The Mandie Collection

by Lois Gladys Leppard

  “You always understand things, Joe,” Mandie said with a little smile for him. “As soon as we get freshened up, do you think you might want to go with me over to my father’s house?”

  “Of course, Mandie,” Joe replied, still holding her hand.

  Mandie pulled away and said, “Then I’d better wash my face and hands after that long trip through the woods in the mountains.”

  The adults went to sit in the parlor while Mrs. Miller, who worked for the Woodards, served coffee. Mandie looked at her mother and said, “May I go now?” She glanced at John Shaw, who started to rise from his seat. “Joe is going with me, Uncle John. We won’t be gone long.”

  Mandie carried Snowball and walked with Joe down the road between his house and Mandie’s father’s house, and circled by Mr. Tallant’s school. They had grown up together doing this. The territory was familiar in every way to Mandie.

  As they neared her father’s house, Mandie stopped and said, “I didn’t let Mr. Jacob know I was coming. It doesn’t look like he’s at home. Do you think he would mind if we walked around the house and just looked around?”

  “No, I’m sure he wouldn’t. Although he lives here now, the house still belongs to you, and he was such a dear friend of your father’s he’s going to be sorry he missed you,” Joe replied.

  They turned down the lane to the house and walked beneath the huge chestnut trees where Mandie had played as a young child. She glanced at the long split-rail fence that her father had been working on when he died and which Mr. Jacob had finished for her later.

  Mandie turned away from Joe as tears filled her blue eyes. Joe quickly put an arm around her shoulders and said, “Now, Mandie, we haven’t been up to the cemetery yet.”

  “I know. Let’s go,” she said, wiping the tears from her face with her handkerchief. Snowball clung to her shoulder.

  They climbed the road up the mountain to the cemetery where her father had been buried, which seemed so many years ago.

  As they came into the opening, Joe led the way to the mound with the granite tombstone John Shaw had placed there for his brother. Mandie read the inscription, “James Alexander Shaw, born April 3, 1863, died April 13, 1900.” She broke into sobs and fell to her knees. Joe reached to grab Snowball as he tried to escape and he put his other arm around Mandie’s shoulders as he knelt beside her.

  “I love you, Daddy, I love you,” Mandie cried out. She took a deep breath then and, looking up at the sky, she said, “Dear God, please forgive me. I was so angry with you for taking my father that day. Please forgive me.”

  Uncle Ned appeared out of the trees and came to kneel on the other side of Mandie. “Big God, He knows everything, Papoose. He knows you were sad that day. He forgive you.”

  Mandie reached her hand to clasp Uncle Ned’s, “I understand now, Uncle Ned. But my father was the only one I had in this world who loved me back then and I was angry because I was so scared.” She sobbed loudly.

  “You afraid now because you going to strange school far away from home,” Uncle Ned said. “You know verse.”

  “Yes,” Mandie said, joining hands with Joe on one side and Uncle Ned on the other side, and together they repeated Mandie’s special verse, “What time I am afraid, I trust in Thee.”

  Mandie fell silent and in a moment she sat back on the grass and looked at her two friends.

  “Uncle Ned, you promised my father you would look after me and you always have. I don’t know what I would have done without you all this time since—since I lost him. I love you.” She squeezed his hand.

  Turning to Joe, she said, “And, Joe, you are always there for me. I love you, too.” She squeezed his hand.

  “You are my life, Mandie,” Joe said softly as he held on to the white cat.

  As Snowball loudly protested, Mandie smiled and looked at him as she said, “Snowball, that is where you were born, in the big barn down by my father’s house. I took you with me when I ran away.” She reached to smooth the white fur on his head as he looked questioningly at her.

  Mandie stood up on wobbly legs and looked at her friends as she said, “I suppose we’d better go now.”

  “Yes, everyone might wonder where we went,” Joe said.

  “We go to father’s house first,” Uncle Ned said, leading the way down the mountain.

