The Mandie Collection (51 page)

“Look!” Mandie exclaimed, picking up a piece of white cloth. “Somebody's baby diaper!” She held it up for the others to see. “It'd be fun to know whose it was, wouldn't it?”

“Yes, it would be, but it could also be embarrassing,” Sallie said.

“It might have been your Uncle John's when he was a baby.” Joe laughed. “I'd hate for somebody to find a diaper I used to wear.”

“And here are some booties, and bonnets, and sweaters. They're all white, so I don't know whether they were for a girl or a boy,” Mandie said.

“My mother told me that when she was a baby everything was always white, whether it was for a girl or a boy,” Joe said.

Mandie was still poking into the trunk when she felt something metal deep down below the clothes. Pushing things aside, she withdrew a large framed portrait of a baby dressed in a long white dress, lying in the arms of a beautiful young woman. “I've found something wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Just wonderful!”

Sallie and Joe rushed to her side to see what it was.

“It's just a portrait of a baby and its mother,” Joe said.

“But look at the face of the mother.” Sallie pointed.

Joe's eyes grew wide. “That is the same lady that is in the portrait hanging in the library.”

“It's my grandmother! It is!” Mandie cried. “I wonder which baby this is.”

“Leave that trunk open, Mandie, and after we get through, we can take the picture downstairs and see if your uncle knows who the baby is,” Sallie told her.

“I hope he does,” Mandie said. Placing the portrait on top of the baby clothes, she left the trunk open and continued on to the next trunk. “Sallie, your grandfather would probably know better than Uncle John because he saw all of them when they were babies.”

“Yes, he would,” Sallie agreed.

Joe opened another trunk and found some old decaying clothes. “What good is all this old stuff up here?” he asked. “Why don't you throw it out?”

“I think it ought to be cleaned out up here, too. I'll ask Uncle John about it when we have time to do it one day,” Mandie said, opening a trunk that was almost empty.

Sallie, in the far corner, was bent over a large trunk. “I think I have found something,” she called.

Mandie and Joe hurried to look. The trunk was full of a little girl's clothes, many of which were ruby-colored.

Mandie gasped. “These are Ruby's clothes!” She reached to pull some of the garments out of the trunk and then suddenly withdrew her outstretched hands. “How can I go through those things?” She shivered. “It's all so sad. Ruby seems so real to me now.” Mandie's blue eyes filled with tears.

Joe patted her softly on the shoulder. “Maybe we should forget the whole thing . . .”

“Oh, no,” Mandie protested. “We have to see if there is anything here that will help us find the treasure. It's just so sad.”

“Want me to look?” Joe offered.

Mandie nodded as she stared at the things in the trunk.

“I will help you, Joe,” Sallie volunteered.

Joe carefully removed the first garment. It was a ruby-red riding outfit. He shook out the wrinkles and handed it to Sallie, who placed it carefully on a nearby table.

One after another, Joe removed the contents of the trunk. Sallie put them in a neat pile on the table. There was not a thing in the trunk but clothes.

“Don't you think there must be another trunk?” Joe asked. “A rich girl like Ruby would have had a lot more clothes than this, wouldn't she?”

Mandie nodded and her voice trembled as she spoke. “But you know, when people die, you usually give their clothes to the needy. There may not be any more.”

“Let's keep looking,” Joe said. He and Sallie replaced the garments in the trunk and continued on.

They found lots of old clothes but no more that could have belonged to a ten-year-old girl.

“Didn't they wear funny-looking clothes back in the old days?” Joe asked as they searched a trunk of long dresses with hoops and ostrich feathers.

“We think they're funny, but to them that was the latest style,” Mandie said. “I suppose years from now people will look at our old clothes and laugh at them.” She began to brighten a little. “I'd like
to know what the clothes will look like then. I imagine the dresses will be shorter and not so full because everything shrinks with time. Things get smaller and thinner.”

“I had never thought about that, but it is true,” Sallie agreed.

“We'd better hurry. The day is going by fast,” Joe reminded the girls.

They went through every trunk that they could find and finally plopped down on an old settee.

“There just aren't any more of Ruby's things here, at least not in a trunk,” Joe said.

