Little House in the Big Woods"As soon as the days were warm, Laura and Mary begged to be allowed to run barefoot. At first they might only run out around the woodpile and back, in their bare feet. Next day they could run farther, and soon their shoes were oiled and put away and they ran barefoot all day long."
... "In the mornings they ran through the dewy, chill grass that wet their feet and dabbled the hems of their dresses. They liked to splash their bare feet through the grass all strung with dewdrops..."
... "One morning the whole world was delicately silvered. Every blade of grass was silvery and the path had a thin sheen. It was like hot fire under Laura's bare feet, and they left dark footprints in it."
... "So on Sundays they put on their best dresses, but not their shoes or ribbons."
.... "They waded carefully and did not splash their clean dresses... Laura and Mary stepped carefully on to the grass. They would not walk in the dusty wheel tracks until their feet were dry, because their feet must be clean when they came to town."
"They climbed up the wheels, clinging to the spokes with their bare toes..."
"Mary waded only a little while. She said the gravel hurt her feet, and she sat on a log and patiently slapped at the mosquitoes. But Laura slapped and kept on wading. When she stepped, the gravel hurt her feet. When she stood still, the tiny minnows swarmed about her toes and nibbled them with their tiny mouths. It was a funny, squiggling feeling. Laura tried and tried to catch a minnow, but she only got the hem of dress wet."