The Mandie Collection (14 page)

Liza said, “And de rest of y’all come right in de parlor. Everybody in dere.”

Mandie quickly stood up as Uncle Ned’s wife, Morning Star, and his granddaughter, Sallie, and their friend Dimar Walkingstick appeared in the doorway.

Elizabeth met them across the room, “Oh, how nice to see y’all. Come on in and sit down, Morning Star and Sallie and Dimar. We’re so glad you were able to come.” She motioned to seats.

Mandie ran to Sallie and Dimar. “Come over here with Joe and me,” she said, motioning to the other side of the parlor.

Morning Star, who could understand most English but could not speak much English, replied as she took a seat near the other adults. “Thank you,” she said with a nod and a smile.

Sallie and Dimar sat down near Joe. Mandie was excited to see her friends, whom she very seldom saw during the school year because they all lived out at Deep Creek. Only Uncle Ned managed to travel wherever Mandie was because he had promised her father when he died that he would look after Mandie. He had been a lifetime friend of Jim Shaw, Mandie’s father.

Mandie and Sallie tried to bring each other up-to-date on everything since they had last seen each other. Joe and Dimar talked.

“Did Riley O’Neal not come with y’all?” Mandie asked. Riley was the schoolmaster for the Cherokee school.

Sallie shook her head and said, “He got delayed and said he would join us tomorrow.”

“Are you still helping teach at the school?” Joe asked her.

“Yes, I still help, and the children are learning fast, most of them,” Sallie replied. “Their parents finally relented and let the children come to the school when they saw what a wonderful thing it was to be educated. In fact some of the parents come and sit with us and listen and watch.” She smiled, looked at Mandie, and said, “That school is the best thing that ever happened to the Cherokee people and I know they all thank you, Mandie, for getting it built for us.”

“Oh, remember the gold we found really belonged to the Cherokee people, and when your people wouldn’t accept it I decided the school would be a way to give it to them,” Mandie replied. “I’m coming over to visit as soon as I get out of school in the spring.”

“Before you go to Europe?” Joe asked.

Mandie looked at him in surprise and said, in a whisper, as she glanced across the room where Mrs. Taft was deep in conversation with the other adults, “But Grandmother hasn’t said yet whether she will take us to Europe.”

“She’d better say so soon or all your friends will have other plans for the summer,” Joe reminded her.

“You know I can’t rush Grandmother. She has to at least think whatever we do for the summer was her idea,” Mandie said, grinning at her friends, and then asked, “Sallie and Dimar, I do hope you can both go with us if we go to Europe. Have y’all discussed it with your families yet?”

Sallie quickly nodded and said, “Yes, my grandfather and my grandmother say I may go with you.”

“I’m so glad,” Mandie said with a big smile, and then turning to Dimar, she waited for his reply.

Dimar nodded and said, “My mother gave me permission to go with all of you, but I am not sure I will go.”

“Why not?” Joe asked. “You have to go. I can’t go all around the world with just girls.”

Dimar smiled and said, “I will think about it and let you know. I have never been so far away from my home in the mountains.”

“I have not, either, Dimar,” Sallie quickly told him. “You must go because you may never have another opportunity to do so, to see the other side of the world.”

Dimar smiled at her and said, “I am thinking on it.”

Uncle Ned came into the parlor and Mandie quickly rose and went to greet him. “Come on in, Uncle Ned,” she said. “Thank you for bringing Morning Star and Sallie and Dimar.” She took his old hand in hers as she looked up at him. Uncle Ned was well over six feet tall.

“Papoose, glad to see you,” he said and waved at Joe as Elizabeth and John Shaw both rose to come and greet him. He went over to sit with the adults.

Mandie looked across the room at her mother and asked, “Mother, is anyone else coming tonight?”

“No, dear, but I imagine the train tomorrow will bring quite a few more of our friends,” Elizabeth Shaw answered.

Mandie would be glad when everyone who was expected finally arrived. She hoped Celia and her mother would be on the train the next day, and Jonathan Guyer and his father, Lindall Guyer, and Senator Morton, Mrs. Taft’s special friend. The other friends expected would probably travel across the mountain on horseback or by wagon.

“This is going to be the best Christmas I ever had,” Mandie said to her friends.

“Yes,” they all agreed together. But no one knew the mystery that would befall them before the holidays were over.

The train the next day brought Celia Hamilton; her mother, Jane; her aunt Rebecca and Mollie; Senator Morton; Jonathan; and his father, Lindall Guyer.

John Shaw went with Jason Bond in the rig to meet the train. Abraham, the Shaws’ handyman, drove the wagon to pick up the luggage. Mandie, with her friends, Joe, Sallie, and Dimar, were allowed to go to the depot with the understanding they would have to walk home if too many of their guests arrived to fit into the rig.

The young people eagerly waited on the platform as they heard the train’s whistle in the distance, and it soon came flying down the track, slowing to a creep as it neared the station.

