The Mandie Collection (36 page)

When they got back to Mandie's room this time, Mandie took another valise stored on top of the wardrobe and put the quilt in it. She set the valise right by the bed on the side where she would be sleeping.

“There, now. If anyone takes it, I'll be sure to wake,” Mandie said, looking at the valise.

“Maybe we should lock the door,” Celia suggested.

“Yes, that would be better,” Mandie said, crossing to the door and turning the latch. “All safe and sound and ready to travel tomorrow.”

She lay awake later that night, thinking about the quilt and wondering what kind of a message could be on it. She was so sure she would soon find out from one of her Cherokee kinpeople.

CHAPTER FOUR

MYSTERY AT UNCLE NED'S

After taking several breaks along their way over the mountain with Uncle Ned the next day, the three young people and Snowball finally arrived with him at Deep Creek and went directly to his house, which was the largest one in the settlement. His wife, Morning Star, was in the yard.

“Welcome,” the old woman greeted them as Uncle Ned stopped the wagon to let the young people out before he took it on to the barn for the night.

Mandie, holding on to her white cat, grabbed her valise and jumped down from the vehicle as Morning Star came forward to help them. Joe carried Mandie's extra valise containing the quilt.

Mandie reached to give the old woman a hug as she said, “Thank you, Morning Star. I hope you don't mind that we came earlier than we expected to.” She knew Morning Star spoke very little English and probably didn't understand much, but the woman was always smiling and nodding her head in the affirmative when Mandie talked to her.

Morning Star turned to smile at Joe and Celia. Looking back at Mandie, she said, “Eat,” and led the way into their house.

As soon as they stepped inside, Sallie, Uncle Ned's granddaughter, who lived with him and Morning Star, came rushing down from upstairs and greeted them. “Mandie!” Sallie said in surprise. “I am
so happy to see you all, Joe and Celia, too. I did not expect you all for two more weeks.” She tossed back her long black hair.

“We only came to stay a few days. Mother and Uncle John and Mrs. Hamilton have gone on to New York,” Mandie explained. “But Grandmother is waiting at home for us to come back so she can go with us to New York.”

“Only a few days?” Sallie questioned her. “I had thought you would be staying a few weeks with us.”

“Perhaps we can come back after we go to New York,” Mandie told her. “We have our whole summer vacation ahead and plenty of time.”

“Yes, please come back again after your journey to New York,” Sallie said. “Come, we will take your bags upstairs.” She led the way up to the attic rooms. “Joe, you will sleep over there,” she added, indicating the small room on the other side of hers. “Mandie, Celia, you will sleep in here with me.”

All this time Mandie was wondering what to do about the valise that contained the quilt. Should she take Sallie into her confidence?

“Here is your other valise, Mandie,” Joe said, handing it over to her as he started toward the room he would use. Mandie stooped to set Snowball down.

“Thank you for carrying it for me, Joe,” Mandie said, taking the bag from him and following Celia and Sallie into the room they would share. Snowball came along behind them and jumped up on one of the beds.

“Do you wish to hang up your clothes out of your bags?” Sallie asked, glancing at the two bags Mandie was carrying and the one Celia had.

“Some of them,” Celia replied, taking a dress from her valise and hanging it up on a peg.

“Well, I suppose some of mine, too,” Mandie said, deciding she would not tell Sallie about the quilt right now, maybe later. She set the valise containing the quilt in a corner and then pulled a dress out of the other one and hung it up beside Celia's.

“We will be going to visit Uncle Wirt and Aunt Saphronia tomorrow,” Mandie told Sallie. The three girls sat on Sallie's bed.

“They were here last night,” Sallie replied. “Their grandson has once again disappeared.”

“Tsa'ni? Disappeared?” Mandie questioned. She called through the wall to the next room, “Joe, are you still there?”

“Yes, he has been gone since Friday of last week,” Sallie replied.

Joe came to the doorway of the room and said, “But he has a habit of going off somewhere and not letting anyone know where.”

“We will go downstairs now,” Sallie said, rising from the bed. “My grandmother will be getting supper ready.”

