to ease the pain.

Caroline Ingalls joins in protest with the rest of the Walnut Grove women to try to convince Charles and the other men to sign a petition addressing the injustice of a law that transfers a woman's property rights to her husband after marriage.

When Mrs. Carter's mother dies, Sarah Carter's father comes to town. He tries to get the Carters to come with home back to New York. He wants the Carters to have a better life. The Carters tell him that home sweet home is in Walnut Grove. After a while, Sarah's father begins to understand while the Carters feel this way.

While Mr. Edwards, Charles, and James are in Sleepy Eye, James gets shot during a bank robbery. James, who is in a coma, is taken to the hospital. While James is in the hospital, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Ingalls, and Albert look for the bank robbers. They find them and bring them to justice. Charles continues to believe that James will get better.

Laura's childhood friend, Jane Canfield, comes back to Walnut Grove. Although she is blind, she falls in love with Mr. Edwards, a person who was old enough to be her father. Jane then undergoes an operation which allows her to see again. After a lot of soul searching, Mr. Edwards tells Jane that she should go out and find herself a better life. At the end of the show, we see Mr. Edwards in the distance watching Jane leave on the stagecoach.

School bully Bart begins menacing his classmates, especially Albert. Tired of the constant harassment, Albert creates a paper maché werewolf mask to terrorize Bart into ceasing his bullying behavior. It works, until Carrie opens her mouth! It takes a joint effort by all of Bart's classmates to make him stop bullying.

Mr. Stark has gotten himself so far in debt that he has lost his mind. He goes home and shoots his wife and daughter. Then he goes off and ends up at Laura's house. He mistakes Laura and Jenny for his wife and daughter, but when he sees Rose, he thinks that his daughter has had a baby.

A former football star moves back to Walnut Grove. He agrees to become coach of the football team. His goal is to win at all costs. This kind of thinking puts Albert in great danger. Towards the end of the show the football coach starts to realize that winning isn't everything.

Royal has a very bad heart and asks Laura and Almanzo to take care of his daughter since he was going to die soon. Jenny is devastated by her father's death. After talking to Reverend Alden about heaven, she tries to commit suicide by drowning so that she could be with her father again. Jeb Carter is able to save Jenny although he can't swim. Laura convinces Jenny that she should do what would make her parents proud.

When Albert continually breaks the law, Charles takes him out of the big city and back to Walnut Grove. Albert doesn't change in Walnut Grove because he is addicted to morphine. Charles finally forces Albert to stop using morphine. He stays with Albert while he goes through withdrawal. Thanks to Charles, Albert is no longer addicted to morphine. We find out at the end of the show that Albert will become Dr. Albert Ingalls.

In an episode about hero worship, Charles and Nels share deep concerns over an aging circus performer's influence on the children of Walnut Grove. Particularly since some of them - Albert and Willie in particular - have tried some of the daredevil's more dangerous stunts, with mixed results.

Laura falls in love with a new student, Johnny Johnson. Johnny, who is a lot older than Laura, is interested in Mary instead. Although Mary is not interested in Johnny, Laura's actions cause tension between the sisters. When Charles finds this out, he is appalled that either of his girls is involved with Johnny.

Harriet finds a bearer bond from Walnut Grove. She uses this to try to get people to follow her suggestions. She tells the town council that if she doesn't get her way, she will cash in the bond which would force the town to pay Mrs. Oleson over $10,000.

Aging professional wrestler Milo Stavroupolis comes to nearby Mankato to "fight" the locals. Stavroupolis' promoter, the shrewd Jimmy Hart, convinces Jonathan Garvey to fight the old man ... unaware that the fight was "fixed." But there's even more heartbreak ahead, as Stavroupolis is suffering emotionally (and physically) after years of fighting; his beloved wife, Anna (herself desperately ill) has begged him to retire. The old man is convinced by Jonathan to substitute for him in the upcoming championship

Jenny looses a necklace in a pond and almost drowns trying to get it. After the incident, she has partial brain damage and has to retrain herself to talk and walk. Jenny's friend, a retired doctor, helps Jenny to force herself to get better. Thanks to him, Jenny makes a complete recovery.

After a boy is in an accident, he pretends to be blind to keep his parents from getting divorced. Laura discovers that the boy isn't blind, but doesn't tell his parents because the boy pleads with her not to. The boy is involved in another accident and has a concussion. The concussion causes him to not remember his pretending to be blind.

