Mandie stopped, stooped down to look at her, and said, “Now, Mollie, you know there is no such thing as a leprechaun.”
“Oh, but I know there are leprechauns in Ireland. Everyone there will tell you so,” Mollie insisted.
“Well, whether there are or not, we are not going back to Ireland for you to hunt for one,” Mandie said firmly. “Doesn’t Aunt Rebecca teach you school lessons? Hasn’t she taught you there is no such thing?”
“No, Aunt Rebecca has said we would go look for one someday, but she won’t say when, and I’m tired of waiting,” Mollie replied.
“Then go find Aunt Rebecca and ask her just when you are going back to Ireland. I’m sorry, but I have things I have to do now.”
Mandie was getting annoyed with the child for following her around. Mandie wanted time to spend with her mother and her friends.
Elizabeth came up behind Mandie in the hallway as Mandie straightened up. “I’m so glad you’re home for the holidays, dear,” she told Mandie as she put an arm around her. She leaned closer and whispered, “And I’m glad you got moved away from that terrible group of girls at the college.”
Mandie put her arm around her mother and smiled. “Thank you, Mother, for allowing that. If Grandmother had found out about it in time, she would have tried to stop me.”
“I know. She doesn’t understand young people nowadays,” Elizabeth confided to her daughter.
Suddenly Jonathan came down the hallway. “There you are, Mandie. Everyone is in the back parlor, and we have been waiting for you to join us.”
“All right,” Mandie said, giving her mother a quick squeeze and following Jonathan.
Following Jonathan back to the parlor, she found the rest of her friends waiting: Joe, Celia, and Sallie, Uncle Ned’s granddaughter, who had just arrived unexpectedly with her grandparents.
As Mandie sat down near Sallie, Jonathan asked, “What are your plans for the Christmas holidays, Mandie? We’ve been figuring out what we can do about getting together then.”
“I’ll be coming home for the holidays because my mother won’t be able to travel,” she told them.
“Oh, that’s right,” Jonathan said.
They all looked at each other. Seeing as she was in mixed company, Mandie knew that it was not proper to discuss having babies, but her friends knew that was the reason her mother was unable to travel.
Joe broke the silence by saying, “I’m pretty sure my parents are planning on coming back here for the Christmas holidays, and of course I’ll be with them wherever they plan to be.”
“In that case, Mandie, I believe you are going to get all of us again,” Jonathan told her with a big grin. “However, for the holidays in the summer, I’m expecting everyone to come to my house in New York—no excuses.”
“I will have to speak to my grandparents about that,” Sallie said.
“And of course I’ll have to ask my mother what her plans are,” Celia said.
“I suggest we all get together before Christmas and go down to Charleston and bring Mandie and Celia up here,” Jonathan suggested. “I’d like to meet some of those snooty girls there. I’d tell them a thing or two.” Then, glancing at Joe, he asked, “Did you meet any of them?”
Joe shook his head. “No, because we were in too big of a hurry to get here. I told Mandie I’d like to see her college when she goes back. I’ll be going back with her so she has a travel companion.”
“If Grandmother doesn’t decide to take over and go with me,” Mandie added. “But I certainly am glad we don’t have to take that snobby treatment from the girls in the dormitory any longer. We moved into the boardinghouse, you know,” Mandie explained to their friends.
“And it’s supposed to be haunted!” Celia added, eyes wide and serious.
“A haunted boardinghouse? How did you get permission to move there?” Jonathan asked in surprise.
“Because of those girls treating us so badly,” Mandie repeated.
“Does this boardinghouse really have ghosts in it? Have you seen any?” Jonathan asked.
“Oh, sure, we see one every night,” Mandie teased.
“We really don’t see them,” Celia clarified, shaking her head. Then, with a teasing grin she added, “We hear them!”
“I think you are both joking,” Jonathan said, frowning. “But I do believe in ghosts.”
“You do?” Joe asked. “Have you seen one?”
