Chapter Five

Chapter Five: A visit With Cousins

One early morning when Mama was making breakfast in the kitchen, and the children were working in the farm outside, Mama thought they could invite the Ferriers, (their cousins) over for the afternoon and dinner. She did not tell papa about it until he came inside. And papa said that was a great idea. Only a little while after the children came inside with pails full of berries, and eggs, and milk. Then they had breakfast, and Mama and Papa told the children they were going to invite the Ferriers over after lunch. There were cheers and laughs, the children were so excited that they were going to see their cousins again. They ate their breakfast quickly, and hoped that the morning would pass very fast. The boys went outside again and played with their dog Scotch. The girls went outside too and waited in the pond. Rosie splashed in the water. “Hey don’t splash me,” cried Sarah. “Okay” said Rosie. “I can’t wait, we are going to see the Ferriers today!” said Evelyn, very excitedly. “Yes!” cried Sarah. “And I can’t wait to see Irene!” said Rosie. “And think of all the things we can do together too!” said Evelyn. Mama was outside too now, watering her garden. And she went to tell the girls that she just called the Ferriers, and invited them here. “Yes, I can’t wait, I can’t wait!” exclaimed Rosie. Mama laughed and said “I can’t wait either honey.” “What time is it?” asked Sarah. Mama looked at her watch and said “11:50.” “Ten minutes and an hour, right Mama?” asked Sarah. “Yes” replied Mama, and she went inside to her baby Charlotte crying. So she picked her up, and feed her cold creamy milk. She was glad that their cousins were going to come, and have their time her kids. It was 12:00 very soon, and Papa told the children that the Ferriers were going to come in one hour. Evelyn gasped; all the children were so surprised that it did go by so quickly. “Yay!” said Rosie. “Oh, yes!” cried the boys. Mama looked down at the floors of her house, it was so messy, and the Ferriers were going to come so soon. So she told all the children except for the two babies’ to help her clean the house before they got there. So they all pitched in to clean it. They hurried because they knew that it would take awhile to clean the whole entire house. Evelyn quickly picked up the toys in the living room and picked up her own room. Mama and Sarah cleaned the kitchen. And Sarah also cleaned her room, they all cleaned their rooms. And soon the house was clean, and it was 1:00 but they did not come yet and Rosie did not understand. Isaac laughed. “They maybe five or ten minutes late, honey but it’s okay” said Mama. “Oh” said Rosie, still not understanding. Come, Rosie let’s go and pick some berries while we are waiting” suggested Evelyn. Mama smiled at Evelyn, and Rosie went with her outside. But right when they went outside, the Ferriers big van parked next to their house on the country road. “They’re here, they’re here!” yelled Rosie. “Yay!” cried Evelyn. And the Ferrier family poured out of their van. “Helen!” cried Evelyn. “Evelyn!” cried Helen. Helen and Evelyn hugged very tightly. Sarah saw Cecile and said “Oh, Cecile, your finally here!” and they hugged each other tightly too. And Rosie found Irene and Alice with Aunt Michelle holding their hands. “Hewo, Awice an’ Iwene” Rosie said. “Hewo, Wosie” Irene said. “Hi, Rosie!” said Alice excitedly. The three girls hugged. Mama hugged Aunt Michelle and laughed. “We are so glad you could come!”Mama said. The grownups started to chat right away. And the boys went to ride on Streak their VERY fast and VERY rough horse. And the girls chated under a cherry blosom tree, and wrote in their journals. All the grownups went inside, and Mama fixed up some lemonade and coffee with whipped cream on top. “Thank you so much, April!” said Aunt Michelle. “Oh, you’re welcome.” Said Mama.

Meanwhile, outside Cecile held a blue bag over her shoulder, and took a container of a bunch of coins. “This is my coin collection.” She said. “Oh, cool!” exclaimed Sarah. “Do you wanna see my new doll house?” Rosie asked Alice and Irene. “Sure!” they said. And the girls went inside and played with the dollhouse. “Can you tell me what your writing in your Journal, Cecile?” asked Sarah. “no, not right now but maybe later.” Cecile answered. “Okay, you can read mine later too.” Said Sarah. Helen and Evelyn looked at a Reminisce magazine, and talked about it.

“Ooh, look at that dress and that girl!”They would say, or:

“I would love to have that horse right there!”

