Read The Mandie Collection Online
Authors: Lois Gladys Leppard
The Mandie Collection (16 page)
Mandie laughed with delight as she stooped to pet them. “Oh, Uncle John!” was all she could say. She wondered if the dogs might have come from the old warehouse, but she didn't know if she should ask.
“Yes, Amanda, you did hear a puppy the time Ben brought you and Celia through the alley and the rig broke down. Uncle Ned found them last night,” John Shaw explained.
Mandie suddenly realized the old Indian was standing nearby watching. She jumped up and ran to hug him. “Oh, Uncle Ned, thank you for saving them. Thank you.”
“No home no more so bring them to Grandma,” Uncle Ned said with a big grin. He looked at Mrs. Taft and added, “She say we keep awhile.”
“Grandmother, thank you,” Mandie rushed over to embrace her.
“Hold on, now, Amanda,” Mrs. Taft said, laughing herself. “We are not keeping all these puppies forever, just until they can be weaned from the mother. Then we'll talk about whether you may keep one for yourselfâthat is, if you have obeyed and stayed far away from trouble.”
“I promise I will, Grandmother,” Mandie said excitedly.
“Think before act, Papoose,” Uncle Ned reminded her.
“I always try to remember to do that, but sometimes things happen so fast I forget,” Mandie said sadly.
“Remember to use thinking cap,” the old Indian told her.
“All right, girls, you don't want to be late for school,” Mrs. Taft reminded them. “Get outside now so Ben can harness the rig.”
As soon as the rig was ready, Mandie and Celia climbed aboard. Mandie looked back and waved as Ben drove it down the driveway.
She did a lot of thinking on the way to school. She knew she had been willful and disobedient, and she tried to figure out how she could overcome that fault. If she could just remember to think first and then act, as Uncle Ned kept telling her, she wouldn't get herself and others in so much trouble.
Looking outside at the dark sky as they rode along, she murmured quietly, “I'm sorry, dear God, for doing what I knew was wrong.
Please help me to be better, please. I thank you.” She turned to look at her friend, who seemed to be doing the same thing. Reaching across the seat, she squeezed Celia's hand and said, “I'll try to grow up and be good and be a young lady.”
For
MOLLIE HARDAWAY
May a
star-studded future
await you
and
congratulations to
CECILY MILLEN
for
winning the MANDIE Auction!
CONTENTS
Chapter 8 Aunt Lou's Suggestion
“If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.”
âEmily Dickinson,
POEMS I (1830â1886)
CHAPTER ONE
AWAY WE GO!
Spring holidays had finally arrived in 1903. Mandie was happy as a lark as she went about preparations to go home for the two-week vacation. Her curtailed social agenda was over, because she had somehow managed to stay out of daring escapades since her involvement in the dangers of the dark alley back in October. The winter had been miserableâcold and snowy with very little sunshine. But now the days were bright and warm and longer. The daffodils were peeping through their soil, and the robins had returned. Everything was wonderful.
And Joe Woodard was coming home!
“Oh, spring has come to town today,” Mandie sang as she pulled clothes down from the wardrobe to pack in her valise.
“And the birds are singing their say,” Celia picked up on the song. Her things were already downstairs waiting for Aunt Rebecca to finish her business with Miss Prudence, after which Celia and her aunt would be taking the train home to Richmond.
“The wind is warm, the day is bright,” Mandie sang on.
“My spirit's soaring like a kite,” Celia added.
The Misses Heathwood's School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina, was closing its doors for the spring vacation. Mandie Shaw was going to run head on into mysteries elsewhere.
Mandie snapped her valise shut and stood up to look at her friend. “You know, Celia, I'm anxious to find out what Uncle John was talking about in his letterâthat there seemed to be a mystery about the new folks who've moved into the old house down by the creek.”
“Oh, Mandie, he only meant that no one in town seemed to know the people,” Celia reminded her.
“But that's what I'm talking about. New people don't just move into Franklin from parts unknown, not knowing anyone. Franklin is so small everyone has always known everyone else's business,” Mandie explained. “I wonder what those people do for a living.”
Celia smiled and said, “I'm sure you'll find out. Meanwhile, I think we should get downstairs.”
“Yes. Come on, Snowball,” Mandie replied, stooping to pick up her white cat and fasten on his red leash.
When the girls got downstairs, they found Aunt Rebecca ready to leave and Ben, the driver for Mandie's grandmother, waiting to pick up Mandie's luggage. She was going to Mrs. Taft's house, then her grandmother would be going home with Mandie on the train.
“It's all sitting inside the door of our room, Ben,” Mandie told the driver. “I have three bags, so you might want to ask Uncle Cal to help bring them down.”
“I can manage, missy,” Ben told her with a smile as he started toward the staircase.
Uncle Cal had just come in the front door after carrying out some other girl's luggage and heard the conversation. “I'll go with you, Ben,” he said. He followed the driver up the stairs.
“We'll see you on Friday, Mandie,” Celia told her as she and her aunt prepared to leave.
“Yes, dear, tell your mother we'll be there,” Aunt Rebecca added.
Mandie reached to hug the little lady and said, “Just don't forget.”
Mandie threw a kiss as they entered the waiting rig in the driveway to take them to the depot. Celia waved back.
Ben and Uncle Cal, the school maintenance man, came down
with Mandie's luggage and put it in her grandmother's rig, and Mandie stepped inside the vehicle.
“See you in two weeks, Uncle Cal,” Mandie told the old man.