Mandie glanced at Snowball, who had curled up on the bed and was already asleep. “I hope he doesn't run off somewhere,” she said to her friends.

“He has been here many times. I do not believe he will run away,” Sallie said. “When he gets hungry, he will come down to the kitchen and we will feed him.”

Mandie looked at the valise containing the quilt sitting in the corner and could not decide whether to mention the quilt to Sallie. After all, Uncle Ned was her grandfather, and Sallie might not approve of Mandie's insistence in finding out what the story of the quilt was. And she certainly didn't want to lose her friendship with Sallie. So Mandie went along with the others down to the huge kitchen, where the cooking food turned her thoughts to eating. They had brought their noon meal with them on the journey, but nothing could compare with Morning Star's cooking, unless it was the cooking of Aunt Lou, Uncle John's housekeeper.

Mandie sat next to Joe at the long table in Morning Star's kitchen, and she watched as he closely examined the food on his plate. She knew what he was doing, and she leaned close to him to whisper, “That is not owl stew. It's chicken.” She grinned at him as he looked at her and blew out his breath.

“Thank you,” he said. He picked up his fork and tasted of the meat. He smiled and nodded, “It's chicken.”

Sallie, on the other side of Mandie, said, “We have chocolate cake left from our school picnic.” She leaned to smile at Joe.

“Oh, thank you, that is the best part of the meal. I'll have to save room for a large piece,” Joe said, grinning.

“Your school had a picnic?” Mandie asked.

“Yes, we had a picnic yesterday. Mr. Riley O'Neal has been able to persuade almost all of the Cherokee children to attend his school, and I have been helping a little with the teaching,” Sallie explained.

“Oh, Sallie, I do hope you will become a teacher when you are grown,” Mandie said between bites of stew. “You have the gift for it.” Looking down the table to Celia, who was sitting on the other side of Joe, Mandie added, “Celia, you have been so quiet.”

“I have been busy eating this wonderful food,” Celia replied, leaning forward to smile at her friends. “We never have such good food at our school, do we?”

Mandie laughed and said, “No, it's always proper food and proper manners at the table, so I don't ever really enjoy it.”

At that moment the schoolmaster of the school for the Cherokee children, Mr. Riley O'Neal, appeared at the open outside door and stepped into the kitchen. He smiled as he removed his large-brimmed hat and looked directly at Mandie. “Well, howdy, nice to see you all,” he said, grinning at her.

“Oh, you are picking up the local language,” Mandie said, laughing as she laid down her fork. He was from Boston and had an accent entirely different from that of the North Carolina people.

“Well, you know, since I'm one of the locals now, I thought I'd better begin talking like they do,” he said, laughing.

Morning Star had jumped up from the table as soon as he had appeared and was setting a place for him across from the young people. “Sit, eat,” she told him, smiling and pointing.

“But I was not expecting to eat with you,” he told Morning Star as he sat down and she reached to pass the bowls of food.

Mandie knew he lived alone in a room built onto the Cherokee schoolhouse, and she imagined he was probably grateful for a meal at someone's house. He was a missionary, actually, with the title
Reverend
, who had come south to minister to the Cherokee children. He had also studied medicine and could take care of minor injuries or sickness at the Cherokee hospital that Mandie and her friends had built for the people with the gold they had found in the old cave. The Cherokee people had declared they would have nothing to do with the gold, that it had a curse on it, and insisted that Mandie take it. She had used it for their good.

“Eat,” Morning Star insisted as she held the food out to him.

“Thank you, Morning Star,” he said, taking large portions from the bowls she was passing.

“Tell me, Miss Amanda, when did you arrive?” Riley O'Neal asked as he finished filling his plate.

“Just a little while ago,” Mandie replied.

“And will you be joining in the search for your cousin Tsa'ni Pindar?” the schoolmaster asked as he began devouring the food.

“Search for Tsa'ni? I didn't know people were concerned enough to begin a search for him. After all, he is always going off somewhere,” Mandie replied. She took a sip of her coffee.

Uncle Ned spoke across the table, “Tsa'ni gone too long. Must be in trouble. We find,” he said.

