“About your book?” Joe asked, looking down at her.
“Well, I haven’t found the book yet, but this is about Faith and her grandmother.” Mandie explained about Mrs. Chapman’s prospective job. “I don’t want Faith to move away,” she added.
Joe frowned. “Yes, but it would be for their good if Mrs. Chapman can go back to teaching—”
“I know, I know,” Mandie interrupted. “But I was hoping her grandmother could find a job closer and they wouldn’t have to move.”
“Mandie, there aren’t any schools near here, just ours,” Joe reminded her.
“Maybe she could help Mr. Tallant teach,” Mandie said. “Or maybe he will take a long vacation, or . . . something.”
Joe shook his head. “I don’t remember Mr. Tallant ever taking a vacation while school is in session.”
“But if he had someone like Mrs. Chapman to fill in for him, he could take a vacation if he wanted to,” Mandie argued.
Joe glanced at Mandie’s books. “So, you haven’t found your reading book yet.”
Mandie sighed. “No.”
“What are you going to do about it?” Joe asked.
“I haven’t figured that out,” Mandie said.
“If you’re going to keep learning, you’re going to have to have another book. Have you told your parents?” Joe asked, slowing down so Mandie wouldn’t have to walk so fast.
Mandie shook her head. “I keep hoping I’ll find it somewhere.”
“What are you going to tell Mr. Tallant if he asks you to read in class?” Joe asked.
“I don’t know. Just whatever I can think of,” Mandie mumbled.
They turned down the lane to the schoolhouse. Mandie noticed that her sister, Irene, was already there and was sitting on a log with Tommy Lester. They both had their schoolbooks open. Mandie wondered how Irene could have made it to the schoolhouse before them; she had still been at home when Mandie left. Oh, she took the shortcut through the woods with Tommy. Irene was afraid to go into the woods alone.
“Looks like your sister and Tommy are doing their reading lesson out here,” Joe remarked.
“Yes, Irene never does homework when she’s supposed to,” Mandie said. “At least I got mine done with Faith yesterday.”
Joe looked at Mandie. “Does Irene have the same reading book you do?” he asked.
“No, but Tommy Lester does,” Mandie replied. “He’s the same age as Irene but he failed some of his classes.”
At that moment Faith rushed up to join Mandie and Joe. The three entered the front door of the schoolhouse.
“Do you need to look at my book before class begins?” Faith asked as they hung up their coats by the door.
“No, thanks, Faith, but I still don’t have my book,” Mandie said as everyone went to their desks.
“You can use mine if Mr. Tallant asks you to read aloud today,” Faith said.
“Thank you, Faith,” Mandie answered.
Later Mr. Tallant did ask Mandie to read to the class. Flustered, Mandie looked across at her sister, knowing Irene would repeat whatever she said to their parents. “I’m sorry, Mr. Tallant, I don’t have my book,” Mandie finally replied.
Mr. Tallant smiled. “Let’s not make a habit of forgetting our books, now.” He looked around the room. “Amanda, will you join Esther and read from her book? Esther, will you please share?”
“Yes, sir,” Esther replied with a frown.
“Yes, Mr. Tallant,” Mandie said, standing up and stepping over to Esther’s desk. Esther handed her reading book to Mandie, and Mandie continued standing as she read. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Irene watching her. Her sister would probably tell her parents that she had forgotten her book, and she would have to give a long explanation.
When recess finally came, Mandie, Faith, and Joe ate their lunch outside.
“Mandie, my grandmother said I could go home with you from school if you’d like, because Miss Abigail and some of the other ladies will be at your house this afternoon working on the needlework. I can go home when she goes,” Faith said, biting into the ham biscuit from her lunch pail.
“Oh, I’m so glad,” Mandie said with a big smile as she pulled food from her pail. “We can do our homework together.”
“Yes, and you can use my reading book,” Faith replied.
“What are you going to do when a day comes up that you and Faith can’t get together to share her book?” Joe asked.
“I can always share my book,” Faith quickly said.