“What about something other than a trunk?” Mandie asked, looking around.

“It would take hours and hours to go through all the furniture up here,” Sallie said.

“Maybe we could search the furniture near the trunk that has Ruby's clothes in it,” Mandie suggested. “When people brought things up here, they would put the things together that they brought up at one time, wouldn't they?”

“You mean if they cleaned out one room downstairs and brought all the furniture up here, they would place it all together?” Joe asked.

“Yes, more or less, depending on how much room they needed for it,” Mandie replied.

“Maybe,” Joe said.

“But we moved the furniture all around up here when we selected pieces for the Burnses' house,” Sallie reminded them.

“That's right. We also decided that the oldest furniture was in that corner over there—” Mandie pointed. “—Because it would have been the first put in here, remember? It's also the hardest to get to.”

“I suppose we could look in all the furniture in that corner,” Joe said. He made his way over to it, stepping over boxes and sliding over the tops of chests.

Mandie and Sallie joined him. They opened dressers, looked in wardrobes and boxes, and were almost finished when Uncle Ned appeared at the doorway. He stood there watching them.

“That furniture older than Ruby,” he called across the attic to them. “Not Ruby's. Belong to her grandma, grandpa.”

“My great-grandparents? My goodness, it must be old!” Mandie exclaimed.

“Old. Older than me,” Uncle Ned replied. “Furniture of Ruby still in Ruby's room.”

“Ruby's room?” Mandie asked. The three waded through furniture, boxes, and trunks to get to Uncle Ned.

“She still has a room?” Sallie asked.

“Ruby's room on second floor near Papoose's room,” Uncle Ned replied.

“Let's go see it. Show us which room it is,” Mandie said excitedly. “This girl has been dead fifty years, and she still has a room?” Joe said, unbelieving.

Uncle Ned led the way down the stairs to the second floor. He passed Mandie's room, went on down the hallway to the end, and opened the door. “This Ruby's room,” he said, waiting for the young people to enter.

The room did not look like it belonged to anybody. It had an empty feeling about it even though it was full of mahogany furniture. There were no personal articles sitting around and no personal pictures or decorations on the walls.

Mandie walked over to the huge wardrobe and flung open the doors. It was empty. Sallie opened drawers in a chest of drawers. They were empty. Joe checked the dresser. It was empty, too.

The young people looked at each other and then at Uncle Ned.

“When Ruby die, Talitha take everything out of this room except furniture. She give it all away. Shut door, never use room,” Uncle Ned explained.

“My Grandmother Talitha did that? Then she took everything out before Uncle John was old enough to remember,” Mandie reasoned. “And he would have no memories of this room. He may have thought it was just another guest room.”

“Is there anything at all in any of the drawers or anywhere?” Joe asked.

“No, not in drawers, not in furniture,” Uncle Ned told them. “Ruby had secret hiding place. Talitha never found.”

“Do you know where it is?” Mandie asked.

“I not like to bother. Just way Ruby left it,” the old Indian said.

“My grandfather, you must tell us what you know,” Sallie pleaded.

“How do you know about it when her mother didn't even know?” Joe asked.

“Ruby tell me secrets,” Uncle Ned said sadly. “She show me secret place.”

“And when she died, you didn't tell her parents about the secret place?” Mandie asked.

“Ruby tell me secret. I never tell secret,” Uncle Ned replied. “Secret not to be told.”

“My grandfather, please tell us,” Sallie begged. “Ruby is long dead.”

“Please,” Mandie said. “We won't tell anyone else if you don't want us to.”

“The secret place may have something in it about the treasure map,” Joe suggested. “Do you know what's in it?”

Uncle Ned shook his head. “No, I never bother,” he repeated.

“Is it in this room?” Mandie persisted.

“Are we near it?” Sallie asked.

Joe scratched his head. “Is it in the secret tunnel in this house?”

Uncle Ned hesitated for several moments then walked over to the tall fireplace with a huge mantlepiece. The fireplace was ornate and made in sections of marble with fancy brass strips running between and around the edges. He paused for a moment, and a sad expression flitted across his old wrinkled face.

