The First Four Years Author:Laura Ingalls Wilder This book is Laura's story of her life with Manly and her early years as a wife and mother. The First Four Years begins where the book These Happy Golden Years ends. It is the story of Laura and Almanzo Wilder and their first — homestead and tree claim on the South Dakota prairies. Those years were years of companionship and happiness and also... more » a time of struggle, while the young couple worked the land they hoped to own some day. With the making of a home and the birth of their daughter, Rose, came the joys and sorrows that every homesteader knew.« less