  As they got to the bottom of the narrow road, Mandie saw a horse tethered by the barn. Mr. Jacob Smith had come home.

  He was in the yard and came to meet them.

  “I’m so glad to see you, little lady,” he told Mandie. “I’m glad I came home before you left.”

  Mandie squeezed his big hand and said, “I was hoping I would see you. You see, a whole crowd of us are sailing all the way to Europe with my grandmother the fifth of June and we will be gone a few weeks. And when we return I have to go to Charleston, South Carolina, to college, so I don’t know when I will have time to come back and visit here.”

  “I’m glad you are having a wonderful trip like that, Missy,” Mr. Jacob replied. “Just don’t forget to come back home to the United States.”

  Mandie laughed and said, “No way I’d ever give up my country.”

  “Have y’all got time for a cup of tea?” Mr. Smith asked, looking at Mandie, Uncle Ned, and Joe.

  “We will take time,” Mandie said.

  When he led them into the house, Mandie was again overcome with memories. Memories of her father getting up first every morning, preparing breakfast, making biscuits, and the aroma of the wonderful coffee he made.

  Mandie and her sister, Irene, had shared a room up in the loft. Mandie glanced at the ladder leading up there that she had gone up and down so many times.

  “Have seats here,” Mr. Smith told them, indicating the huge table where Mandie had eaten with her father.

  As they sat down and Mr. Smith put water on the cookstove to boil, Mandie could see her father sitting here with her. They were always up before Mandie’s mother and sister. She shouldn’t think of that woman as her mother, she suddenly realized. She was a stepmother. And Uncle Ned had helped her find her real mother when her father died.

  She set Snowball down and he raced for the woodbox behind the stove, although it was summertime. There was something about woodboxes that fascinated the cat. She remembered him trying to climb into the box when he was too small to reach it.

  Mandie enjoyed her visit with Mr. Jacob Smith, who had been one of her father’s best friends. She had asked him to move into the house and keep things going when she had unraveled the mystery of her family and she was no longer living there.

  Finally Joe reminded her that they should return to his house or everyone might be worried about them being gone so long. Besides, he believed it was about time to eat.

  Mandie smiled at him and said, “And I’ll wager Mrs. Miller has baked a chocolate cake for you.”

  “Well, now, how did you know?” Joe teased.

  When they got back to the Woodards’ house there was a wonderful odor of cooked food, and Mandie suddenly realized she was starving. She set Snowball in the woodbox and Mrs. Miller promised not to let him outside while everyone ate in the dining room.

  Mandie smiled across the table at her mother and Uncle John and said, “I’m ready to go to Europe now.”

  Elizabeth smiled back and said, “I’m glad, dear.”

  John said, “So am I.”

  They returned home to Franklin and plans were made. Uncle Ned, Morning Star, Sallie, and Dimar would be leaving with them on the train for New York in a few days. The Woodards would travel up the next day because Dr. Woodard had patients he had to see before he left. During his leave he had asked the new doctor at Bryson City to look in on his patients.

  Liza stood by, waiting on the table as everyone ate and listening to their plans. She received the shock of her life when Mandie suddenly looked at her and then turned to her mother and said, “Mother, would it be possible to take Liza with us to Europe?”

  Everyone fell silent and l
ooked at Mandie and then at Elizabeth.

  After recovering from the surprise, Elizabeth said, “Why, Amanda, that is a wonderful idea, dear. Yes, we should take Liza with us.”

  “Who now!” Aunt Lou spoke up from over at the sideboard. “Dat girl ain’t got no bidness in dat foreign country, wid all dem foreign people.”

  Everyone laughed. Liza stood there speechless and too surprised to move.

  “But Aunt Lou, Liza could be very helpful to us, especially with Amanda taking that cat along,” Elizabeth said. “Yes, I think Liza should go with us.” Looking at Mandie she added, “We’ll have to hurry and get her some clothes, Amanda.”

