Sorry if this took a little while, but now that Christmas break is over, I have less time to write.

Mandie anxiously waited for the day to end. Tomorrow, Sallie was arriving. Finally, she was called into the dinning room for supper. When she finally finished she went up to her room to wait until it was time for them to go to sleep. A few minutes later, Celia came up and joined Mandie in their room..

"Hey Mandie, what are you so anxious about? You seemed really eager to finish dinner," said Celia sitting next to Mandie.

"Oh, just about tomorrow. Sallie is arriving tomorrow, and I haven't seen her in a really long time. And I am excited to see Dimer too," Mandie answered.

"Yeah, I am excited about seeing them again to. It's been even longer for me since I've seen them," Celia said.

"Well, I am going to start getting ready to go to bed. I'm tired, more than usual. So, I am going to bed early," Mandie said,, getting her nightgown ready. She unbuttoned the back of her dress, and slipped it off. She pulled up her nightgown, and then unbraided her hair. She combed it out then waited for Celia to get ready. As Celia climbed into bed, Mandie blew out the lamp. "Good-night Celia."

"Good-night Mandie," Celia answered.

The next morning Celia awoke Mandie to tell her that it was raining. "Wake up sleepy-head! It's time to get up! Oh and it's raining."

"What?!" Mandie exclaimed. "Of all the things it had to be raining!" Mandie exclaimed. "The day that Sallie and Dimer are arriving, and the day that I had planned to go back to see the pit!"

"Let's get dressed Mandie. Sallie and Dimer should be arriving soon," Celia said pulling a purple dress out of the wardrobe.

"Okay," Mandie answered. She grabbed a red dress that was hanging and slipped off her nightgown. Celia had finished dressing, and was brushing her hair in front of the full length mirror. Mandie soon joined her and brushed out her long thick blond hair. Mandie decided to leave her hair down this time. When she had finished brushing her hair, she headed to the door. "It had to raining!" Mandie thought. "Oh well!" The rain will probably turn to snow."

"Mandie, aren't you going to braid your hair?" Celia asked.

"No, I'm going to leave it down today," Mandie answered.

"It looks pretty like that. You should let it down more often. Joe will like it," Celia said with a sly grin.

"Whatever," Mandie said rolling her eyes. She walked out the door and down the stairs to the dinning room. The boys and Polly were already down there. And to Mandie's surprise, Polly was sitting next to Tommy, rather than Joe. "Hmm, weird." Mandie thought.

What took you two sleepy-heads so long to get down here?" Joe asked teasingly.

"The sun wasn't shining and that usually wakes me up," Mandie answered.

"I woke up early, but I let Mandie sleep for a little while longer. She would have slept all day if I hadn't woke her," Celia said defending herself.

"I would not have! Your usually the one..." there was a knock on the door that made her pause. Uncle John went to open it, and it was Sallie and Dimer.

"Come in, come in! You must be soaked to the skin," Uncle John.

"Thankfully we brought our raincoats. We left before sunup, and after we had rode for about an hour it started to pour," Dimer said.

"What time did you leave?" Uncle John asked.

"3 o'clock," Sallie answered hanging her coat.

"3 o'clock! You must be tired," Uncle John said.

"A little bit, but we went to bed really early," Sallie answered.

"Well you must at least be hungry, come and eat breakfast with us. We're just starting," Uncle John invited.

"Thank you," Sallie said politely. They entered the dinning room, and Mandie quickly stood up.

"Sallie!" she exclaimed. Mandie ran up to her and gave her a hug. "It's been so long since I've seen you!"

"I've missed you to Mandie! I was looking forward to seeing you and Celia all year!" Sallie said. She walked over to Celia gave her a hug.

"Oh Sallie! I've missed you so much! How are you?" Celia asked.

"I'm fine. How have you been?" Sallie asked.

"I've been doing fine. Are you excited for the ball? This is the first that I have ever been to," said Celia excitedly.

