The Mandie Collection (44 page)

Mandie fell asleep and dreamed the quilt was back in the valise.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

DISCOVERIES

The next morning Mandie woke early and quietly dressed. She hurried down to the kitchen, hoping to find Joe also up so she could talk to him. She took Snowball with her, remembering his interest in her valise. Downstairs, the white cat ran for the woodbox as usual and hopped in.

Joe was already in the kitchen. He and Uncle Ned were drinking coffee.

“Sit,” the old man told her. “I get coffee for you.” He stood up.

“No, sir, not right now, Uncle Ned. I'd like to go outside and get a breath of fresh air first, and then I'll have coffee with you,” Mandie replied with a big smile.

“I was about to refill my cup, but I believe I'll go with you for a walk in the yard,” Joe told her as he rose.

“Uncle Ned, do you want to go outside with us?” Mandie asked, guessing that he would not be interested.

The old man shook his head and sat back down. “Not now,” he said.

Once outside, Mandie quickly told Joe about the strange quilt in her valise. “And it smells like fish,” she said. “Snowball had a fit trying to get the valise open.”

“Everyone went fishing yesterday except you girls, so that would
be hard to trace,” Joe reminded her. “But if that's not your quilt in the valise, I wonder where the other quilt came from, who owns it.”

“Yes, that's what I'm trying to figure out,” Mandie said.

“What are you going to do with this quilt? I mean, you aren't going to take it home in your valise, are you?” Joe asked.

“Oh no, never,” Mandie quickly replied. “I had not thought about that, but I will have to take it out of my valise so I can take my valise home when I go.”

“Maybe you could just hide it in a corner of the barn or somewhere,” Joe suggested. “When someone finds it, we will be gone and no one will know you put it there.”

“Yes, I could do that,” Mandie agreed. “But I'm hoping I can find the other quilt before we have to leave.”

“Tomorrow is Sunday,” Joe reminded her. “Don't you think we ought to go home to your house tomorrow? That way we could be ready to go to New York on Monday and still have a few days up there with your mother and the others.”

“And maybe your parents have gone to New York since we didn't go when we said we were going,” Mandie reminded him. “And since they had planned to come out here with us.”

“I suppose we should go back inside now,” Joe said.

“Yes,” Mandie agreed as they started walking back toward the door. “Will you keep an ear out for anything that might be connected with this new quilt?”

“Of course,” Joe agreed.

When they went back inside, Uncle Ned was still in the kitchen. And Morning Star was there, beginning breakfast. Sallie and Celia came in the other door.

“Outside so early?” Celia asked.

“Yes, it's going to be a beautiful spring day,” Joe replied.

“Sit,” Morning Star said, waving them to the table. “Coffee.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Mandie said. “I could drink some coffee now.”

Sallie helped her grandmother prepare breakfast while everyone else sat and drank coffee.

“Celia, Joe thinks we ought to go home tomorrow and then on to New York on Monday. What do you think?” Mandie asked.

“Whatever y'all want to do is fine with me. However, my mother did have me promise to be sure to get to New York so we could do some shopping,” Celia replied, pushing back her long curly auburn hair.

“They are supposed to stay in New York through next week, I believe,” Joe said.

Celia nodded in agreement. “Yes,” she said.

Riley O'Neal came in through the back door. Taking off his wide-brimmed hat, he greeted everyone. “Good morning, good morning,” he said, and as Morning Star looked at him, he added, “I didn't come for another free breakfast. I've already had mine.” He returned her smile.

Morning Star, who understood very little English, motioned to him and to the table as she said, “Sit.”

“Uncle Ned, will you help me out? I know Morning Star didn't understand what I said, but it would be impossible for me to eat another breakfast,” Riley told the old man.

Uncle Ned smiled at him and spoke to Morning Star in Cherokee.

Morning Star waved her hand toward the table again and said, “Sit.”

