The Mandie Collection (12 page)

“Look who's here,” Joe said.

“Snowball!” Mandie scolded as the kitten ran playfully after her shovel. “How did you get out of the house?”

The white cat tried to rub around her legs, but Mandie shoved him away. “You're all wet,” she fussed. “Quit that!”

“Looks like we've finished the walkway,” Joe said, surveying the long clear path to the porch. “Shall we go outside the gate and clear a place to tether the horses in case someone comes before it all melts?”

“Oh yes, let's do,” Mandie urged. “Let's hurry and finish, and then we can get Liza and build a snowman.”

After completing their task, with Snowball roaming around and meowing, Mandie ran up on the front porch, removed her wet boots, and hurried through the house to find Liza. The little Negro maid was still helping in the back, but she was thrilled to begin having some fun.

As the two girls put their boots back on outside the front door, Mandie showed Liza the large footprints she and Joe had preserved in the snow.

“But dey don't go no place, Missy,” Liza said, stooping to look.

“You mean whoever it was didn't come in the house?” Mandie asked. “I know. We haven't had any visitors through the front door. I think we have another mystery on our hands.”

“But look, dey start out there at de summerhouse.” Liza pointed across the yard. “Where did dey come from to git there?”

“You know, you're right,” Joe said, joining them on the porch. “The footprints start from the summerhouse and end here on the porch, but there aren't any footprints going back out.”

Mandie sighed. “We didn't think about that, did we?” she said. “I don't think anyone could have stayed in the summerhouse all this time during the snowstorm. And once they got to the front door, what did they do?”

“Come on,” Joe told the girls. “Let's get started on the snowman while we talk. Otherwise Mandie's grandmother may be calling us in pretty soon. We've been out here awhile already.”

They shoveled a rough path through the deep snow to the center of the yard, and there they began shaping a snowman, throwing snowballs at each other now and then. Snowball kept out of their way.

Liza stopped a moment to look at the footprints across the yard. “Reckon dat musta been some ghost man dat made dem footprints,” she remarked.

“And he must've been coming after you, Liza,” Joe teased. “Maybe he just couldn't get the door open.”

Liza stared at him in fright. “I d-don't know no ghost man,” she stammered. “He not comin' to see me. He comin' to see you.”

“Maybe Mr. Jason or Abraham can help us figure out where he went,” Mandie suggested.

Joe packed a large handful of snow onto the snowman's head. “They can't figure out anything any more than we can,” he said. “The footprints are there, going one way, and that's all.”

“Don't be too sure about that, Joe,” Mandie replied. “Somebody is bound to know who made them.”

But Joe was right. Later, when the young people showed the footprints to Jason Bond, Abraham, and Jake Burns, they were all puzzled, too. No one had any ideas about the strange prints.

CHAPTER NINE

MORE MISSING PRESENTS

The young people didn't wait for Mrs. Taft to call them back into the house. Even though they had built up some warmth while they were shoveling snow, they had become cold while building the snowman. So after showing the strange footprints to the men, they voluntarily sought the warmth of the indoors. They took off their snow-wet boots just outside the front door and carried them to the kitchen to dry.

“You gotta see our snowman, Aunt Lou,” Mandie told the big Negro housekeeper, who was directing activities in the warm kitchen.

“I ain't got time to look at no snowman, my chile,” Aunt Lou replied, bustling about. “You jes' git right upstairs now and change dem wet clothes ‘fo' you gits a cold and yo' mama come home blamin' me now, you hear?”

“I hear, Aunt Lou,” Mandie said, removing her heavy coat. “But my clothes aren't wet, just my shoes.”

Aunt Lou bent over and caught Mandie's skirt at the hem. “Dat skirt be wet round de bottom,” she said. “Now you gits upstairs right now and git dem clothes changed, my chile.”

Mandie smiled. “Yes, ma'am, I will, if you say so,” she replied.

Aunt Lou looked over at Joe and Liza, who were warming themselves by the huge iron cookstove. “Now you do de same, you hear?” she
admonished. “Liza, you gits yo' dress changed and git back in heah to work. Right now.”