“I suppose I’ll have to tell my parents that my book is missing,” Mandie said, looking at the biscuit she had taken from her pail. The very thought of talking to her parents about the book made her lose her appetite.
After school the three of them walked down the road toward Mandie’s house. Irene caught up with them. “So you’ve lost your reading book. Mama and Daddy aren’t going to like that.” She snickered and ran on ahead.
“Never mind her teasing, Mandie,” Joe said as he looked down at Mandie. “It’s just important that you tell your parents about the missing book, because you do have to have another one.”
Faith tossed back her long dark hair. “You might as well tell them.”
Mandie felt sudden tears forming in her eyes. She blinked and looked ahead across the top of the Nantahala Mountains. “I know,” she murmured, afraid Irene would tell. “I’ll tell them.”
That night at the supper table, Mandie finally got up the nerve. But just as she opened her mouth to speak, her sister asked a question.
“Mama, when are we going to the store to buy material for our spring clothes?” Irene asked.
Mandie blew out her breath and took a sip of water from her glass.
Mrs. Shaw looked across the table at Mr. Shaw. “Irene, money is tight right now. We’ll just have to fix over the dresses you and Amanda wore last year. We can spruce them up with some new frills and let out the hems. They’ll look nice.”
“Oh, Mama, we won’t be getting new dresses?” Irene asked, disappointment in her voice.
Mr. Shaw spoke then. “You heard what your mother said, Irene. The world doesn’t hang on you girls getting new dresses every summer. Maybe later in the year we can buy something new. Right now we can’t afford it.”
“Yes, sir,” Irene answered, and laid down her fork as she frowned.
“I understand, Daddy,” Mandie said in a soft voice, relieved that Irene had not yet told them about the missing book.
“With the weather warming up all of a sudden, I think we’d better get started on the dresses this weekend,” Mrs. Shaw said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Mandie said.
Irene sat there silently toying with the food on her plate. Mandie kept holding her breath, hoping her sister would not bring up the subject of her reading book.
Finally supper was finished, the table cleared, the dishes washed, and everyone settled down for the evening. Irene took a book and said she was going upstairs to read. Mandie helped her mother roll the skeins of knitting yarn into balls while her father sat by the fireplace reading. Everyone was unusually quiet. Even Windy was subdued, now and then reaching for a length of yarn.
“You do understand about your summer clothes, don’t you?” Mandie’s mother asked. “It’s not that we don’t want you and Irene to have new clothes. We wish you could. But we’ll just have to wait for a while.”
“Don’t worry about it, Mama,” Mandie said. “It doesn’t matter to me.”
Mr. Shaw looked up from his book and cleared his throat. “When you girls get older you’ll understand. We have to put the most important things first when it comes to spending our money.”
“It’s all right, Daddy. I don’t care if I don’t get a new dress all summer,” Mandie said, wishing her parents would stop talking about money. “Lots of our friends let out their dresses.”
Mandie tried to change the subject. “Did Mrs. Chapman have anything else to say about her application to that school over in Ten
nessee?” she asked.
“No, I didn’t see Mrs. Chapman today,” her mother said. “She had other things to do, so she didn’t come with the other ladies. Besides, it’s too soon to get a reply back about that appointment.”
“I’m so anxious to know what they will be doing . . . whether they will move away or not,” Mandie said.
“I believe we have enough rolled for now,” Mrs. Shaw told her as she finished rolling the last ball of yarn.
Mr. Shaw closed his book, stood up, and stretched. “Time to get some rest. The men are supposed to meet about six o’clock in the morning over at Mrs. Chapman’s to see if we can get some work done on the house.”
Mandie looked at him and said, “Six o’clock? That early?”
Mr. Shaw smiled. “Yes, that early. We’ll have to quit around noontime so we can get our own chores done.”
Mandie rose and took a book from the shelf by the fireplace. “I’m not sleepy. I’ll sit in the kitchen awhile and read.”