Riley grinned at her and said, “Yes, ma'am,” as he pulled out a chair and sat down next to Uncle Ned. Morning Star spoke to Sallie, and Sallie hurried over with a cup of coffee and set it in front of him. “Thank you,” he told her.

“You'd better drink that coffee, or Morning Star is liable to get awfully put out with you,” Joe teased.

“I'll drink the coffee, all right. She makes delicious coffee,” Riley replied. Turning to Mandie, he said, “I came to ask a favor of you.”

“Me?” Mandie asked. Then smiling, she said, “What can I do for you?”

“You said you'd like to help in getting the Cherokee children back to school,” Riley began. “I'm planning to distribute dozens and dozens of school papers among the Cherokee people. I'm making up a simple lesson in arithmetic and in English grammar and would like to pass a copy out to anyone who will accept it. Even though the children may not want to do the lesson, I believe they will be curious enough to read it. And of course they will all have to be handwritten, since we don't have a printing press.”

“Oh yes, I'll help. That sounds like a good idea,” Mandie replied.

“I will also help,” Celia volunteered.

“And so will I,” Joe added.

Riley looked at the three, smiled, and said, “I never hoped for such good luck. As you all know, this will take a lot of time, so when can you begin?”

“Now,” Mandie replied. “As soon as we eat breakfast. I don't believe Morning Star would let us get away from her without eating.” She laughed.

“I'll wait then, and you all can go back with me,” Riley told them.

Sallie had overheard the conversation as she tended pots on the stove and asked, “Do you need me to help, also?”

“No, Sallie. I've brought those books you've been wanting to study in preparation for teaching the next class we can get together. They're in my cart. I'll get them,” Riley said, hurrying out the back door.

“Sallie, are you still going to school yourself, or just teaching the little children?” Mandie asked.

“Yes, I still go to school. I am in class with Dimar. However, the school is really out for the summer vacation right now, and we had hoped we could persuade the little ones to come and learn during the summer,” Sallie explained.

Riley O'Neal came back into the kitchen with two books, which he handed to Sallie, saying, “Here are the books. I have already taken lessons out of them for the papers I plan to give out. I'll give you a copy when we get finished.”

“Thank you,” Sallie said, taking the books and flipping through the pages as she sat down at the end of the table.

“Eat,” Morning Star announced as she brought dishes of food to the table.

The young people, anxious to get on with the work for Riley, hurried through the meal. As they started to leave, Morning Star came to the door with them and said, “Back, eat,” and turned to speak to Sallie in Cherokee.

Sallie smiled and said, “My grandmother says you should all
return here for the noon meal because school man does not know how to cook for you.”

Everyone howled with laughter as Riley O'Neal's face turned red.

“Ask your grandmother why I should learn to cook when I can always get such wonderful meals here,” Riley replied, smiling at Morning Star.

Sallie translated for her grandmother, who immediately began talking in Cherokee. Everyone stood still, waiting.

“My grandmother says you teach the children, and someone should teach you how to cook,” Sallie said. “Someday you may have a wife.”

“Let's go!” Riley exclaimed, rushing out the door, laughter following him.

Mandie knew Riley was not much older than Joe. However, he had had a formal education up north in Boston and seemed much older. Now she gave Joe credit over Riley. At least Joe knew how to cook. She knew from visits to his house.

As soon as they arrived at the schoolhouse, Riley gave each one of them a paper to copy and the three set to work.

“These should be printed in block letters because a lot of the children cannot read handwriting,” he explained as they sat together on a long bench at one of the homemade tables. He placed a stack of blank paper before them. He sat down at one end, saying, “I will also be making up some of these.”

“This shouldn't take a long time,” Mandie said, looking over the sample pages.

“Long enough that you may want some coffee, which I do know how to make, and some cookies that Morning Star gave me when she baked a few days ago,” Riley replied. “I also have a springhouse down by the creek where I keep milk and other things.”

“It sounds like you are self-sufficient,” Joe remarked.

“We will return to Morning Star's for the noonday meal, however,” Riley said, and then added, “She is a better cook than I am.”