“Oh, if everyone is going on a search, of course I'll go with them,” Mandie said.

“Grandfather of Tsa'ni worried about him,” the old man explained. “Been looking, cannot find him. Wirt sent word, we search.”

“He should learn to behave better,” Joe said. “He just goes away on his own so often, people will finally quit looking for him because he always comes back.”

“Yes, but remember that time we found him in a bear trap?” Mandie reminded Joe.

“One day he will grow up. Then we will stop worrying about him,” Sallie said.

Looking across the table at Uncle Ned, Mandie asked, “When is this search supposed to begin?”

“Now,” the old man replied. “We eat, then search, before dark.”

Mandie glanced at her friends and asked, “All right, I suppose we'll join in?”

They all agreed. Mandie was secretly disappointed to have to spend her time doing such a thing. She was anxious to find out about the quilt, and once she had done that she was in a hurry to return home and go to New York. Tsa'ni was her Cherokee cousin, but she knew he hated all white people. And that caused her to not want to help him in all his troubles and escapades.

Mandie looked up from her plate to see Dimar Walkingstick standing in the doorway, smiling at her. He was not a relative of
hers but lived in the mountains between Bird-town and Deep Creek with his mother, Jerusha.

“Dimar,” Mandie said with a big smile as the boy entered the room. “I'm so glad to see you.”

Everyone else turned to greet the boy. He was about the same age as Joe but not as tall. However, Mandie thought he was handsome.

“Sit, eat,” Morning Star quickly said, jumping up once more to put another plate on the long table and motioning for the boy to sit.

“Your grandmother likes for everyone to eat,” Dimar told Sallie as he sat on the other side of the long table.

Morning Star began filling his plate, not waiting to ask what he wanted to eat. She had learned long ago that this boy would eat anything she gave him.

“I suppose you have come to join in the search for Tsa'ni?” Riley O'Neal asked.

“Yes, his grandfather sent word,” Dimar replied, picking up his fork and beginning to eat the food before him. Looking at Mandie and her friends, he said, “I did not know you all were coming today.”

Mandie explained their schedule to him. While she was doing this, she was secretly wondering if perhaps Dimar would translate the message on the Cherokee quilt for her. She knew he was always very friendly with her. And, too, he was not a Cherokee relative. From what she had gathered, Uncle Ned had indicated that the whole Cherokee clan of kinpeople had refused to discuss the quilt. She might take Dimar into her confidence if she got a chance alone with him.

“I brought two lanterns,” Dimar was telling Uncle Ned.

“So did I,” Riley O'Neal added. “However, we have lots of daylight left yet today, so I am hoping we will find him before darkness falls.”

“Where are we going?” Celia asked, looking at Dimar.

Dimar smiled at her and replied, “Up this side of the mountain and down the other side. Jessan, father of Tsa'ni, will meet us at top.”

Mandie glanced at Celia and noticed that her friend did not seem very enthusiastic about this search. Celia was not used to country life in the Cherokee country. She lived on a huge plantation with her mother and her aunt just outside of Richmond, Virginia, and was in the social life there.

“Celia, if you don't want to go with us, you don't have to, you know,” Mandie said.

Celia quickly replied, “But I want to if you are all going.” And then, grinning at Mandie, she added, “I'm not afraid of darkness and mountains like Polly Cornwallis is.”

Polly Cornwallis! That was another reason for Mandie to hurry home. The girl had gone with Mandie's and Celia's mothers and John Shaw to New York, and there was no telling what she would get involved in. Mandie could always depend on Polly to do unexpected things. Oh, she just had to find out what the message on the quilt was so she could get home and on to New York.

“Yes, Polly is afraid of her shadow,” Mandie replied with a grin.

“And everyone else's shadow,” Joe added, also grinning.

Also, Mandie was anxious to see her uncle Wirt Pindar and his wife, Saphronia. She would try to find out why Wirt refused to translate the message on the quilt without his knowing what she was doing.

At that moment Snowball came running into the kitchen, loudly purring and going to rub around Mandie's ankles.

Morning Star once again jumped up and said, “Eat,” as she took a plate from the shelf by the dry sink.