[Sgt. Saunders]

It’s said the road to Hell is paved with the best of intentions. Well, I think the Ingalls’ decision to bring the precocious Albert back to Walnut Grove tragically came back to haunt them (if not bite them in the collective keester).

If Albert had remained in Winoka (where his ne’er-do-well father had presumably deserted him), then Mary’s infant child and
Mrs. Garvey would not have burned to death, an especially horrible way to die, in the fire, so carelessly started by Albert and that other brat after leaving a lit smoking pipe in the basement of that school/residence in Walnut Grove.

And, maybe I’m being too cynical, but I thought that Mr. Garvey was just TOO understanding and forgiving after Albert’s negligence ended up killing his beloved wife. You would think that Mr. Garvey would want to, literally, ring that little guttersnipe’s neck. And, could Mary, who already had experienced such great suffering and misery in her life after permanently losing her sight, and Mary’s husband, Adam, ever really forgive Albert for his unspeakable carelessness? I don’t think so.

Ultimately, the shaggy-haired Albert came to a bad end. So, all things being considered, Charles and Caroline Ingalls SHOULD have left the little street urchin to fend for himself in Winoka. That would have spared the Ingalls and Garvey families future overwhelming loss and grief.