“No, but some of our servants have,” Jonathan replied with a solemn look. “They say our house has several ghosts living in it. It is believed they are some of the draft rioters who were killed back in 1862. Our house was built on that land a short time after the old house was torn down.”
“I’ve never seen or heard a ghost in your house when we visited there,” Mandie said.
“Is it the people who protested the draft for the Civil War?” Joe asked.
“That’s right,” Jonathan confirmed.
“Well, if you haven’t seen or heard them, who would be a reliable source for this?” Mandie asked.
“Lots of people. When you come to visit in the summer I’ll introduce you to some of the people who have heard them,” Jonathan said.
Joe stood up and stretched. “Let’s take a walk and forget about all these ghosts.”
“Where do you want to go?” Mandie asked as the others rose, also.
“Why don’t we go through the tunnel? I always find that a fascinating place,” Jonathan suggested.
“All right. I’ll get the key and we can go in from the outside door,” Mandie said, starting toward the door.
Snowball, her white cat, pushed the door open and came in, purring very loudly as he rubbed around her ankles.
“He wants to go, too,” Jonathan said, laughing. “There are probably lots of rats down there in that tunnel.”
“Oh please, don’t even mention such things,” Celia said with a shiver.
“I’ll be right back with the key,” Mandie said, going out into the hall. Turning back she whispered, “Please don’t talk about it too loudly, or someone else might want to go, too.”
“Like a little Irish girl?” Jonathan asked with a grin.
Mandie nodded and continued into the hallway.
Mandie returned with the key, and the group managed to get out of the house without anyone knowing where they were going. They hurried down the hill to the outside entrance of the tunnel. When Mandie unlocked the door, she told the others, “There are lanterns and matches here.”
Joe picked up a match and lit a lantern. He passed the glowing lantern to Mandie and said, “I think we’d better light more than one. Remember the time our lantern went out and we were in complete darkness way up the tunnel?”
“Of course I do. That wasn’t any fun,” Mandie said as Jonathan picked up another lantern and lit it. Then he held the lantern just inside the tunnel so they could all see. The walls were mainly dirt and rocks.
Snowball scooted into the tunnel between everyone’s legs and quickly dashed ahead. Suddenly he stopped, and his fur stood straight up and he growled.
Everyone stopped to look. Joe flashed his lantern ahead. He laughed with relief and told the others, “It’s a possum. How did he get in here?”
“How are we going to get him out?” Mandie wondered.
The possum sat there frozen, its eyes glittering in the light of the lantern while everyone looked at it.
“Well, we have to do something,” Joe said, looking around. “Here, if everyone will step up on this ledge here, I’ll see if I can chase him outside.”
Everyone quickly stepped up to the ledge. Joe picked up a long stick and began waving it at the possum.
Mandie suddenly remembered something she learned once. “The light blinds him! And Snowball is probably scaring him. Come here, Snowball. Get out of the way!” she called to her cat.
Snowball didn’t move and continued growling at the possum.
Suddenly John Shaw came up into the tunnel. “I was sent after y
’all to come to dinner,” he said. “What are you doing?” Just then he saw the possum and the cat. He reached down and quickly picked up Snowball, securely holding his paws so he couldn’t scratch. “Now poke him with that stick, Joe. Give him a shove. He’ll run.”
Joe gave the possum a good poke, and the animal went running on out of the tunnel, with everyone following and laughing. They extinguished their lanterns and set them at the doorway.
As Mandie locked the door, her uncle said, “I wonder how that animal got inside the tunnel? I found the door unlocked the other day but figured I must have forgotten to lock it when I was in there a while ago.”
“Uncle John, you never leave doors unlocked,” Mandie said as they walked up the hill.
“I’m sure I do sometimes,” John Shaw said. “Like if I’m interrupted or something. But I’ll come back after we eat and make sure that possum is gone—and there aren’t others.”
Mandie handed him the key and said, “Now, don’t forget I gave the key to you.” She paused, then added, “You know, Uncle John, even if you did leave the door unlocked, it was closed, and the possum couldn’t possibly have opened the door to get in.”
