The Mandie Collection (5 page)

“Humph!” Tsa'ni grunted.

Dimar frowned at Tsa'ni. “The Cherokees do get sick once in a while, and they need a doctor just like everyone else,” he said. “Remember the last time these people visited, when you hurt your foot in that trap and had to have a doctor?”

Tsa'ni silently turned on his heel and walked away toward Uncle Ned's wagon.

“If he need doctor, he be glad hospital here,” Uncle Wirt said.

Joe looked longingly at the workmen. “Could I stay here all day and help the men work?” he asked John Shaw.

“I would like to help, too,” said Dimar.

Uncle John looked thoughtful for a moment. “No, that's impossible,” he said. “You don't have anything with you to eat, and you wouldn't have any way to get back to Uncle Ned's. Let's go back now, and after we have our noon meal, you and Dimar can ride two of the horses back out here. How's that?”

“Thanks, Mr. Shaw,” Joe said, smiling.

“Thank you, sir,” Dimar added.

“Before we go, Uncle John,” Mandie began, “tell me something about the hospital, please.”

“What do you want to know, Amanda?” Uncle John asked. Mandie turned, walked up the steps, and paced the floor of the building. Sallie followed.

“How is it to be arranged?” Mandie asked. “You know, how many beds will it hold and how many rooms, and all that?”

Uncle John joined them. “You see all those posts standing up around here?” he said. “They are called studs. They will be covered with boards to make the interior walls and divide the hospital into rooms. The studs will be four feet apart around each room, and then you have to allow four feet for the doors. So if you'll just walk around and look at the studs you can figure out how many rooms there will be and how big each one will be.”

The two girls walked about and counted the posts.

“Here's one big room,” Mandie said, pointing to one section. “There's another smaller room, and another, and another, and then here's a long narrow room, too narrow for beds, I think. What is this room for?”

“That is the office,” he told her. “The records will be kept there. Dr. Woodard will use it, and when you come to visit, Amanda, that will be your office.”

“Me? An office? What for, Uncle John?” Mandie asked in surprise.

“You told your mother and me that you would like to know what's going on with the money since you are responsible for it, so we thought we'd just make you a little office right here,” he teased.

“Oh, I don't need an office. I depend on you to keep up with things, especially while I'm away at school,” Mandie told him. “That will have to be your office and Dr. Woodard's.”

“Anyway, we need an office for records,” he told her.

Mandie looked across the other side of the building. “That big room looks like it would hold about ten single beds,” she calculated. “How many windows will it have?”

“One on each end and two on the side, I believe,” Uncle John replied. “Why? Are you planning on making the curtains for it?”

“That's a good idea!” Mandie exclaimed. “Sallie, could you make some of them and I'll make some?”

Elizabeth called to her, “Amanda, don't forget you'll be away at school. You won't have time to make curtains.”

“I suppose not,” she decided. “I'll just have to get Aunt Lou to make them. She can make anything, Sallie. You'll have to come to visit us in Franklin again.”

“I hope to someday,” Sallie assured her. “I would like to get up there.”

“Oh, yes, you've got to,” Mandie agreed.

“Right now, girls, I think we'd better see Morning Star. She probably has a good hot meal waiting,” Uncle John reminded them.

“Yeh, let's hurry so Dimar and I can come back and do some work,” Joe put in.

When they returned to Uncle Ned's house, Morning Star had the table set and food waiting. Dr. Woodard was just pulling up in his buggy, and Joe ran out to take the horse for him.

“Mr. Shaw is having the hospital guarded at night, Dad,” Joe informed his father. “Dimar has volunteered to stay all night, and Mr. Shaw said I could, too, with your permission.” He held up his hand. “Before you protest, we aren't going to let anyone see us,” he said,
helping unhitch the horse and buggy. “If someone comes around, we're going to hightail it back to Uncle Ned's and get the men. Is it all right if I stay? Please, Dad?”