“Let’s stand back here where we can see who gets off,” Mandie told her friends as they moved back against the wall of the building on the platform.

“Oh, I see Lindall Guyer is on here. That’s his special train car up there,” John Shaw remarked as he walked toward it.

Mandie squealed with delight and she and her friends followed. “Jonathan is here,” she said.

The doors of the train opened and they watched the private car. Sure enough, Lindall Guyer was stepping down and helping Celia’s mother, Jane Hamilton, down the steps. As she stepped aside, Mr. Guyer reached up to assist Aunt Rebecca down. Mollie held tightly to her hand. Celia came close behind them, then Senator Morton hurriedly descended to the platform with Jonathan following and anxiously looking around. Seeing Mandie and her friends, he yanked at Celia’s hand and said, “Over here. They’re all over here.”

Everyone was talking at once until John Shaw stepped over to them and said to Mandie, “Straight home now and don’t take too long.”

“Yes, sir, we’ll hurry,” Mandie replied with a big grin.

They didn’t exactly hurry back to Mandie’s house because they kept stopping along the way to talk. After all, it was impossible for six people to walk along together and everyone had to talk to everyone else, she explained to John Shaw when they finally reached the house and found him on the porch watching the road for them. The rig and the wagon were not in sight so all the luggage and guests were already in the house.

“I was beginning to think I should send Mr. Bond back with the rig to pick you all up and get you back here,” John Shaw told the young people with a smile.

As they all began to answer at once, he interrupted to say, “If y’all want coffee and chocolate cake you’d better make haste to the parlor.” He went inside.

Mandie and her friends gathered at one end of the huge parlor and watched and waited as Liza pushed the tea cart into the room and began serving the adults.

Mollie stayed right beside Aunt Rebecca and seemed shy of the whole room full of people. She was usually talking all the time and curious about everything.

“I’m glad Mollie is behaving,” Mandie remarked to Celia.

“Aunt Rebecca has been quite successful at teaching her to be still and to stop asking a question every time she breathes,” Celia replied with a smile. She looked at Mandie and asked, “What have y’all been doing? Did everyone else get here yesterday?”

“Yes, everyone who is here now came yesterday. However, we’re still expecting Mr. Jacob Smith and Riley O’Neal,” Mandie replied.

“They will be coming on horseback,” Sallie added.

“I hope they get here before it starts to snow,” Joe remarked, glancing out the window near where he sat.

“Snow?” Mandie asked, turning to look outside.

“Yes, didn’t you notice the clouds when we were outside?” Joe replied.

“Not really. I was too busy greeting everyone to notice,” Mandie said.

“Oh, I hope it does snow. Christmas without snow wouldn’t seem like Christmas,” Celia said.

“Don’t forget your uncle said yesterday that we would wait until everyone got here to go cut a tree for Christmas,” Joe reminded Mandie.

“It won’t matter if it snows on us while we do that,” Mandie said with a laugh. “This may be our last Christmas together for a while since we will be going off in different directions.”

Jonathan quickly asked. “Did you girls decide to come to New York and go to college with me?”

Joe quickly spoke, “No, they didn’t, and they aren’t going to my college, either. They’ve decided to abandon all of us and go down to Charleston, South Carolina, to college.”

“To the College of Charleston,” Mandie explained.

“Aha! There are lots of boys down there at the Citadel. Are you girls aware of that?” Jonathan said, pretending to be serious.

“Yes, and Tommy Patton lives down there, also,” Joe added.

“Oh, phooey on y’all,” Mandie said. “Tommy Patton won’t be in Charleston because he will be away at college.”

“And I had not even thought about the Citadel. There will also be boys at our college, you know,” Celia said, smiling at the boys.

“All right, enough about college,” Jonathan said. “What mystery are we involved in this time?”

“Mystery?” Mandie and Celia said in unison, with surprise.

“You know, one of those problem things you girls are always trying to solve,” Jonathan replied with a big grin. “Now don’t tell me you don’t have a mystery here to solve.”

“Now, why did you mention such a thing, Jonathan?” Joe said with a loud groan. “Now they’ll be chasing all over the place looking for one.”

Liza finally got to them with the tea cart. She reached down on the bottom shelf and began passing out plates of chocolate cake. “Y’all see, I done went and looked out fo’ you. I hid these heah pieces with the extra outside icing on them, jes’ fo’ y’all.”

“Oh, Liza, we thank you,” Jonathan quickly replied as he accepted one of the plates and a cup of coffee.

“Thank you, Liza, we appreciate that,” Mandie said with a big grin as the other young people took cake and coffee from the tea cart.

Liza bent over to look at all the young people and whispered, “I’se lookin’ out fo’ y’all ’bout Missy Pritty Thang, too.”

“Polly hasn’t been over here, has she?” Mandie asked in surprise.

“No, but she’s wantin’ to,” Liza whispered.

“How do you know?” Joe asked.

“Have you seen her?” Jonathan asked.

“I kin read dat girl’s mind,” Liza replied, “Once she find out you boys are heah, she’ll be right over.”