“She is the best cook I know of except for Aunt Lou at our house,” Mandie said. Then, looking at the paper she was copying, she asked, “Will you be asking for the name of anyone who fills out one of these? Should we make a place to put their name?”

“No, I'd already thought about that and felt more people would fill these out if they didn't have to put their name on it,” Riley explained. “I just hope we do get a few back.”

“I believe you will,” Celia said.

They worked as rapidly as they could making the block letters. After a couple of hours Riley put the percolator on the stove in his living quarters, which was a large room attached to the schoolhouse. He set out the cookies, and everyone paused for a break.

Mandie flexed her fingers and said, “It would be nice if I could write with both hands. Making block letters is so much slower than handwriting.”

“At the rate we're going, we should be finished sometime after the noonday meal,” Riley said. “Morning Star expects us back at twelve o'clock, and we should be back here by one-thirty or two o'clock. Then I'd say another hour or two should complete the job.”

When they stopped again, this time to go to Uncle Ned's house to eat, Joe asked the girls, “Have y'all decided whether you want to go home to Mandie's house tomorrow so we can leave for New York on Monday?”

They all climbed into Riley's cart.

“Yes, I suppose we have to,” Mandie said regretfully.

“That's fine with me,” Celia agreed.

“We need to let Uncle Ned know so he can prepare to take us,” Joe said.

“All right, go ahead and tell him, then, Joe,” Mandie said.

As he shook the reins and started the cart down the road, Riley said, “Sure sounds like an interesting journey, going all the way to New York. I've only been back to Boston once since I came here.”

Mandie explained about their friends the Guyers in New York, where they would be staying. “It's nice to visit up there, but everything is too big and noisy to live there,” she said.

“I agree with that. This part of the country here is so nice and peaceful and full of wide-open spaces,” Riley said. “I don't think I'd ever want to go back to Boston to live, even though my family is there.”

“You have a family?” Joe asked.

“Of course,” Riley said, laughing. “I have a mother and a father and two sisters who all live in Boston, besides countless cousins and aunts and uncles and such.”

“You're an only son, then. Didn't your father want you to stay near him?” Celia asked.

Riley laughed again and said, “No. He is a minister and had hoped I would follow in his footsteps, but when I decided to become a missionary, he was enthusiastic about it.”

“I never think of you as a missionary, but as a schoolteacher,” Mandie said.

“But I am both,” Riley said. “I work for the missionary board back in Boston, and they have different fields of work going on in a lot of places.”

“My father is a doctor, but I am studying toward a law degree,” Joe said.

“And what about you young ladies?” Riley asked, glancing at Mandie and Celia as he drove the cart.

“I may go into music,” Celia replied.

“Music? When did you decide that?” Mandie asked in surprise.

“I didn't decide. I'm only thinking about it,” Celia replied. “Since we've been taking music at our school, I've become interested. Maybe opera.”

Mandie really did gasp at that. She finally found her voice to say, “Opera? Oh, Celia, that would be a great career, but what about Robert?” Then she realized she shouldn't have said that before other people.

Celia's face turned red as she said, “Oh, Robert, he's just a schoolmate.”

“Well, anyhow, right now I don't know what I want to do,” Mandie said, feeling awful for mentioning Robert.

Joe looked at Mandie and frowned. She wouldn't meet his eyes.

Morning Star had the food ready, and they sat down for the noon meal.

“Uncle Ned,” Joe began from down the table. “If it is convenient for you, I suppose we'd better be going back to Mandie's house tomorrow so we can go on to New York with her grandmother.”

Uncle Ned nodded and said, “Leave sunup.”

The old man had been a dear friend of Mandie's father. Although
he was not really blood related, he had promised Jim Shaw when he died that he would look after Mandie. And Mandie was thinking now how much she loved him. He always seemed to drop everything else to look after her.

“Thank you, Uncle Ned, for bringing us out here to your house and for taking us back to my house,” Mandie told him with a big smile.