"Yes I am very excited. Who is your partner?" Sallie asked sitting down in between Celia and Dimer.

"I don't know yet. I haven't been asked yet. Who is yours?"

"I will tell you after breakfast," Sallie answered. Polly suddenly came up to Sallie and gave her a hug.

"Oh Sallie, it is so nice to see you again," she said.

"It's nice to see you too," Sallie answered awkwardly. Polly went back to sit next to Tommy. "What was that all about? I don't remember Polly being so nice," Sallie whispered.

"Mandie and I have been wondering the same thing. She been nice to us too," Celia answered.

"Huh," wondered Sallie. She filled her plate and started eating. Mandie was looking at Sallie, and she thought, that Sallie looked very happy, and so did Dimer. "I wonder if they are courting, or maybe even engaged! If they are engaged, I wonder if they'll announce it."

After everyone had finished eating, Sallie and Dimer stood up. Dimer squeezed Sallie's hand. She smiled and breathed in deeply. "Everyone," Dimer started. "Sallie and I would like to make an announcement. Sallie and I are engaged and are hoping to be married sometime in the spring."

"Really Sallie? That's wonderful!" Mandie exclaimed.

"I'm happy for you Granddaughter," Uncle Ned said smiling. "Papoose is now squaw."

"Thank you Grandfather," Sallie thanked him.

"Hey Sallie, I so happy that your going to get married to Dimer! I always thought that you made a great couple," Mandie said.

"Thank you Mandie. But what about you and Joe? Are you ever going to get married?" Sallie asked.

"I don't know. I try not to think about it," Mandie answered.

"Well everyone expects it," Sallie said.

"They do?" Mandie thought to herself. "Oi! Why just because we are good friends does everyone think that Joe and I should get married? It's starting to get annoying!" She looked out of the window and smiled. The rain had turned to snow, just like she had thought.

"Do ya'll want go and look at the pit with me? It stopped raining and now it's snowing!" Mandie said.

"What pit?" Sallie, Dimer, and Polly chorused.

"We'll tell you on the way. Well are you coming?"

"Sure," they answered.

Are you guys coming?" Mandie asked, meaning, Celia, Joe, Robert, and Tommy.

"Yup, we're coming," Joe said rising. When Elizabeth saw that they were leaving, she stood to.

"Amanda, if you are going outside, please be back before noon, we need to get the guest rooms ready. We also need to decorate," she said.

"Alright, we will," Mandie answered. She walked over to the hall tree and grabbed her coat, hat, and gloves off of it. She took off her regular shoes, and put on her snow boots. She waited for the others to be ready and then went out the door. Snowball followed her out the door, "Uh, uh. No, Snowball, your staying inside." She picked him up and put him back inside. He meowed in protest. "Hey the snow is wet, perfect for making snowballs. Maybe if we have time after we look at the pit,we can have a snowball fight," Mandie suggested.

"I don't see why we can't have one now," Joe said rolling up a ball of snow in his hands. He through it at Mandie and hit her back. He started laughing. Mandie did too.

"Hey! No fair! I wasn't prepared!" Mandie said throwing another snowball at Joe, but he moved out of the way and it hit Celia.

"Oh you want to have a snowball fight? I'll give you a snowball fight!" Celia said. She threw two at Mandie at the same time. Soon, everyone was joined in the snowball fight. They played for a little while then Mandie called a timeout.

"Timeout! Timeout!" Mandie called. They stopped throwing snowballs. "We need to go see that pit, before we have to go in. I marked the tree closest to the pit with an "M"." Mandie said.

"Ok, let's go!" Sallie exclaimed, and they headed in the direction of the pit.

Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing!

To my reviewers:

God's Child: Thanks for trusting me not to give up on this story. I am trying really hard to update often.

Jorgina: I am glad that you like this. I hope that you like this chapter as well. : )

Annefan: Thank you for the encouragement! Don't worry! I won't abandon this! I love writing it!

And everyone else: Thank you all for your support!