Laura and Jenny were hanging the family's laundry out the clothesline outside, talking to each other when Laura felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Need some more help with those clothes?" A female's voice said. Laura turned around.
"MARY!..." She hugged her sister. "You're looking wondreful!...Oh, you too Adam." She hugged her brother-in-law, too. Mary had changed quite a bit since Laura last saw her sister, she no longer left her blond hair down, it was up in a bun, much like the women of her time.
She playfully slapped Adam, though, according to him, maybe a little too hard! "Why didn't you two write us a tell us you were coming!"
"We did...I guess it never came." Mary said.
"Well, this pretty young lady must be Jenny, correct?" Adam asked.
"Yes Mr. Kendall." Jenny blushes. "Its been a while since we all last saw each other hasn't it?"
"Yes, no more two braids, just one, eh?" He says, tugging on her long, brown braid down her back.
"Just wait till you see Rose! She's grown up too since you last saw her. She turns nine in four months." Laura said. "C'mon inside...I sure you're tired from your trip."
"All right." Mary said. Adam guided her, and they followed Laura and Jenny inside.
"Aunt Mary!" Rose shouted, and ran to hug her.
"Oh Rose, you've grown so beautiful!" Mary said, running her fingers over her niece's face. It was Mary's way of 'seeing' people.
"Thank you, Aunt Mary...But you're much more beautiful." She left her aunt's embrace to hug her uncle. "Hi, Uncle Adam."
"Mary's right, you have grown so beautiful since I last saw you, kiddo...I think you're almost the spittin' image of you're Ma...but I can see a bit of your Pa in you too...Your Ma tells me you're turning nine in a few months?" Adam said.
"Yes sir. Can't wait either! Then I'm just one year away from being in double digits!"
"So how has living in New York been for you?" Almanzo asked. Everyone was in the sitting room.
"Busy." Mary replied, laughing. "I'm getting tired of all the noise."
"I'd actually like to go back there someday...I was born in Malone, ya know." Almanzo said.
"How are Nellie, Percival and the kids?" Laura asked.
"Sorry to tell you this, Laura, but Percival passed on a few years ago. Died in his sleep, I believe." Adam said.
"Oh, that's too bad." Laura said, in sympathy.
"But Nellie and the twins are doing just fine." Mary said.
"Well that's good." Laura said. They heard a knock on the front door. "I'll get it."
"Hello again, new friend!" Arrah let out a girlish squeal and hugged Laura.
"Oh my goodness!...Arrah!" Laura says. "I thought we'd never see each other again, what are you doing here?"
"Cage said we're staying!...He says God wants us here...Isn't this wonderful?" Arrah hugs Laura again.
"YES!...Cage and the boys are here with you, aren't they?"
"Yes they're out in the wagon."
"Go get them and come inside for a while!" Laura said.
"All right!" She says, and walks off the wagon. She returns with Cage and the boys.
"Oh Laura...you have company, we'll come back later." Arrah said when she saw the two people in the sitting room.
"Nonsense!...c'mon...stay awhile." Laura said.
"Be on your best behavior boys." Arrah said, holding Leslie.
"Yes Arrah." Graham and Drew said.
"Laura, are you going to introduce your friends to Adam and me?" Mary asked, hearing the unfamiliar voices. Mary had a smile on her face.
"Yes, these are our new friends, Cage Lay and his wife Arrah, and Cage's three younger brothers, Drew, who's 16, Graham, who's 9, and Leslie, who's 2. They've adopted them since their parents passed on a few years ago."
"Pleasure to meet you all." Mary said.
"Likewise." Cage said. He shook Adam's hand.
"So how did you meet Laura and Almanzo?" Mary asked.
"Well, we were travelling from Iowa to find a homestead, and our wagon wheel happened to break in front of their house, Almanzo fixed it for us, and they wanted us to stay the night last night." Arrah began.
"Did you find a place to homestead?"
"Well, not exactly...we'd like to live in Mansfield...but we're not sure where right now." Cage said.
Laura looked over at Almanzo who's eyes were lit up.
"Manly, what is it?"
"The old widow Brogan's place, no one's lived there in years, it'll need some fixing up of course, and I'll do what I can to help you."
"Thank you Almanzo." Cage said. "That would be wonderful."
"Laura said that you and your husband have adopted his younger brothers? That sounds quite interesting to me." Mary said, and when Arrah began to speak, she turned her head to the direction of her voice.
"Yes...When my mother-in-law and father-in-law died, the boys were sent to live with each of the older brothers for a time. And when Cage and I got married we decided to adopt them. To us, there was no sense in letting them keep being tossed around from Mathis, to Josef, to John, and then back to Cage again. It was all too much for the boys." Arrah said, trying to keep a squirmming little boy quiet and still. "Leslie Daniel, stay still please!" She scolded. "Looks like you have a case of the wiggle worm!" She tells him, putting emphasis on the word 'wiggle'."
