Mary and Laura had just finished some of the chores, and now they were very bored. Laura wanted to ride her horse Candy, but she couldn't because Pa needed to lend four of his horses over to Mr. Hanson the owner of Hanson's Mill that their pa worked for. Pa had needed to give Candy too, and this had made Laura sad, until she found out that Candy would be back in a week.
"What should we do, Mary?" Laura said.
"Laura, like ma says, you really need to learn to just sit and watch the clouds!" Mary said. "But oh, alright, I admit, I'm bored too, come on, how about we go play on the swings in the school yard? Maybe there are other kids playing there and we can set up a game of jump rope, or maybe hopscotch!"
"Nah, that stuff is for school days and Sundays, this is Saturday and Saturdays are for adventure! How about we go get Samantha and invite her over to see our friend Kaya?"
"Laura Ingalls! That is much too risky, and besides if we tell the whole world that there are Indians in Walnut Grove, they'll be sent away, or maybe even killed!"
"Oh Mary, please? I'll give you some of my licorice!" Laura whined.
"Oh, alright!"
The girls ran off to the town that Samantha lived in. It was a neighboring town right before the big city!
Samantha opened the door and peered out into the bright sunlight. She smiled when she saw Laura and Mary. "Oh hi Laura, hi Mary!"
"Hi, we want you to go see the Indian friend we met last week!" Laura said.
"Let me just go get my stockings and shoes on, and -" Samantha started to say, but Laura quickly cut her off.
"Oh no, don't wear ANY stockings or shoes, we need to cross some of Willow Lake, and if you get your stockings and good shoes all wet, I bet your grandmary would be mad!" Laura said.
"Oh, well, um, ok I guess, I'll go with you now. Though for some reason, not wearing stockings and shoes feels so strange, but let's go," Samantha said, looking down at her bare feet.
Mary, Laura, and Samantha all crossed a small section of Willow Lake, and the girls stopped at the other side to talk.
"Let's look around all seperately for 10 minutes and let's all meet back here!" Laura said quickly, before dashing off into a bush.
The girls all met back about 10 minutes later, with no Kaya, and no Indians.
"We looked everywhere for places where a person might hide, and we didn't find a single thing," Laura sighed.
"Wait, don't get upset Laura, we only looked for people, now let's look for clues. Remember the mystery book I read out loud to you? It is just like that, we got to look for clues to lead to the treasure!" Samantha cried excitedly. "But let's not split up to look for clues, we should all go together just like they did in the book!"
"Ok then, let's go!" Laura said excitedly.
The girls set off deeper into the woods.
Laura and Mary watched Laura climb a tree to make sure she was staying on track, and to make sure she didn't get near the bees nest higher up in the tree.
"Mary, Samantha, I have found something!" Laura called down to the girls.
"Well then, bring it down! Quickly, we need to look for millions of clues!"
"Samantha, stop, I'm doing the best I can!" Laura cried down impatiently.
"I'm sorry!" Samantha called up to her.
"Look girls, here is what I found! I wonder what they are?" Laura said.
"Maybe they were used as decorations!" Mary said.
"Maybe they were toys for the kids!" Samantha said.
"Maybe they were for war dances and the Indians are plotting a war!" Laura said. She had such a creative imagination.
"Oh, Laura, that is just plain silly and I think you know it!" Mary frowned. Deep down inside, she was a bit frightened that what Laura said could be true. If there was a war, and the Indians weren't here, Ma and Carrie wouldn't be safe. Probably not even Jack the dog would know what to do. Pa was away, and who knew what could happen.
In the dirt, they saw faint streaks of purple.
"Wait, I know, it spells something! Why, it spells Kaya! This is probably where the children practiced their penmanship!" Mary exclaimed.
"Kaya! Maybe, well, maybe that is a sign!" Laura and Samantha cried at the same time.
"Wait!! I see something over there!!!" Laura cried running at full speed with the girls following behind her.
"Oh, my, Laura, it's Kaya's dress!" Mary shouted backing up from the hanging dress.
"Wow! Maybe another tribe kidnapped her and they want to make her -" Laura started to shout.
"Laura, hush! It is probably laying out to dry," Mary said calmly.
"Laying out to dry?? Don't you even have an imagination?" Laura cried out frowning at her sister. How could Mary be so calm?
"Of course I do, and if we keep fighting like this, Kaya will never be found. Ever!" Mary shouted.
Mary took the dress down to inspect it.
"Let me inspect it!" Laura screamed trying to snatch the dress away from her sister.
"Stop it! Just stop it! Your acting like such a baby! Who cares about who inspects it?" Mary said continuing to turn the dress around.
"I hear something in the bushes!" Samantha said in a frightened whisper.
Out of the brush came Kaya in clothes!
"But Kaya. these are your clothes!" Laura said.
"No, they aren't my clothes, they are another child of the tribe's clothes," Kaya said in very good English.
"Cool!" Laura and the girls exclaimed.
"Where in the world were you?" Samantha said.
"I was out....... hunting with my tribe. We had to catch........ food," Kaya said trying her hardest to explain. Her English was good, but not too good yet, so she had to keep stopping to search for the right words.
"Oh, ok! Well, at least we found you at last!" Mary said hugging Kaya.
For the rest of the day, the girls played and laughed together. It turned out to be a great day, one of the best days until..........................Samantha went home to an upset Grandmary because she didn't wear her stockings or shoes.