“Just don’t stay up too late now, Amanda,” Mrs. Shaw told her as she placed her knitting materials in the basket by her chair.
“Yes, ma’am,” Mandie said, going into the kitchen and closing the door.
She sat down near the cookstove. Its warmth felt good now that nighttime had come with its cooler temperatures. Propping her feet on the woodbox, she opened the book. But she didn’t even see the pages before her. Instead, she tried to figure out where she should look for her book. The house wasn’t very big, so there was not a large area to search. She waited until her parents had gone to bed and then quietly stood up and looked around.
“I’ll search the kitchen and the pantry tonight,” she whispered to herself. “And tomorrow I’ll search our room upstairs while Irene is out.”
To Mandie’s annoyance, Windy seemed to think her mistress was playing games with her and followed Mandie around the room, loudly purring and meowing. Mandie opened cupboards, drawers, and bins. She stopped to look under everything and examined the shelves in the pantry. Finally she finished, with no luck. She had not really expected to find her book in the kitchen.
With a deep sigh, Mandie sat down again and looked at the book she was supposed to be reading. She decided to read a little of it so she would not have been telling an untruth when she said she was going to read.
Her mind wandered.This missing book was a very peculiar mystery. She couldn’t figure out a single clue as to how or when the book had disappeared.
She tried to think back and remember every little detail of the day when she had first missed it, which was Monday. She remembered bringing the book home on Friday before that, because she’d had homework in it. She should have taken it back to school with her on Monday, but she couldn’t remember whether she had or not. There had been no reading in class on Monday, but Mr. Tallant had assigned a reading lesson for the next day. Therefore, she should have brought the book home with her on Monday, but it had not been with her other books when she got home that afternoon.
“Oh, this is absolutely mind-boggling!” Mandie exclaimed to herself. Windy jumped into her lap. Mandie rubbed the cat’s soft fur.
Then Mandie thought about her other problem. How was she ever going to tell her parents about the missing book when they had said money was tight?
And there was another important thing in her life. Would Mrs. Chapman get the teaching position, accept it, and move away?
She couldn’t sit up thinking about all this all night. She had to get some sleep. Closing the book, she set Windy down on the floor. “It’s bedtime, Windy. Let’s go.”
Mandie quietly climbed the ladder to the upstairs room she shared with her sister. Windy, who had become an expert at going up and down ladders, followed.
“Maybe I’ll dream up a solution to all this,” Mandie mumbled as she prepared for bed.
3
More Questions
“JOE, I DO BELIEVE you have a secret,” Mandie teased as they walked down the road the next morning. She smiled up at him. He grinned back without replying. He seemed awfully happy about something.
“Well, what is it? Joe, tell me,” Mandie begged.
“What are you talking about, Mandie?” Joe asked, still grinning.
“You seem all excited and I want to know why,” Mandie replied, pausing to stomp her foot.
“Now wait, Miss Amanda Elizabeth Shaw, I don’t have to tell you all my business,” Joe said, trying to act serious.
“Joe, tell me, please,” Mandie insisted as they walked on. “I promise not to tell anyone else your secret.”
“Well, you can’t, because I just don’t have a secret,” Joe answered. “Come on now, Mandie, or we’ll be late for school.”
Mandie walked faster as he hurried on.
“All right then, I won’t ever tell you any more of my secrets if you are not going to tell me yours,” Mandie said as they turned down the lane to the schoolhouse.
“Come on, Mandie,” Joe called back to her as he stepped up on the front porch.
Mandie followed as he opened the door.They were the first pupils there. Mr. Tallant was at his desk. “Good morning,” he said, then went back to his work.
Joe walked down the aisle, laid Mandie’s books on her desk, and went across the room to his seat.
As Mandie sat down, other pupils began coming into the room. Soon everyone was present and Mr. Tallant called the roll.
“Your assignment is to solve the problems on pages thirty-two and thirty-three,” the schoolmaster told Mandie’s group. He gave instructions for class-work to each of the other three groups.
