Days later, they all went over to the old widow Brogan's place to help fix it up. The ninety-year-old, little, short, Irish woman named Elsie was widowed at the young age of thirty-two and lived the rest of her life without her husband, Lee Brogan. She was a sweet, old, grandmotherly-type lady, who always had little treats for the neighborhood children. Her two middle-aged adult sons, Caleb and Johnny wanted her to come down to Arkansas, where they were living then, but she had insisted on living in the little house with her twenty-five-year-old granddaughter Ella until her death, which happened over five years ago...Months after her grandmother died, Ella returned to Arkansas to live with her father and uncle Johnny... Almanzo, Cage, and Adam were going to do some much needed repairs on the house and barn. They also were going to move all of the Lay's belongings into the house when the time came...with the help of Drew and Graham...when they weren't playing. :)
"Arrah!" Rose ran up to hug her as soon as she saw her.
"Hey sweetie!" Arrah said while in Rose's embrace.
"Rose, call her either Mrs. Lay or Miss Arrah." Laura said, scolding her a bit.
"Yes Ma'am." Rose said to her mother. She looked up at Arrah. "Can I call you Miss Arrah? I like the sound of that better!"
"Sure." Arrah said, and smiled at Rose.
"Do you have more of those yummy snowball cookies?"
"No...but I was just about to make some...Wanna come help me?"
Sure!...Can I Mama?" Rose asks.
"Yes you may...but be good."
"Yes Mama!" Rose said. She followed Arrah to the wagon where she had her dutch oven and other things set up.
"So what are we having?...Besides snowball cookies I mean." Rose asked.
"We are having some good, hickory-smoked fish!...but, before I start on that, lets get started on those cookies!" She smiled. Arrah grabbed butter, sugar, flour, hickory nuts, vanilla, and powdered sugar from the wagon. She put everything except the powdered sugar in a bowl and let Rose help with the stirring.
"Yeah! Round and round and round!...That'a girl!...You're doing great Rose!" Arrah said, and the eight-year-old grinned from ear to ear.
Then, She and Rose rolled the dough into little balls and baked them in the dutch oven. When they were half done, as always, Arrah took them out to turn them over and put them back in to let them bake the rest of the way. When they were finally done, Rose helped Arrah roll each little ball in the powdered sugar. Arrah put each cookie in a basket and covered it with a cloth to keep them warm.
"With you being such a good helper, you can have one right now. You deserve it, Rose." Arrah said, giving her a cookie.
"Thank you!" Rose said, smiling.
"Now, you go run along and play."
"Bye!" Said Rose and ran to catch up with Jenny and the boys.
Arrah took the hickory bark out of the wagon and started a little fire with it to smoke the fish. She blew on it a few times to get the smoke started and layed the fish on the little rack above the hickory smoke. About an hour later, Arrah saw Mary and Laura coming up the road and up to the wagon. She waved to them.
"Arrah, I brought some lemonade and some spiced peaches. Hope that's all right." Mary said.
"Mary, that's perfectly fine! Thank you." Arrah said taking the pitcher and the jar of spiced peaches from her and setting them down on a makeshift table.
"I brought some mashed potatoes and homemade baked beans,...doesn't really go with hickory-smoked fish, but it'll do." Laura smiled.
"It'll have to!" Arrah laughed. "We need enough food for a small army!" All three women laughed. "I was just about to start on some homemade bread...I have a few loaves made already, but I just love the smell of it when they're fresh from the oven!...When my Ma makes it, she almost drowns it in melted butter! But oh, is it so good!"
Rose and Drew come running up to Arrah, in their underclothes soaked to the skin...Both children looked scared. Rose was crying and Drew was almost in tears.
"Drew, what on earth is the matter...?" Arrah asked, holding him by the shoulders.
"It's Leslie...we were swimming and I told him not to jump in the deep part but he did it anyway...and hit the back of his head on a sharp rock...He cracked his head open and he's bleeding...Jenny and Graham are with him..."
Arrah hiked up her skirts and ran to the creek...
