During the winter of 1881, ten-year-old Ellis and his eight-year-old cousin live with Uncle Lige and Aunt Effie in a soddy, or one-room house, in Central Nebraska. Ellis and his cousin have lots of fun together; they watch Earl, the cowhand, saw meat from a frozen cow carcass, and once summer rolls in, the boys play with their guns in the Buffalo Waller, which is a shallow pit in the prairie. In the autumn, the boys visit town to get new boots, afraid that Uncle Lige and Aunt Effie might not have enough money. The boys spend most of their days in the Buffalo Waller, and one day, Ellis’ cousin manages to shoot a duck. The boys bring it home, but Aunt Effie refuses to cook it, saying that it is too small to feed all of them. Even so, the boys bring the duck back to the Buffalo Waller and roast it themselves. Earl soon gives the boys a cow pony to play with, and they spend a week trying to get the pony to respect them. However, after the boys manage to get rope over the pony’s ears, he drags them around and through mudholes and loose wires, injuring them along the way. They hide their injuries and continue trying to tame the pony.  Next spring, the boys decide to help out more at home and make soap, churn butter, and help out in the garden with Aunt Effie. Aunt Effie tells the boys that the prairie will someday belong to them since they worked so hard, and they are ecstatic.  Seventy years in the future, Ellis and his cousin return to the prairie to look for the old house they used to live in. After the war, their Aunt Effie sold their land and left for California. Ellis and his cousin see their old home and the Buffalo Waller, laughing about all the mischief they used to get into.