John Shaw laughed and said, “No, the possum could not have opened the door. But the door was not closed all the way when I found it unlocked the other day. Several days ago I was out here working, but I had to leave quickly to meet someone at the house, and I’m sure I just didn’t close the door all the way in my hurry.” He smiled down at her and added, “No mystery about it, blue eyes.”
Mandie grasped his hand as she said, “If you say so.”
*
The day finally came when Mandie and Celia had to go back to school. Joe escorted them back to Charleston, and Jonathan and his father left in their special train car for New York. Uncle Ned, Morningstar, and Sallie went back to their home, but Mrs. Taft and Mrs. Hamilton stayed on awhile with Elizabeth and John Shaw.
Mr. Ryland met Mandie, Celia, and Joe at the depot with the carriage. Mary Lou was with him. She told them her mother would like for them all to come to their house for supper.
“Joe would like to see the college,” Mandie told her as they boarded the carriage. “We have plenty of time for that, don’t we?”
“Yes, we won’t eat until six. Let’s go on to the college first, then,” Mary Lou decided.
Mr. Ryland waited with the carriage while Joe, Mandie, Celia, and Mary Lou walked around the college.
“The buildings are very impressive,” Joe remarked as he looked around.
When they entered the front door of the main building, Mandie saw a lot of the girls sitting around the reception area. They all paused in their conversations to stare at Joe.
Mandie said under her breath to Celia, “I knew they would do that.” They walked around the lobby and went into the sitting room, where more girls were talking. They, too, paused to look at Joe.
“You’d think these girls had never seen a man before,” Mary Lou remarked under her breath.
“They haven’t seen this one before, and they’re just wondering who he is,” Mandie whispered back.
“You have a beautiful college.” Joe complimented the girls on their choice of school.
As they walked back up the driveway to return to the carriage, Mandie saw George Stuart and his friend arrive in another carriage. George looked at Mandie and Joe and said to his friend, “Now, they must have been properly introduced.”
Mandie hurried to board the carriage with her friends.
“He always has to turn up,” Mandie mumbled to Celia.
“Like he’s watching for you,” Celia whispered back.
Mr. and Mrs. Dunnigan made Joe welcome, and everyone enjoyed the visit. Then Mr. Dunnigan insisted that Joe spend the night with them instead of in that lonely hotel. Joe finally agreed, and they went to get his things from the depot.
Then Mandie insisted that Joe should come and see their boardinghouse and meet Mrs. Thomason.
Mrs. Thomason was very friendly with Joe, and he smiled when he asked, “Now, what about that ghost you have living here?”
Mrs. Thomason laughed and said, “Oh, it’s not really a ghost. It’s some devilish boys.”
Joe looked at Mandie and Celia and said, “You see, you don’t really have a ghost living here.”
“I didn’t believe it anyway,” Mandie told him.
Classes wouldn’t be starting for another day, so Mandie, Celia, and Mary Lou saw Joe off on the train the next day.
“I’ll see you at Christmastime,” Joe called to Mandie and Celia as he waved from the open window of the train.
“Yes, see you then!” Mandie replied as the train pulled out of the station, huffing and puffing and ringing its bell.
The minute the noise was low enough that they could talk, Mary Lou said, “I’ve been wanting to tell you, but didn’t want to say so in front of your friend Joe, but Grace Wilson went somewhere during the holidays after all. The day after y’all left she disappeared. Someone said she had been invited to someone’s house for the holidays. I’m so glad for her.”
“Oh yes, I am, too,” Mandie agreed as they boarded their carriage. “But I wonder where she went. Whose house?”
“I’ll probably hear about it in my music class tomorrow,” Celia said.
And she did hear about it. Grace had stayed with the woman who ran the sewing group that made clothes for poor children in the orphanage.
“And I was hoping she had friends to visit,” Mandie said after Celia relayed the information she had learned.