"Leslie Daniel Lay!...Are you all right, sweetheart?" She asks, alarmed. She cradled him in her arms.
"I'm bleeding." He said, crying a little. "I hit my head."
"I know that, little one." Arrah said. The blood was soaking through his dark blond hair and turning it a reddish color. Leslie's blood was also seeping through Arrah's light brown blouse..."One of you children try to find a spider's web...The more the better...Quickly please."
They searched everywhere in the woods till they found a few spider's webs..."Found some!" Graham shouted. "Sorry spiders,...we need to use these." Graham said, knocking the spiders out of the way and grabbing the webs...He ran back to Arrah..."Here." He said, giving the spider's webs to her.
"Thanks Graham." She said, and uses it to stop the bleeding. She picks Leslie up and carries him back to the wagon.
"Goodness gracious!...Is he all right?" Laura asked.
"He's fine...I got the bleeding to stop..."
"How bad was it?" Mary asked.
"I've seen worse." Arrah said. "It was a pretty bad cut on his head, though." She layed him on the large matress in the wagon.
"I'm sorry I got your shirt all icky and bloody, Arrah." Leslie said, still crying.
"Les, don't worry about that!...Those kind of things can be mended and fixed...I'm just glad you're ok." She says, tears coming to her eyes, and hugging his neck. "I don't want you doing anything like that again! You could've gotten seriously hurt!...When you're brother tells you to do something you need to listen Leslie!"
"Yes Ma'am...I'm sorry" He says, tears were streaming down his cheeks.
"It's all right." She says, her hand caressing the side of his face. "Just be careful next time." She smiled. "Now rest awhile." She says, getting out of the wagon. She sees Cage walking up to her. "Hey honey!" She embraces him and kisses him on the lips. He sees the dried blood on her shirt.
"Great Jerusalem Crickets!...Arrah, what happened? Are you ok?" Cage asks.
"Cage, calm down! I'm fine!...Leslie just got into a little swimming accident...He cracked his head open a bit..."
"He what?" Cage started to say, sounding really worried.
"Now don't worry...Don't worry," She said in a soothing tone of voice. "I got the bleeding to stop with a spider's web, just like my Pa did when I was a little girl...Don't worry, he's fine. He's in the wagon."
"I'll go see him...by the way, Manzo and Adam want to know if the food's ready."
"Oh good Heavens! The smoked fish!"...She runs over to check on it in the fire pit. "Ok good...It's fine..." She takes it off the rack and puts it all on a huge plate on the table. She goes and changes into her dark tan blouse that has little pink roses printed all over it. It went pretty well with her dark brown skirt.
"Hey buddy..." Cage said, climbing into the back of the wagon. "Looks like you gave everyone quite a scare, huh?" He says, taking a seat on the wagon bed.
"Yeah...I cracked my head open, it really hurt and it bled a lot."
"Did you cry?" Cage asked.
"Uh-huh." Leslie shook his head up and down.
"Hey, watch it!...The marbles are rolling around in your head!" Cage says, laughing. Leslie giggles.
"Lets make 'em rattle even more!" He says, taking Leslie's head and playfully shakes it up and down, and that makes Leslie engulf in more hysterical laughter.
"Food's ready!" Arrah calls to everyone.
"Hey, you want me to bring 'the wounded' out a plate?" Cage asks, playfully punching Leslie's arm.
"Sure!" He says, smiling, and Cage got out of the wagon. While everyone is beginning to show up at the table, Cage fixes up a plate for Leslie.
"Here ya go, bud." Cage says, returning with the plate of food.
"Thanks Cage." Leslie smiles, digging his fork into the mashed potatoes.
"Hey now! Don't ya think ya should thank God for that food?"
"Oh yeah." He says and folds his little hands, and says his own little prayer out loud. "Dear God,...Thank you for this really, really good food,...and friends and family,...and for keeping me safe and not killing me when I broke my head open today...In Jesus' Name,...Amen."
Cage laughed. "Silly boy." He said, ruffling his blond hair.