Laura's imagination runs wild on Halloween when she thinks she sees Nels cut off Mrs Oleson's head. Laura tells Nellie and Willie what she saw. Since the Oleson kids know that their mother is really out of town, they decide to scare Laura a little bit more. Everything is straightened up when Mrs. Oleson comes back.

A tiny circus performer, Lou, decides to look for work in Walnut Grove after his wife dies while giving birth to his baby girl. A prejudice Mrs. Oleson uses her power to make sure that the dwarf doesn't find work. She even threatens Mr. Anderson that she would close her account at the bank if he hired Lou. To keep the infant alive, the dwarf must steal food. Mrs. Oleson decides to press charges when she finds out who stole the food. When Nancy falls in a well, Lou risks his life to save the girl. That's when Mrs. Oleson decides that being small has its advantages and decides to drop all charges.

A minister that is passing through Walnut Grove arouses the suspicions of Reverend Alden and Mr. Edwards. Reverend Alden believes that he will lose his congregation to the other reverend. Mr. Edwards notices that this minister spends a lot of time with Mrs. Carter and Laura, which causes him to suspect the worse.

A 17-year-old budding criminal named Tod Dortmunder is sent to Walnut Grove to live with his grandparents after his mother loses patience with his ill-tempered behavior. His behavior becomes more violent, and when he is caught stealing Charles' watch, the grandparents (in part because they fear for their safety) turn to Charles for help. Charles proves to be the role model Tod never had, and efforts to rehabilitate the lad seem to be working. But even Charles is unaware of some dark secrets from Tod's childhood that don't surface until he destroys the present he gave him.

Mary is expecting a child. Mary is able to get Adam closer to his father because of the expectancy of a child. His father even suggests that Mary and Adam come live with him. After Mary has a miscarriage, Mary and Adam really find out that Adam's father only wanted to be with Adam because of the baby. They decide to remain in Walnut Grove.

The Ingalls are forced to sell their house to the Carters and leave Walnut Grove to find a more promising life. Mrs. Carter begins printing a newspaper for Walnut Grove. Etta Plum becomes the teacher in Walnut Grove when Laura decides she wants to spend more time with Rose. Almanzo's brother, Royal, comes to Walnut Grove with his daughter, Jenny.

The Ingallses and Olesons take a trip to the fair. Patrick, a carnival worker and Mary's boyfriend, and his boss, Cass (a balloonist and suave ladies man) vie for Mary's attention; Charles and Nels entering a jackass riding contest; and Carrie has her own adventure.

After Mr. Garvey's barn burns to the ground with the crops inside, his wife, Alice, takes a job at the post office. Mr. Garvey opposes this believing that a man should be able to support his family. He is ready to get a divorce until he realizes what his stubborn pride was doing to his family.

Jason Carter starts working for an old lady. Jason becomes great friends of the lady. However, Jason's mom believes the lady is being too nice. Jason is forbidden to work for the old lady until Sarah finds out that the lady will soon die.

A circus comes to Walnut Grove. Everybody is helping set up, except Nels Oleson. His long, lost sister is in the circus. Only Mrs. Oleson believes her husband's story about his sister. Nels is nominated to be the announcer at the circus. When he announces his sister, he says, ""My sister, Annabelle."" These words lead to Nels and Annabella becoming very close siblings.

When Albert continually breaks the law, Charles takes him out of the big city and back to Walnut Grove. Albert doesn't change in Walnut Grove because he is addicted to morphine. Charles finally forces Albert to stop using morphine. He stays with Albert while he goes through withdrawal. Thanks to Charles, Albert is no longer addicted to morphine. We find out at the end of the show that Albert will become Dr. Albert Ingalls.

Almonzo, bitter at his apparent life-crippling illness, nearly gives up on life, despite the birth of little Rose. His attitude nearly drives Laura to consider leaving her husband. A tornado that destroys the farmstead may hold the key to both of their futures.

Toby Noe turns up again after the Ingalls, Garveys and Olesons decided to leave the town Standish owned (episode 93, There's No Place Like Home (1)). He makes an immediate impact, stirring things up, especially with Amanda. Laura and Albert do some matchmaking for the upcoming dance.

Charles stays with a family while looking for some horses to buy. The children of the family asks Mr. Ingalls if he could possibly do something to keep their parents from splitting up. Thanks to Charles talking to the husband and the wife, they decide to stay together and work things out.