Liza scurried toward the kitchen door as Aunt Lou started fussing at Joe. “And you, doctuh's son, just 'cause yo' pa be a doctuh ain't no sign he got time to be adoctorin' you when he got all dem other sick folks to look after.”

Joe laughed. “All right, Aunt Lou, I'll change, too,” he said, following Mandie and Liza out of the room.

Liza met the other two in the hallway. “Race you up de steps!” she whispered. And instantly she took off, running up the stairs.

Mandie and Joe followed, but Liza had a head start. Although her room was on the third floor, she stopped on the second-floor landing. “Beat you!” she called back to them. Then she started up the next flight of stairs, walking.

“Oh, well,” Mandie said as she reached the landing.

Joe was right with her. “The steps aren't wide enough for the three of us to run together,” he said. “That's why you won, Liza.”

At that moment Hilda came running down the stairs past Liza.

“Heah be dat Hilda girl,” she called to Mandie and Joe as she continued on upstairs.

Mandie frowned. “Hilda, where have you been?” she asked, stopping her. “Your room is on the second floor here with ours. What were you doing up on the third floor?”

Hilda smiled and turned at the landing to hurry down the second-floor hallway.

“Save your breath, Mandie,” Joe said. “She has no idea what you're saying.”

They started toward their rooms. “I'm not so sure she doesn't understand,” Mandie replied. “It may be that she understands but still doesn't know how to talk very well.” She opened the door to her room. “Anyway, see you downstairs.”

Closing the door behind her, Mandie looked around the room, expecting to see Hilda there. But she wasn't. Mandie quickly looked into the room that Hilda was supposed to be occupying, and there she was, sitting in the middle of the bed, playing with Snowball.

“Hilda, why don't you come into my room while I change clothes,” she offered. She wanted to keep Hilda in sight so she wouldn't have to go looking for her when the noon meal was announced.

Hilda looked at her and smiled but didn't budge. Mandie walked over and took her hand to entice her to come along. Snowball jumped down to the floor, but Hilda still didn't move.

“I have another secret, Hilda,” Mandie said.

“Secret,” Hilda repeated. And she jumped down from the bed.

Then Mandie noticed that Hilda was not wearing the same dress she had put on backward that morning. This dress was made with the buttons in the front, and she had it on right.

“Yes, I have another secret,” Mandie told her. “Let's go to my room.”

She didn't have any trouble getting Hilda to follow her. Mandie's room was on the front of the house, so when they got to her room, she pointed out the window. “See the snowman?”

Hilda stared out the window.

“That's the secret I wanted to show you,” Mandie said. “Joe and Liza and I made it.”

Hilda turned to Mandie. “Secret?” she asked.

“Part of the secret is some big, big footprints on the front porch,” Mandie continued. “They come from the summerhouse. We don't know who made them, so it's somebody's secret.” She turned to the chifferobe and took out a dress.

Hilda seemed to be puzzled. “Secret,” she repeated the word as she gazed out the window. Then as Mandie started changing clothes, Hilda watched her put on a clean dress, stockings, and dry slippers.

Snowball sat by the fireplace washing his damp white fur; then he curled up on the rug and went to sleep.

“I think it's about time to eat, Hilda,” Mandie said, tying back her long blonde hair with a ribbon. “Let's go downstairs.”

Hilda followed Mandie downstairs and into the parlor. There Grandmother Taft and Mrs. Burns sat by the fireplace while Mr. Burns and Jason Bond stood in front of the fire, warming themselves. Joe was looking out the window at the snowman in the front yard.

“I hope y'all didn't get too much of that cold out there, Amanda,” her grandmother said.

“I don't think so,” Mandie replied. She took a seat on the settee, and Hilda plopped onto a stool by the fireplace. “When did Hilda show up? Did you change her dress?”

“Why, she came into the breakfast room right after y'all went out to shovel snow,” Mrs. Taft replied. She looked at Hilda. “And that's the same dress she's had on all morning as far as I know.”

“No, Grandmother, she had on a pink dress that buttoned down the back this morning,” Mandie explained. “She put it on backward and wouldn't let me change it. I suppose that's why she disappeared.”