“I suppose so, provided you don't try to defend the place. Leave that to the men,” Dr. Woodard told him. “If you see anyone around, you get out of there. People of that nature could be dangerous.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Joe said. “I promise.”

After hurrying through dinner, Joe and Dimar asked to be excused, then ran to the barn to saddle two horses.

Mandie and Sallie waved good-bye to them.

“Joe, please catch those crooks tonight, but be careful. You, too, Dimar,” Mandie called to the boys.

“Yes, please be careful,” Sallie added.

“We know your Uncle John's orders,” Joe called to them. “If we see or hear anything, we are not to let them see us, and we are to come back immediately for help.”

“That's right, boys,” Uncle John told them.

Tsa'ni stood by, watching and saying nothing.

“So they are off,” Sallie said as the boys disappeared in a cloud of dust down the road.

She and Mandie sat down on an old log.

“I think that we should ask God to watch over them,” said Mandie, her brow furrowed with concern.

“I agree,” Sallie replied.

Taking the Indian girl's dark hand in her white one, Mandie looked toward the sky. “Dear God,” she said, “please take care of Joe and Dimar and keep them from harm. And please help us catch those crooks. Thank you, dear God. Amen.”

“Amen,” Sallie echoed.

The girls didn't realize then how badly Joe and Dimar would need help.

CHAPTER FIVE

JOE DISAPPEARS

Mandie and Sallie spent the afternoon under a huge chestnut tree in Uncle Ned's yard talking about Mandie's school, its strange rules, and its strict headmistresses, Miss Prudence and Miss Hope. The Indian girl was fascinated with Mandie's stories about her friend Celia Hamilton, and the school troublemaker, April Snow.

“Your grandfather, Uncle Ned, comes to visit me at the school, you know,” Mandie told her.

“Yes, I know that. He promised your father he would watch over you, so he keeps his promise. But he never tells me anything about your school. He just says you are all right and you send your love, and all that.”

“He has never been inside the school,” Mandie explained. “When he comes to see me, he always waits for me under the magnolia trees after the ten o'clock bell has rung at night. By then everyone is supposed to be in bed.”

“Why are you not also in bed then?” Sallie asked.

“Because I've always been afraid to ask permission to see him. You see, Miss Prudence would probably forbid it,” Mandie replied.

“Why? Why would she forbid you to see my grandfather?”

Mandie looked at her friend, trying to soften her explanation. “Sallie, you haven't been out into the big world, like at the school,”

Mandie began. “You see, some white people just don't like Indians. I didn't know that either until my father died and I had to leave Charley Gap.”

“You mean they don't like some people just because they are a different color, a different kind of people?” Sallie asked, puzzled.

“You know how Tsa'ni is always making remarks against the white people? That's the way some white people are about Indians,” Mandie explained. “Even though God made us all, some white people would have you think Indians were just . . . just . . . trash or something.”

“Do these white people know you are one-fourth Cherokee?” the Indian girl asked.

“They know. There was a big ruckus one day when April Snow spread the word that I was part Indian. But Miss Prudence put a stop to that real fast,” Mandie said.

Sallie looked confused. “But you said these people at the school do not like Indians.”

“Even though I'm part Indian, Miss Prudence wouldn't dare treat me differently. You see, my Grandmother Taft is a terror sometimes.” She laughed. “She has a lot of influence among the rich people who send their daughters to the school. Miss Prudence wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of my grandmother.”

“I agree that this is a very silly school you are in,” said Sallie. “They do not seem to be honest. They let wealth decide who to be nice to.”

“You're exactly right, Sallie,” Mandie replied. “I wish I could live with my Cherokee kinpeople. There is such a difference.”

“Maybe someday you can,” Sallie said. “But your mother wants you to be educated at that school, so you must do what she says.”

“Yes, I know,” Mandie replied. “I miss my father so much. If he had lived longer, maybe he and my mother would have gotten back together again.”

“But your father was married to that other woman,” Sallie reminded her.

“I know, but things could have been different if my mother had known about me, that I didn't really die when I was born, and that her mother, my Grandmother Taft, told my father that my mother didn't love him anymore.”