A traveling side-show comes to Walnut Grove. The main attraction is a wild boy. The wild boy escapes and becomes friends with the Wilders. The boy turns out to be Matthew Roger and the reason he acts wild is become he is given morphine.

Laura is tricked into taking a ""one of a kind"" billy goat home with her. After Fred eats some of the Ingalls' crops, Laura is forced to get rid of the billy goat. Every person that Laura wanted to give the billy goat to resulted in a funny time. Laura finally decides to set him free in the wild. This episode is guaranteed to make you laugh!

A schoolyard escapade involving Albert brands 15-year-old girl Sylvia a tease. The two fall in love, but Albert is unaware of a number of circumstances which have thrown Sylvia's life into a frightening tailspin - getting raped by an unknown assailant and the girl's domineering father.

Nels is kidnapped by two crooks. The crooks try to get Mrs. Oleson to pay ransom for her husband, but she refuses to. This makes Mr. Oleson upset and causes him to help the crooks. The kidnappers aren't very lucky. After kidnapping several different people, the crooks decide that they need to try another line of work. They leave without hurting any of the kidnapped people.

Nels finally loses patience with his henpecked family life and begins a mobile merchant business. During one of his stops, he meets a much younger woman whom is the exact opposite of his own wife. In the process, Nels struggles with temptation and going astray as the relationship blossoms.

Mr. Montague stays at the Wilder boarding house while he is at Walnut Grove researching for a book that he is writing. Matthew Roger has a hard decision to make when his biological father shows up. Matthew decides to leave Mr. Edwards and go with his father. Mr. Edwards moves into the boarding house so he wouldn't be lonely anymore.

Joseph Stokes is the son of a Sioux Indian who moves to Walnut Grove with his widowed mother. They stay with his grandpa, Jeremy. Jeremy doesn't like Joseph because he is embarrassed that his daughter married an Indian. At school, Joseph is being bullied. Jeremy finally accepts Joseph when he sees his grandson face the bullies

Laura writes a book for a book writing contest. Her book is chosen. She travels to Minneapolis to work out a deal with the publisher. However, when the publisher wants her to change some parts in her book, she withdraws from the contest and goes back home.

A story about bigotry. Albert becomes an apprentice of an old Jew, Isaac. The people in school call Albert a Jew-lover and beat him up. Albert learns a sense of pride from Isaac. Albert and Isaac become the best of friends.

After having their crops destroyed, the Ingalls leave Walnut Grove to try their luck at striking it rich. After being at the gold mines for a while, the Ingalls realize that greed has been poisoning their minds. They leave to go home instead of looking for more gold.

During a visit to a farmer's convention in Milwaukee, Charles and Caroline meet up with old school mates. Charles learns that larger farmers are trying to put his small farming friends out of business and urges them to stand up for their profession. Meanwhile, Caroline becomes envious about the financial fortunes of their one-time friends, but she soon learns there's more to their success stories than meets the eyes.

Hester Sue's ex-husband, Sam, comes to town. He tells Hester Sue that he was no longer a drinker and a gambler. Hester Sue believes he has changed and soon decides to marry him. Hester Sue learns the truth about Sam when his wife and kids come and warn Hester Sue that Sam is still a drinker and gambler.

A longtime friend of Caroline writes to her and asks for help. Her friend is pregnant and lives at a gold prospector's camp where there is an outbreak of influenza. Caroline finds out that her friend's husband doesn't like her wife. In fact, he wants his wife's baby to die. Caroline's friend dies during childbirth, but the child survives. In another tent, a mother's child dies while be born. Caroline decides to give the baby to the other mother since she knows that the baby will be taken care of properly.

Percival and Nellie go to New York so that Percival can run the family business now that his father has died. Mrs. Oleson gets very depressed because of Nellie leaving. The Olesons decide to adopt a girl to take the place of Nellie. While they are in Sleepy Eye, they find a girl that looks almost exactly like Nellie when she was young.

As a prank to make him look foolish, the older boys of Walnut Grove school nominate the object of their practical jokes, gentle Elmer Dobkins, to run for class president against popular Mary Ingalls and wealthy Nellie Oleson. While Mary and Nellie wage their campaigns with promises of popcorn and gum balls, Mr. Dobkins witnesses his son being teased by the older boys and, when he finds out why Elmer was nominated, angrily orders him to pull out of the election. But, when election day comes and the race seems too close to call, a cruel act and children tired of being bullied decide the outcome.