Laura asks Arrah if she wants a little something to go with their tea.
"Actually Laura, I've got some cookies out in the wagon,...they're best eaten when they're hot though."
"Well let's make some then! I'm sure I've got the ingredients!"
"This early in the morning?" Arrah asks, laughing.
"Sure it'll be fun!"
"Well, lets see...I need some butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, hickory nuts (or you can also use pecans), and powdered sugar. That's really important!"
"Why?" Laura asks.
"It makes them taste a whole lot better!" She says, laughing.
"Well I have all of those things...You'll need a mixing spoon, a baking sheet, and what size of a bowl?"
"Medium sized, I'd say...Well c'mon, lets get to baking Laura!" She smiles.
Arrah chopped up the hickory nuts and mixed it with the butter, sugar, and the vanilla. She blended flour in with the mixture. Laura helped her roll the dough into little balls and they baked them for 25 minutes. When they were half-done, Arrah took them out of the oven and turned them over, and put them back and let them bake the rest of the way. When they we finally done and still a bit hot, they rolled each litle ball in the powdered sugar.
"What do you call these?" Laura said. tasting one. "They're really good!"
"They are called snowball cookies...The boys just love them! I usually make them around Christmastime, but I think they're yummy enough to be eaten year-round!"
"I'll say!" said Laura.
All of the children are awakened by the wonderful aroma of the snowball cookies, so they follow their noses and come downstairs to the kitchen.
"Hey Laura, I'm surprised our husbands aren't up!"
"I know!...You think they would be!" Both women laugh.
Leslie came up to them and asked for a cookie, and Arrah gave each of the children a snowball cookie. The boys all asked for more when they were finished.
"See, I told you they loved them!" Arrah said, laughing.
"I think you might have to give me the recipe, Jenny and Rose love them too!" Laura smiles at the girls, enjoying their cookies.
"Sure I'll give you the recipe!...It's an old German recipe and it has been in my family for generations." Arrah said, writing the recipe down on a sheet of paper for Laura. "Make sure to turn them over when they're half-baked, that's really important,...and be sure never to burn the bottoms."
"Thank you, Arrah." Laura said, looking over the recipe.
"Now that you're done with your cookies boys, how about you head back up to bed." Arrah told her brother-in-laws.
"You girls, too." Laura said to her daughter and niece, giving them a look.
"But we're not tired, Mama!" Rose said.
"Well then, you and Jenny can get a head-start on your chores!"
"And I'll make you boys help them..." Arrah said to the boys, who were still standing there.
"Um...I think we'll go to bed now..." Graham said. And all three boys ran upstairs. Laura took one look at Rose and Jenny.
"Us too." Rose said and took Jenny's hand and followed the boys upstairs, running just as fast as they did.
Arrah and Laura looked at each other and busted out laughing. "Works every time." They both said, and each gave the other a high-five.
"So does Mansfield have a school?" Arrah asked Laura as she helped her prepare breakfast that morning. It was about 4:00 in the morning and the menfolk weren't up yet. Jenny and Rose had went out to the barn to do their chores...Laura was just about to answer Arrah's question when Arrah caught her two-year-old brother-in-law running in the parlor.
"Leslie, come here please."
"Yes Arrah?"
"Leslie, I don't want you ever to run in someone's home, do you hear me?"..."If you don't run in ours you mustn't ever run in someone else's! Do you understand me?"
"But Arrah! We don't have a home yet...So how would you know I'd run in it!" Leslie asked, looking at her.
Arrah gave him a look. "You know what I mean, Leslie."..."Drew, would you take your brothers outside please? You can help Jenny and Rose with their chores...It will keep Graham and Leslie out of mischeif."
"Yes Arrah." Drew said.
"But why does he haveta take me outside?...I did'nt do anything...I was just standin' here!" said Graham, not wanting it to seem like he was in any trouble.
"Graham...just go outside with their brothers." Arrah told him, giving him a stern look.
The boys obeyed and did exactly as they were told.
"Believe me, Laura. You must keep a close eye on the two youngest boys. They're usually good boys, but,...they have their days..." She said, chuckling. "...Ma Lay told me a story once about one day when Graham got into so much trouble!...He was about five years old and he was outside, playing in the yard, and his grandfather Fredrick, was working in the yard with a rake. There were some snowball bushes growing in the yard, white ones, and Graham was running around in a very devilish mood, and he snatched some, ran over and wove the plant under his grandfathers' nose... Fredrick looked at Graham with a look a disbelief, and he shook his rake at Graham and spoke in German to him, "Du aielentler Luder Du." It's a pretty rough translation, but in English, he said, " You most undesirable person you."...When his Pa found out about what Graham did to his grandfather, he took him behind the woodshed and tanned his hide!"
"Reminds me of something Willie Oleson would do!...He and his sister Nellie were some former classmates of mine in Walnut Grove...Willie was always being sent to the corner for the things he would do or say...Especially by me when I started teaching the school. Nellie was my arch enemy, there were too many things to name of what she's pulled over on me!" Laura laughed, remembering a few of them..."There was this one time Nellie made me flunk my tearcher's exam by telling me there was no history when there actually was...oh, I could've killed her! It was her plan to try and get back at me for messing up her and Almanzo's dinner date that her mother had set up. Mrs. Oleson didn't know how to make cinnamon chicken, his favorite meal, so I offered to make it instead. But I used cayenne pepper instead of cinnamon...Their mouths were on fire for week!...And I still think Manly hates it when I make my cinnamon chicken!...Oh, he'll eat it...but I still think he remembers that day!" Laura laughs.
"Nellie was really bad then, huh!" Arrah laughs.
"Yes she was...but she met a man named Percival Dalton, and he straighted her out good! They're married now and have a set of twins, a boy and a girl. Their names are Benjamin and Jennifer."
"I think almost everyone has a 'Nellie Oleson' in their life...I'm thinking about mine right now." Arrah laughs. "She was one of the teachers in the East Stone Hill School. I never went there, but I would see Miss Prim, that's what I called her because she was so prim and proper and really bossy, coming down the road I took the cows down every day. Miss Prim didn't like it if the cows (or the dog I took with me) got to close to her liking, so she would scold me if they did. Every day coming down that road, I would almost always kill a snake with my buggy whip. One day, I decided to have a little 'fun' with Miss Prim. I killed a bull snake, and layed it all coiled up in the road. She came down the road, her nose stuck in the book she was reading. When she saw the snake, she thought it was alive. So she screamed, threw her book high in the air, and tore off thru a barbed wire fence, tearing her dress!"
"Oh my goodness!" Laura laughed.
"I know!...I never meant to scare her that bad, I was so sorry!...I picked up her book and later gave it to one of the schoolboys, who was happy enough to give it back to his teacher."
"I like listening to your stories, Arrah."
"Thanks!...I like yours too!" Arrah said.