"Arrah, the children can all go outside and play together for awhile, I think they'd like it." Laura said.
"That does sound like a good idea, Laura, but this little one needs to learn to stay quiet and still for a time...but Graham and Drew can go outside with Jenny and Rose if they'd like..." With that, the four children practically race each other out the door...
"Boys, what did I tell you about running in people's homes?" Arrah calls after them.
"Arrah, let children be children." Laura smiled at her.
"I just hope when Cage and I have one of our own, we'll be able to handle the disipline part of it...You know the bible verse,...'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.'"
"Oh I think you will...If you can handle those boys...you can handle one of your own." Almanzo said.
"You'll have your good days and bad days...but in the end it all works out." Laura says. "Whenever Rose and I get into those bad days...I'll look upward and say...'Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord.'..." She laughs. Everyone else does too.
"Do you and Adam have any children, Mary?" Arrah asked.
"Yes...once...We had a little baby boy, named Adam Jr...but he...and one of our close friends, Alice Garvey,...died in a fire in the blind school that Adam and I taught at." A few tears fell out of her sight-less eyes, and rolled down her cheeks, remembering that day. Adam put his arms around her.
"Oh Mary...I'm so sorry...forget I said anything...I didn't mean to stir up any bad memories." Arrah apoligized.
"It's all right Arrah, you didn't know...The important thing is, we'll see him again in Heaven someday." Mary said, with a smile on her face.
"Better yet Mary, when you get to Heaven, one of the first people you'll see will be Jesus." Arrah said, smiling.
"True." Mary smiled. "Arrah? Can I ask a favor of you?"
"Of course...What is it?"
"Could you...Could you describe yourself to me? What you look like, I mean."
"I'll do much better than that." She says, walking over to Mary. "Laura told me how you 'see' folks." She smiled, and put Mary's hands on her face.
"Arrah, I didn't want you to be uncomfortable with that,...us just meeting each other." Mary said.
"Nonsense, I'm your sister's friend,...why can't I be yours too?" She smiles. Mary's hands brush over Arrah's face.
"I can tell you're very pretty, Arrah...What color hair do you have?"
"Reddish-brown...Sort of like an auburn color."
"And your eyes?" Mary asks.
"They're brown."
"They always have a twinkle in 'em too." Cage said, smiling.
Mary smiled.
"Would you like to 'see' Leslie?" Arrah asks.
"If he doesn't mind."
Arrah took Leslie and placed him beside Mary. She guided Mary's hands and rested them on Leslie's face.
"Leslie has chocolate-brown eyes and dark blonde hair." Arrah told Mary.
"He's so cute. I can tell that!" Mary smiled. Leslie giggled when Mary's fingers seemed to dance on his nose. Mary laughed as well.
"Cage has the same hair color, but he has green eyes. He has a long, slender nose, sort of thick eyebrows...He's very handsome." Arrah says, smiling at her husband.
"How thick are his eyebrows?" Mary smiles.
"Well, my friends call them caterpillar eyebrows." Cage says, making them 'dance', which makes everyone laugh.
"Graham and Drew look a lot like Cage, but Graham has hazel eyes and Drew's are green." Arrah said.
"Do they have caterpillar eyebrows?" Mary laughed.
"No, they're barely bushy at all!" Arrah laughs.
"So Laura, did you hear about Albert?" Mary asked.
"No, what?"
"He's setting up his practice here in Mansfield!" Mary said, excitedly.
"How do you know that?"
"He wrote us." Adam said.
"Guess who's going to be his nurse." Mary said.
"Who!...Tell us!"
"Carrie!"
"For how long?" Laura asked.
"Till Albert gets a wife." Almanzo joked.
"Manly!" Laura glares at her husband, but then breaks into a smile.
"Have you heard from Ma and Pa lately?" Mary asked her sister.
"Very little. Seems they're doing fine. Grace is 17 and teaching the school now, and she's loving it! Who knew she'd follow in her two big sisters' footsteps!" Laura smiled. "What about James and Cassandra? Have you heard from them?"
"Not much...last we heard was they were living together in the Black Hills." Adam said.
"We're so sorry!...We're leaving you two out of this!" Laura apoligized to Arrah and Cage.
"Laura, its ok...I like hearing about your family." Arrah smiled. "Speaking of family,...once we get settled, I need to write my folks a letter."
"Could you tell us about your family, Arrah?" Mary asked.
"Sure." Arrah told them about her father Harrison, who is a farmer and also a very accomplished goldsmith, and her mother Josephine, who, according to Arrah, is the best mother a daughter could ask for, and is a very caring woman which is the kind of woman Arrah hopes to be. She told them about her two older brothers who are married, Micah, to a young lady named Claire, who have a baby son named Owen, and Amos who is married to a lady named Stella, and are expecting their first child. Arrah told them about her brother Bennet, who is two years older than she, and is courting a young girl named Lydia. She finally told them about her youngers sisters Callah and Pearl, who are young schoolgirls of the ages of twelve and ten.