  “Mother, we are the same size except she is a little taller than I am, and I don’t need all those clothes we bought in New York. If Aunt Lou could let out some of the hems they would fit just fine,” Mandie replied.

  “Lawsy mercy, temptin’ dat girl with fine clothes. What is dis heah world comin’ to? I won’t ever be able to control her when she comes back,” Aunt Lou said, slamming the lid down on a dish at the sideboard.

  Mandie smiled at Liza, who was still frozen in shock as she stood by the table, and said, “Liza, I told you I would get you a beautiful dress.”

  With the things that needed to be done it was a wonder that the Shaw family ever got to New York on time, but they did, dragging openmouthed Liza with them.

  And when the Guyers met them at the train and took them to their huge mansion, Liza was absolutely in shock. She was afraid to touch anything or even speak to anybody. Mandie hoped this would wear off.

  It was Sallie who was able to comfort the frightened girl. They were sitting in the small parlor with Mandie the next morning. Liza had not spoken a word since they had arrived.

  Sallie smiled at her and said, “Liza, please do not feel scared. You are different from these white people, but so am I and I am not scared of them. They are all my friends.”

  Liza looked at her and didn’t speak.

  “Remember the big God made us all and He decided what kind of people we would be, and we all belong to Him,” Sallie told Liza.

  Liza looked at her with interest then. “But why did He not make us all alike? Why am I black and you are Indian?” she asked.

  Mandie spoke up and said, “He made me pieces of different kinds of people. I am part white and part Cherokee. He made us all whatever He thought best. And you will see all kinds of people in all the foreign countries we are going to visit. They look different, talk different, and act different.”

  Finally Liza seemed to understand. “Sho’ ’nuf?” she said. “I wanta see all dem different kinds of people.”

  “You will,” Mandie promised with a big smile.

  When everyone had assembled at the Guyers’ mansion a few days later, Mandie was amazed to see that Polly, April Snow, and the twins had come to travel with them to Europe. Mrs. Taft explained that it had been an open invitation and therefore they must make these other guests welcome. Mandie silently groaned with displeasure. But she was pleased to see that Mary Lou had come.

  As they began getting luggage ready to be taken to the ship, everyone was excited and talking at once. The buzz was deafening in the parlor.

  Mandie smiled across the room at her mother and then walked over to her. “Oh, Mother, this is so wonderful that I will get to spend all this time with you on the trip,” she said.

  Elizabeth Shaw reached to embrace her and squeezed her tightly as she replied, “And so wonderful to me, too, dear. I love you with all my heart.”

  “And I love you with all my heart, Mother. I’m so glad Uncle Ned knew how to find you, my real mother, when my father died,” Mandie said. “I thank God every day for you.”

  Tears filled Elizabeth’s eyes and she could not speak but squeezed Mandie still harder.

  Someone tapped on a dish or something to quiet the roar of talk. “Please, Mrs. Taft wants to speak,” Lindall Guyer said as he waved across the room at everyone.

  Mrs. Taft, standing by his side, cleared her throat and said, “It is time to begin our way to the ship. Please stay together when we get there and are directed to our cabins.”

  “Oh, shucks,” Mandie said to her circle of friends standing here. “I thought maybe she was going to announce that she would be marrying Mr. Guyer, since I don’t see Senator Morton along this time.”

  All her friends howled at the idea.

  “I don’t think she would do it that way,” Jonathan said. “Not with my father. They would probably elope.”

  The laughter began.

  Everyone finally made it to the dock, and when Mandie and her friends saw the great ship standing there they hugged each other in excitement.

  Mandie glanced at her mother and then Uncle John and thought, God has certainly blessed me.

  Everyone moved up the gangplank.

  MANDIE

  AND JOE’S CHRISTMAS SURPRISE

  FOR—

  Who else but the other two-thirds of the

  Larke Sisters.