“Your grandmother told your mother that you died when you were born and made your father take you away so your mother would not try to find your father or you. Your grandmother thought she was doing the best thing for everyone,” Sallie said.

“I suppose she did,” Mandie said with a big sigh.

“Do you dislike your grandmother because she separated your mother and your father and you?” Sallie asked.

“No, I don't dislike her. In fact, she's my friend. At first she wouldn't have anything to do with me. But then after my mother married Uncle John, and I came to school in Asheville where she lives, I finally got to know her.”

“Does Joe let you know what is going on at Charley Gap since you left there?”

“As much as he can find out,” Mandie replied. Looking into her friend's dark eyes she added, “Joe promised to get my father's house back for me when he gets old enough.”

“And how is he going to do that?” Sallie asked.

Mandie laughed. “I'm not sure. He just said leave it to him. Joe wants to be a lawyer, you know.”

“Then he will learn how to get the house back,” Sallie assured her. “Joe is a brave boy.”

Mandie looked at her in surprise. “You think so?”

“Yes, look what he is doing right now. He is risking his life to save the hospital for you,” Sallie replied.

“I know it's dangerous,” said Mandie, “but we have asked God to take care of them. We must trust God.”

Meanwhile Joe and Dimar were working hard with the men, replacing wall boards at the hospital. When the workmen left for the day at five o'clock, all the walls were up around the structure.

Joe and Dimar washed their faces and hands in the nearby creek, then sat down on the hospital steps to eat their supper.

Uncovering the basket Morning Star had packed, Joe examined its contents. “Can you tell what this is?” he asked. “Is it fried chicken, rabbit, or what?”

Dimar laughed. “Now, you know that is fried chicken,” he said. “Can you not smell it?”

Joe spread the cloth on the steps and laid out the food. “I guess so, but I just plain don't like some of those other things that Morning Star cooks up. I'm not used to it,” Joe told him.

“Like we Cherokees are not used to some things that the white people eat.” Dimar laughed. “But I think we both like fried chicken, and Morning Star knows that.”

“Do you think she notices when there are some things I don't eat at her house?” Joe asked, alarmed.

“Yes, she notices, and she understands. So she tries to please you,” Dimar explained.

“Goodness. I guess I'm a lot of trouble then,” Joe said. “No more than anyone else,” Dimar assured him.

Joe hungrily ate the chicken with his fingers, cramming in a bite of biscuit now and then, and drinking a little coffee to wash it all down.

“I suppose one of us ought to stay at the front of the building and the other one at the back. That way it would be easier to see anyone who comes up,” Joe suggested.

“Yes, I will stay at the back, and you stay here at the front,” Dimar agreed. “But we must stay far enough back in the bushes so no one will see us.”

Joe looked concerned. “I hope they don't see the horses.”

“I do not think they will if the horses will just be contented to stay quietly down by the creek,” the Indian boy said. “If one of us sees someone coming here to do damage, we must let the other one know. Then one of us will ride quickly to get Mr. Shaw and the others.”

So it was agreed. The two boys walked quietly back and forth in the bushes, keeping an eye on the building. Now and then they would meet each other and turn back. They talked very little and then only in low whispers.

It grew dark. The birds settled down for the night. Frogs began croaking along the creek. Here and there lightning bugs flashed their lights. The scent of clean creek water drifted into the air. The horses seemed to be well satisfied as they continued to graze in the darkness. The two boys grew bored and weary.

Joe stopped Dimar as they met in the bushes on one of their patrols. “How about some of that sweetcake and coffee that we've got left?” he whispered softly.

“That sounds good,” said Dimar.

“I'll get it,” Joe volunteered. Groping his way through the bushes to the basket they had hung on a tree limb near the horses, he took it down and hurried back uphill.

Sitting down by Dimar, who sat waiting in the woods, Joe uncovered the basket.

“It's so dark, I can't see too well,” Joe told him. “But take what you want and then I'll get mine.” He held out the basket.