“Those people are her friends, I believe,” Celia replied. “And I’m sure she really enjoys doing such things for people who can’t afford anything nice. I would also help out with the sewing, but I don’t know how I would go about getting acquainted with them.”
“I would, too,” Mandie said. “We’ll have to find a way to get information about this place.”
The next day Mary Lou reported that, after mentioning the sewing to her mother, Mrs. Dunnigan knew immediately who the group was. There was an orphanage across town, and several local women had organized a sewing group to help make clothes for the children. And they would gladly take any volunteers.
Mandie, Celia, and Mary Lou planned to go down there the next weekend and investigate.
*
When Saturday came, Mandie, Mary Lou, and Celia had Mr. Ryland drive them to the orphanage. It was a very old stone building, long and two stories high. Mrs. Perry, who was in charge, was a tall, slender woman with gray hair and spectacles. She was very friendly and was happy that the girls wanted to help with sewing clothes for the children in the orphanage.
“But I’m sorry to tell you, it is not done here. It is at Mrs. Wilkes’s house across town. I can give you the address and you can call on her if you like,” she told them. She wrote down the name and address and gave it to Mandie.
“Thank you, Mrs. Perry. We’ll go there and see Mrs. Wilkes.” The girls thanked her and waved good-bye before climbing back into the carriage.
Mr. Ryland knew all the streets in Charleston, so it was no problem for him to find the address. When he pulled the carriage to a stop in front of a huge brick house, Mandie, Celia, and Mary Lou all looked at one another.
“Are you sure this is the right address?” Mandie asked Mary Lou.
Mary Lou glanced at the paper the woman had given them and said, “Yes, this is the right address.”
“I suppose we can go knock on the door,” Mandie said doubtfully.
A uniformed maid opened the door just moments after the girls knocked.
“We are looking for Mrs. Wilkes, who is in charge of the sewing group for the orphanage.” Mandie was hesitant in her request.
“Yes, misses, come right in,” the maid replied, opening the door wide. “I’ll get her. Just have seats over there.” She motioned to an open archway, through which could be seen chairs and sofas.
Mandie, Celia, and Mary Lou sat down on a settee near the door and
waited.
In a few minutes the maid came back to say, “Mrs. Wilkes will be right with you.”
“Thank you,” the girls chorused.
Mrs. Wilkes was a young woman, not much older than the girls. She seemed to be very stylish in the way she presented herself, and she was smiling and friendly.
“Welcome, young ladies,” she said as she entered the room and took a seat across from them. “I am Mary Wilkes, and I understand you were inquiring about the sewing group we have for the orphanage.”
“Yes, ma’am, we would like to help,” Mandie replied. “I am Mandie Shaw, and these are my friends, Celia Hamilton and Mary Lou Dunnigan. We go to the Charleston Ladies’ College, and we have some free time we could devote to your sewing project.”
“We can always use more hands. It’s so nice of you all to volunteer,” Mrs. Wilkes said. “The orphanage doesn’t have much money, and the little girls’ clothes are shabby. I put together this sewing group for ladies who wanted to help. You see, the Charleston Cloth Company donates the material, and we make garments for the children to wear.” She paused slightly, then added, “I assume you all do know how to sew.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the three chorused.
“I also know how to knit and embroider,” Mandie added.
“So do I,” Mary Lou said.
“That is wonderful,” Mrs. Wilkes said. “I know that since you girls are in college, you won’t have a whole lot of time to do such work, but anything at all that y’all can do would be most appreciated.”
“How often do you meet?” Mandie asked.
“We have get-togethers once a month, but the volunteers are welcome here whenever they have time to sew.”
By the time the girls left, they had agreed to come back to Mrs. Wilkes’s house the next Saturday and spend the afternoon sewing with whomever else was there.
“I think I’m going to enjoy doing this sewing,” Mandie said as they rode back to Mary Lou’s house. “Especially since it is for orphans,” she added.
New Horizons Page 9