Mandie’s arithmetic book happened to be on top of her stack of books. Opening it, she began to work. She glanced up now and then and saw Joe smiling at her across the room. It was hard to keep her mind on the assignment.What was Joe’s secret? And how could she get him to tell her what it was?
At the noon recess Faith ate with Mandie and Joe. She and her grandmother had been discussing the possibility of their moving to Tellico, and Faith was excited about it.
“Oh, I do hope my grandmother is given the job,” Faith told them. “She seems happy for the first time since the fire.”
“I’m glad she is better now and can go back to teaching,” Joe said.
Mandie silently chewed her biscuit and wouldn’t look directly at Faith. She was secretly hoping they wouldn’t move.
“My father and the other men in the neighborhood went over to your grandmother’s house about six o’clock this morning to do some work on it,” Mandie said, trying to change the subject. “He said now that the weather is better they will probably get everything done soon.”
“Yes, my grandmother has been so grateful to all the people here in Charley Gap. They’ve been real neighbors,” Faith said. “Yet if my grandmother gets that teaching position we probably won’t even move back into our house. Miss Abigail said there would be no sense moving in there for a little while and then moving on to Tellico.”
“That would be a lot of unnecessary trouble,” Joe agreed, eating his sausage biscuit.
“Oh, I forgot to mention,” Faith said, suddenly excited. “Have y’all heard about the person Mrs. Clifton saw in our yard over there after dark?” Mrs. Clifton helped Mrs. Chapman with her needlework. She lived close by.
“A man or a woman?” Mandie asked.
“Mrs. Clifton said it was either a tall, slender man, or maybe a woman. It’s always too dark for her to tell,” Faith explained.
“What are they doing when she sees them?” Mandie asked, anxiously leaning forward.
“She said it looked to her like they were just walking around the house and looking in a window now and then,” Faith said, swallowing the last bite of her pound cake.
“We could all go over and sit and watch one night,” Joe suggested.
“My grandmother said maybe it was just someone traveling through,” Faith told them. “But Mrs. Clifton said she has seen this person several different nights. If they were jus
t traveling through they would continue on. They seem to be just hanging around.”
“Then why don’t we go watch for them one night?” Mandie asked.
Faith shook her head. “It might be dangerous.”
“I will speak to my father about it,” Joe said, rising from the log where they had been sitting.
“And I will mention it to my father,” Mandie added.
“And right now it’s time to go back inside,” Faith told them.
“I’ll ask my father if he and the men saw anything wrong over there today,” Mandie said as the three followed the other pupils back into the schoolhouse.
After recess Mr. Tallant collected the papers from all the morning assignments. “I’m going to give all of you an easy assignment for homework, which you can begin now,” he announced, pausing to look around the room.
Mandie smiled. This was very unusual.
“I want all of you, every group, to write a poem,” the schoolmaster explained. “Have the poems finished when you arrive at school tomorrow. Then we will read the poems in class and discuss them.”
“Oh, no!” was heard from several pupils.
Mr. Tallant smiled and said, “Now, I know all of you aren’t poets, but at least make an effort to write something.We’ll vote on what you write, and whoever has the winning poem will be made class poet.”
This was something new. A buzz went around the room. Mandie saw Joe raise his hand, and when Mr. Tallant acknowledged him, Joe asked, “Is there a certain subject we must write about, sir?”
Mr. Tallant replied, “No, I’ll just leave the subject open. In fact, write about anything, at any length.You may all begin now. I will take the papers in the morning. Be sure you have your poem ready when you arrive at school tomorrow.”
There was a rustle as everyone opened their tablets to begin. Then silence fell over the room, with a sigh here and there.
Mandie glanced at Joe. He was hastily scribbling. Faith was looking at her and smiling. Mandie smiled back and shrugged. She didn’t know what to write about. She had been writing poems ever since she had learned to read and write, but her poetry was private, and she had never allowed anyone to see the poems or even to know about them. She kept them in a box under her bed. And now whatever she wrote would be made public. It would have to be something that was not personal.
The Missing Book Page 2