“Do you want to see Scotch our dog, I think he’s inside?” “Oh, yes I don’t think I ever saw him before.” answered Cecile. The two girls went inside too, and played with Scotch. But Helen and Evelyn stayed outside. “Did you have lunch yet?” asked Sarah.

“Yes, we had lunch before we left.”

Cecile petted Scotch gently. “He is a nice dog.” said Cecile.

“Thank you.” replied Sarah.

“It is Joey’s birthday soon!” exclaimed Sarah.

“Ooh, how old is he turning?” asked Cecile. “Two.” “I know, lets arrange a game of capture the flag boys against girls!” suggested Cecile. “That is a great idea.” said Cecile. “First let’s have some lemonade, before we tell everyone.” said Sarah. So they had lemonade, and then got everyone to play. Once they got the flag, (which was a cup) and everyone was outside, they played. The girls hid their under a berry bush, and the boys hid theirs up in a tree.

And finally when they were done hiding their flags, they all ran out and guarded and tried to either save someone from jail or get the flag. Soon the game was over and the boys won. But they did not care much because they had fun anyway. Mama opened the door of their house and yelled “If you want a snack come inside, children!” So the kids went inside and saw that it was tarts. “Hurray!” exclaimed Sarah. And everyone ate a snack of raspberry tarts. “Let’s play another game after this!” suggested Cecile. “Like what?” asked Sarah. “Maybe we can play tag outside.” said Cecile. “Okay.” replied Sarah. So they went outside after their snack and played tag with Evelyn and Helen too. And after they played tag outside all the girls picked apples and rode on horses. Evelyn had a horse that was white and was named Moonlight, and Helen and Evelyn ride on that one. Cecile and Sarah rode on their pretty beige horse named Caramel. With some help from the older girls, Alice, Irene and Rosie rode on Snowflake for a little while. Then they collected four eggs from the chickens, and tried to pick them up. But of course it was not hard for Evelyn too, because she was the one who always took care of them. Alice Cecile and Sarah picked blackberries and gave them to Mama inside. Soon it was 4:00 in the afternoon, and Mama began to roast hamburger meat. The four oldest girls went under their shady apple bosom tree, and wrote in their journals and talked. They laughed and talked about how fast Streak and Thunder bolt went, and that they should be trained. Evelyn looked beyond the fields and saw a glimpse of the boys going in the woods. “Hey do you guys want to go in the woods?” she asked. “The boys are.” “Yeah let’s go!” exclaimed Helen. So the girls put their shoes on and ran through the fields and into the woods. They saw some a couple of red and yellow leaves in the woods, and they knew that it was because fall was coming. The woods were so pretty with the tall trees, and the sun setting. The Davis girls helped the Ferrier girls make their own forts, and the Davis boys helped the Ferrier boys to make their own forts there. After all the forts were made, Cecile and Sarah cleared in their forts and around them. So did Helen and Evelyn, and Alice Rosie Irene. The three little girls pretended they had a store in the woods, and they used rocks to put the nature supplies on. They solled in their little pretend store, neat sticks, colorful leaves, mas, and shiny rocks that looked like crystals. “Look, over here Sarah, it’s our store in the woods!” exclaimed Rosie. So Sarah and Cecile walked over. “Oh, that’s so nice, may we buy something?” said Sarah. “Oh sure!” answered Alice. They looked at the things and said they wanted to buy some of the rocks. “Okay.” said Irene. “Here they are, there for free too!” Wow, thank you.” said Cecile. Then they heard a faint call. “Time for dinner kids!” yelled Mama from the house. So all the children went out of the woods and into the house. “What is for dinner, Mama?”asked Isaac. Hamburgers!” said Mama. And the table is all set too, so why don’t you sit down.” Everyone sat down, and Papa led grace, then everybody started preparing hamburgers. And they all started chatting until they were finished eating. Thank you so much, that was so good April!” said Aunt Michele after they were done. “Oh, thank you for helping me.” Mama replied. “Well, kids we should be going pretty soon.” said Aunt Michele. “No!” cried Irene. “Oh, honey I know you want to stay but we have to leave sometime.” said Aunt Michele. Evelyn gave a big sigh, and all the children put sad faces on. “It’s okay guys we will see each other again soon.” said Mama. So everyone said “good-bye” and hugged each other tightly, hoping to see them again very, very soon. They all walked out the door, and ran across the fields to the Ferrier’s van. Again the children hugged them for the last time, they would not see each other for quit a few months. But Aunt Michele was right, they had to leave sometime. They hated to see their van move away already.