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Part One

  Part Two

  Part Three

  Mandie and Joe’s Christmas Surprise (A Drama in Three Acts)

  ACT I—Scene 1

  ACT I—Scene 2

  ACT II

  ACT II

  ACT III

  PART ONE

  Mandie Shaw and Joe Woodard held on to the small hands of four children as they pushed open the basement door of the church across the road from Mandie’s house in Franklin, North Carolina.

  “Let’s go inside now,” Mandie told the two little girls she was leading as she gave them a gentle push forward into the large classroom. Joe followed with two small boys.

  “How many more do you think we can find?” Joe asked as the two boys pulled away from his grasp, threw off their hats and coats, and headed for a pile of toys in the corner.

  Mandie let go of the two little girls after she removed their worn bonnets and coats. They hurried to join the boys who were already examining the playthings. “We need a few more,” Mandie replied. “I was hoping we could locate at least a dozen.”

  “It’s going to be hard, if not impossible, to find eight more—especially with Christmas so close,” Joe said.

  “But we’ve just got to do it,” thirteen-year-old Mandie said, looking at the tall, thin boy who was two years older. “I want this Christmas, in this year of 1901, to be remembered as a real Christmas with its true meaning, and this is the way we planned to do it.”

  “We might could try something else,” Joe suggested as he flopped onto a nearby bench.

  Mandie sat down beside him as she pushed back the hood of her cape. “But this was the only idea we could come up with,” she reminded him. She smoothed back loose tendrils of her long blond hair. She rose, took off her cape, and hung it on a peg in the corner. As she walked over to stand in front of the huge heater in the middle of the room, she said, “We need to build up this fire and get the children warm, don’t you think?”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Joe said, jumping up to bring an armful of wood from an alcove nearby. He opened the door of the heater and poked at the burning wood to make room for more. Looking up at Mandie, he asked, “How are we going to do everything that is necessary, just the two of us? I think we need someone to help us. Maybe Liza?”

  Mandie frowned as she watched him feed the fire. “I’m not sure we can trust Liza,” she said. “I know she wouldn’t deliberately give away our secret, but she might just forget and say something to somebody.” She thought about the young Negro maid who worked and lived at her uncle’s house. The two were friends and had participated in a lot of things together since Mandie’s mother, Elizabeth, had married Mandie’s Uncle John after Mandie’s father died. But Liza did talk a lot sometimes.

  “Who else is there?” Joe asked as he closed the heater door and brushed his hands together.

  Mandie walked around the large room a moment and then sto
pped. “Well, there’s my mother, and there’s Uncle John. But I don’t want them to know what we’re doing. What we really need is a wagon so we can go farther out into the country.”

  “A wagon? The only wagon we’d have a chance of getting belongs to your Uncle John. When my father comes back to your house with my mother, I’m sure he’ll be driving the buggy,” Joe replied, running his long fingers through his unruly brown hair.

  “I sure am glad y’all are spending the holidays with us,” Mandie said, looking up at the tall boy with a smile. “I couldn’t do all this by myself.”

  “And I don’t think you and I together can do this,” Joe replied. “Mandie, we need someone else in on this. For instance, how are we going to take care of all these children down here in the church basement? They have to be fed and will need supervision. We can’t just go off and leave them in here all alone.”

  “I know that, Joe,” Mandie said, walking about as she glanced at the children happily playing with rag dolls and balls. “One of us can stay here while the other one goes to find more. And I’m sure I can get plenty of food from our kitchen. And we’ve got that stack of shuck mattresses in the other room for them to sleep on, plus all those quilts I found in our attic. So I don’t see any problem with anything.”

  Joe sighed as he strolled over to a small window in the far wall to look outside. Mandie followed him.

  “Look! It’s beginning to snow,” Mandie said excitedly as she watched snowflakes fall on the shrubbery right outside the window.

  “I think we’d better get some food in here for the night,” Joe said as he turned to look at the children.

  “All right,” Mandie agreed. “It’s not quite time for Jenny to begin preparing supper at our house, so while there’s no one in our kitchen, I’ll make a quick trip over there and bring back whatever I can find.”