Taking a deep breath, Uncle Ned reached up to the marble section on the left end. Carefully tugging away at the heavy marble, he managed to lift it up, disclosing a hollow space beneath it in the mantlepiece.

The young people hovered near, watching and waiting. They were all too short to see inside the space.

Joe reached for the tall footstool by the high, four-poster bed, and brought it over to the mantlepiece. Mandie stepped up on it and still had to tiptoe to see inside the section of marble.

“Uncle Ned, can I take things out so we can see what it is?” Mandie asked.

Uncle Ned nodded. “Can look but must put back.”

Mandie carefully took a large white feather out of the opening and held it up for the others to see. “I wonder where this came from?” she asked. “It must be something special.”

“Special school play. Ruby Indian in play,” Uncle Ned informed them.

“She was half Indian,” Joe remarked.

Mandie gave the feather to Sallie to hold, then turned back to the secret hiding place. A moment later she withdrew a thick cloth drawstring bag from inside. “Look!” she cried. Quickly untying the string, she stretched the top open and took out an exquisite necklace made of rubies. “Oh, look! This must be worth a fortune!” she exclaimed, dangling the necklace for the others to see.

“Yes, father of Ruby give to her when Ruby born. Belong to his mother,” the Indian explained. “Was Ruby's most treasured thing.”

“This was my great-grandmother's!” Mandie said, examining the necklace in awe. “We should tell Uncle John about this.”

“Tell me about what?”

Everyone turned to see Uncle John standing in the open doorway.

“I was looking for y'all and heard you talking in here,” he said.

Uncle Ned sighed. “Ruby have secret treasure place.” He pointed to the opening in the mantlepiece.

Uncle John walked over to where Mandie stood on the footstool. “Why, the mantlepiece opens up. Did you know about this, Uncle Ned?”

“Yes, Ruby show me. This Ruby room. Promise never tell about place, but now Ruby gone,” he said sadly.

“This was Ruby's room? I never knew,” Uncle John said.

Mandie handed him the ruby necklace. “Uncle Ned told us that your father gave this necklace to Ruby when she was born. It was his mother's, your grandmother's.”

“My grandmother's?” Uncle John turned the necklace over in his hands. “This is beautiful! And it has been here ever since Ruby died?”

“Yes,” Uncle Ned answered. “I never bother. I not know what in hiding place.”

Mandie reached into the hole again and pulled some papers from the opening. They were drawings Ruby had made of the house, animals, and unrecognizable people. The last thing Mandie found was a tiny locket on a long gold chain.

“A locket!” Mandie gasped. She quickly stuck her fingernail in the catch. As the locket came open, cameo pictures of a man on one side and a woman on the other appeared.

“Uncle John!” Mandie quickly held out the locket to him. “Your mother and father?”

John looked closely at the pictures. “Yes, it is, Amanda.”

“Oh, Uncle John,” Mandie said excitedly. “Could I wear the locket sometime when I'm all dressed up for something special?”

“We'll see,” Uncle John said. “I think all of these things are special, but the necklace and the locket especially need to go in my safe.”

“You right, John Shaw,” Uncle Ned said sadly. “Ruby not ever coming back.”

“You kept your promise to her, Uncle Ned. And I think she would be glad you showed us the hiding place. These things are too precious to leave in a place like that.” Uncle John put his arm around the old Indian's shoulders.

Uncle Ned looked down at the floor and Mandie detected tears in his eyes. Uncle Ned never cries, she thought. He must have loved Ruby a lot.

She jumped down from the footstool and took his wrinkled hand. “Uncle Ned, Ruby is not ever coming back, but I am here. I'm still your Papoose, remember?”

Uncle Ned squeezed her hand. “Yes, you always my Papoose. Remember, I promise Jim Shaw I watch over Papoose after he go to happy hunting ground,” he said in a shaky voice. “So many already gone to happy hunting ground.”

“Maybe I'll be around for a while, Uncle Ned. I'm only twelve years old, you know.” Mandie smiled up at him.

Sallie gave her grandfather a hug. “I am not quite one year older than Mandie,” she said. “And I hope to grow up, and get married, and have many little papooses for my grandfather to love.”