Ludie Burns spoke up. “I seen her come out of her room when I went up to our room after breakfast,” she said, “and that's the dress she had on then.”

“I was still at the table when she came in, and I made sure she ate her breakfast,” Mrs. Taft added.

Joe walked across the room from the window and sat down in a nearby chair. “Mrs. Taft, did Mr. Bond and Mr. Burns tell you about the mysterious footprints we found out there on the front porch?” he asked.

“Yes, they mentioned something about some odd footprints, I believe,” she replied. “Perhaps someone knocked on the door, and we didn't hear them, so they went away.”

“But the prints don't go back out. They only head in toward the front door,” Joe explained.

“They come from the summerhouse and don't show up anywhere else,” Mandie added.

“Secret,” Hilda said, humming to herself.

Mandie looked at the girl and smiled, remembering that she had told Hilda that the footprints were a secret.

Just then Liza came in and stood in the doorway. “Dinner be on de table,” she announced.

Everyone got up and started to leave the room to go to the dining room. Liza waited until Mandie and Joe passed through the doorway, then she whispered, “And there ain't no ghost man 'spected fo' dinner.”

“You might just be surprised,” Joe teased her.

“Liza, will you help me rewrap the presents after we eat?” Mandie asked.

“I sho' will, Missy,” Liza replied as they continued into the dining room. “Jes' you give me time to git through dinner.”

“I'll be in my room,” Mandie told her.

“May I help?” Joe teased as they all sat down at the table.

“Of course not,” Mandie said. “How about entertaining Hilda to keep her out of my room?”

“Me? Entertain Hilda?” Joe laughed. “That's impossible.”

“You could at least try,” Mandie said.

“All right,” Joe finally agreed.

Hilda was across the table from them and probably couldn't hear their conversation, but she swayed slightly in her chair, humming to herself and repeating the word
secret
in a sing-song voice.

Eventually, dinner conversation turned to the question of how soon Elizabeth and the others would be able to get back.

Mr. Bond shook his head slowly. “Could be worse over there in those mountains around Tellico than it is here,” he said. “Then again, it may not be as bad. We'll just have to wait and see.”

Mandie looked straight at him. “Mother said in the message that they would be home in time for Christmas, and I know they will,” she said firmly. “Besides”—she glanced around the table—“the surprise she has for me is for Christmas, and since none of y'all will tell me what it is, she'll have to be home in time to let me know what the surprise is.”

No one answered her, and Mandie guessed that they were all hoping Mandie's mother would come home soon and get the surprise business over with so they could have some peace.

During the lull in the conversation, Hilda hummed quietly to herself.

After the meal was over, Mandie reminded Joe to try to keep Hilda downstairs while she worked in her room. Joe said he would see if Hilda would like to play checkers by the fireplace in the parlor. Mandie wasn't sure how that would work, but she headed upstairs hopefully.

As she pulled the presents out of her trunk and laid them on the bed, she decided to get new paper to wrap them. Hurrying down the hallway to the sewing room, she hoped she wouldn't find the wrapping supplies in such a mess again.

But this time when she went into the sewing room, everything was in order. All the paper was neatly placed on a shelf along with the ribbons. The scissors were on the table. But when she looked for the plentiful red paper she had used before, she couldn't find even a scrap of it. She finally decided on a roll of white tissue paper, which they often used for wrapping gifts. Taking the whole roll, as well as the scissors and the ribbons, she hurried back to her room.

Liza came in just as she began to pull the old paper off one of the presents. Suddenly Mandie realized that it was the red scarf for Liza, and she quickly opened the trunk lid and dropped the scarf inside, hoping the girl didn't see it.

“Jes' tell me what you wants done, and I'll he'p,” Liza said, sitting next to Mandie on the rug by the fire.

“All the presents on the bed there have to be rewrapped with new paper,” Mandie told her, stretching out the paper on the rug. “The old paper is too wrinkled. You know, I looked for some more of that red paper in the sewing room and there wasn't even a little piece of it anywhere.”