As Uncle Cal waved, Ben drove the rig down the driveway.
“Ben, have you ever been back through that dark alley again?” Mandie asked as he steered the rig down the road.
Ben looked back at her in surprise and replied, “Now, you know, missy, I ain't been back in dat place. Why, Miz Taft would send me packin' if I dun such a thing and I ain't got nowhere to pack off to.”
Mandie laughed and said, “I was just checking. I haven't seen much of you since Miss Prudence and Miss Hope allowed Celia and me to come back to live in the school. And let me tell you one thing, that was the worst part of the punishment for exploring that alley, having to live with Grandmother, right under her thumb, and going back and forth to school and nowhere else for all those months.”
“Now, missy, not many months,” Ben replied. “I recollect y'all only had to do dat till right after New Year's, and den you moved back in de school.”
“I know, but days can seem like months living under Grandmother's supervision,” Mandie said with a big sigh.
“Guess you gwine hafta spend more time wid huh now dat she be gwine home wid you,” Ben reminded her.
“Not really,” Mandie said, smiling. “You see, my mother and Uncle John will be there. And you can't imagine how glad I am that my mother married my uncle John after I lost my father. Grandmother is afraid of him, so she is not all that strict and bossy when we're at my house.”
“Well, here we is,” Ben announced as he turned the rig into Mrs. Taft's long driveway and brought it to a halt at the front door of the mansion.
Mrs. Taft was waiting for them. She opened the front door and called, “Ben, leave Amanda's things in the rig and come and get mine. We don't have much time before we have to get to the depot.”
“So we are leaving today, then, after all,” Mandie said as she
stepped down from the rig, holding on to Snowball, and joined her grandmother at the front door.
“Yes, I was able to get the Mannings to take Hilda to their house this morning. They came back from their trip earlier than expected,” Mrs. Taft explained. “Come on in, Amanda.”
Hilda was the young girl Mandie and Celia had found hiding in the attic of their school a long time ago, and Mrs. Taft had given Hilda a home. But Hilda would not, or could not, speak to anyone. However, she did get along with the Mannings' young daughter and usually stayed with them when Mrs. Taft was away.
“I'm glad we can leave today,” Mandie remarked as she entered the front door and joined her grandmother in the parlor off the hallway. “Holidays always seem so short.” She set Snowball down and removed his leash. He ran out of the room.
“Amanda, don't you think you ought to leave that cat here? He may be a lot of trouble on the train,” Mrs. Taft said as she sat down.
“Oh no, Grandmother,” Mandie quickly replied as she sat near her grandmother. “Snowball won't be any trouble on the train. He usually sleeps the whole trip. Besides, I'm afraid he might get out while we're gone and get lost.”
“Ella and Annie will both be here the whole time,” Mrs. Taft reminded her.
Ella, the maid, came to the doorway at that moment and said, “Everything's ready, Miz Taft.”
“Thank you, Ella,” Mrs. Taft replied, rising. “Come on, Amanda, we'll have a little bite to eat before we get that train.”
Mandie noticed that it was not a “little bite to eat” but what looked like an entire meal on the table. “Grandmother, I have to tell you I'm not very hungry. It's almost two hours before the noon meal at the school.” She pulled out a chair from the table and sat down as her grandmother took her place.
“I know, but if we eat now we won't have to have anything when we get to your mother's house, because they will have already had their dinner,” Mrs. Taft replied. “Now, what are you planning to do while you're home?” She passed a platter of ham to Mandie.
Mandie took the platter, removed a very small slice, and laid it on her plate. She was slow in replying because she didn't want her
grandmother to know everything. Mrs. Taft had a way of trying to change other people's plans. “Well,” Mandie finally replied, “Celia and her aunt Rebecca and Celia's mother are all coming to visit this weekend.”
“That's wonderful, dear,” Mrs. Taft said, helping herself to the hot biscuits and passing the platter to Mandie. “We'll have to do something special for them, won't we? Let's see, now. We should plan a dinner one night and invite some of your mother's friends.”
“But, Grandmother, some of my other friends may be coming, too,” Mandie told her, laying down her fork.
“Fine, then we'll just have a large dinner party,” Mrs. Taft replied.
Mandie quickly decided it was time to change the subject. She cleared her throat and took a sip of coffee. “Grandmother, did you hear about the new people who have moved into the old house down by the creek? Did Uncle John write and tell you about them, too?” she asked.
Mrs. Taft frowned and said, “Yes, John did mention that in a letter this week. It seems no one knows them or knows where they came from, which is rather strange.”
“Uncle John didn't say in the letter to me whether it was a family, whether they had children, or what kind of people they areâold, young, or what,” Mandie told her.
“Neither did he give that kind of information when he wrote to me,” Mrs. Taft said. “That's probably because no one knows for sure.” She sipped her coffee and then added, “Now, to get back to our discussion of the dinner party. Do you know yet whether Joe is coming home for the holidays? Dr. and Mrs. Woodard should be invited to this dinner and of course Joe, too, if he will be out of school.”
Mandie closed her eyes and secretly sighed. Sometimes it was just impossible to change the subject with her grandmother. Then, looking across the table, she replied, “Yes, ma'am, Grandmother. Joe is going home for the holidays, and his vacation just happened to come at the same time our school's did. He wrote that he would see me, but I don't know whether he is coming to our house or we are going to his.”
“Well, then,” Mrs. Taft quickly said, “I'll get word to Dr. and
Mrs. Woodard that we are expecting them at your house in Franklin, along with Joe, of course.”