All the young people laughed.

“I don’t think she’d dare after all the trouble she caused with that newspaper reporter when they tried to get into our tunnel,” Mandie said.

“The tunnel where my ancestors hid during the terrible removal,” Sallie added.

Aunt Lou appeared in the doorway to the parlor and called, “Liza.”

Liza quickly straightened up and said, “I jes’ leave dat cart heah wid y’all. I’se got to go to work.” She hurried from the room and disappeared with Aunt Lou.

“What if her mother decides to come over and visit? I doubt whether she knew anything about what Polly was doing when the men were working on y’all’s tunnel,” Celia said to Mandie.

“Well, if Polly does come over here, let’s all just sit around like dummies and not speak a word to her,” Mandie said with a laugh.

“That would be a good idea,” Dimar agreed.

“You are a quiet one anyhow. You never talk much,” Mandie said.

“Sometimes it is more enlightening to sit and listen rather than to talk,” Dimar replied with a smile.

“You are right about that,” Joe agreed, sipping his coffee.

“That depends on who is talking,” Jonathan said with a big grin as he glanced at Mandie, then quickly changed the subject. “Has your grandmother decided whether she is going to Europe this coming summer?”

“She has probably already decided but is taking her own good time to tell me,” Mandie answered.

“I’d like to go back to Europe with all of you as a passenger and not a stowaway this time,” Jonathan said with a big grin.

“It’s nice to have a grandmother who owns a ship line,” Celia said.

“Yes, but she always wants to arrange everything her way,” Mandie said, and blowing out her breath, she added, “Seems like she would give in for one time at least, for our graduation present, and let us have some say-so in the plans.” She glanced across the room. The adults were deep in conversation, but Mandie couldn’t hear what they were talking about.

John Shaw stood up and came across the room to speak to Mandie. “We need to get the tree before the snow gets too thick,” he told her.

“Snow?” the whole group said together as everyone turned to look out the window. Snow was falling fast and thick outside. Huge snowflakes swirled in the wind.

“Riley O’Neal and Mr. Jacob Smith aren’t here yet, are they?” Mandie asked.

“No sign of them yet. They might have encountered a lot of snow in the mountains, which would slow them up,” John Shaw replied. “I’d say if they aren’t here in the next hour we’d better go ahead and get the tree.”

“Yes, sir,” Mandie agreed. “I was hoping everyone would be here to go out together to find a tree,” Mandie said. She glanced out the window. “Maybe they’ll make it in time.”

But when the hour passed, they still had not arrived. John Shaw motioned across the room for Mandie and her friends to come with him and Jonathan’s father, Lindall Guyer, and Uncle Ned.

As she caught up with him, she asked, “Is Mother not coming? Or Grandmother and the others?”

“No, they will get things ready to put the tree up while we find one,” John Shaw explained.

Wrapped up in warm coats, gloves, scarves, and hats, the young people stepped out into the white wonderland. Everything was already covered with snow. Their shoes pressed deep footprints into the white covering.

John Shaw led the way and they walked all the way to the woods at the back line of his property.

“Amanda, you and your friends pick a tree and we’ll cut it,” John Shaw told her.

“Yes, sir,” Mandie replied. She looked at her friends and said, “Now remember we will only cut one tree so we have to agree on one together.”

“How about some of that mistletoe up there?” Joe asked, gazing above them at the bunches growing on the trees.

“Yes, mistletoe,” Jonathan said laughing.

“If you would like mistletoe, I will climb the tree and get it for you,” Dimar offered.

“All right,” Joe agreed, and looking at Jonathan, he added, “I’d trust you ahead of Jonathan anytime climbing a tree.”

Dimar smiled and went to get a hatchet from the men’s tools.

“You don’t think I can climb a tree?” Jonathan asked with a big grin. “Just because I live in New York is no reason to think I’m that dumb.”

“All right, maybe you can climb a tree, but please don’t try it today. We don’t need any accidents today.”

Mandie, afraid that Jonathan might just try climbing the tree, quickly said, “Oh, Jonathan, we need you down here on the ground to catch the mistletoe when Dimar cuts it and throws it down.”

“Sure,” Jonathan agreed and went to stand under the tree that Dimar was already climbing.

“You catch it and I will put it in the croker sacks to carry it,” Sallie told him.

“Then Celia and I will help the men find a tree to cut,” Mandie said. She and Celia went ahead to catch up with the men.

“I’m always afraid Joe and Jonathan are going to have a real argument some day,” Mandie said as they walked along.

“I don’t think so. I believe they both know the other one is kidding all the time,” Celia replied. “Do you think Riley O’Neal and Mr. Smith will get here in all this snow?”

“Oh yes. Remember Mr. Smith was born and raised in the country and is used to it. And I think Riley O’Neal has been in the South long enough to know how to get around in all kinds of terrain, not like where he came from back in Boston.”

“I’m wondering if Sallie likes Riley O’Neal,” Celia said.

“If Sallie likes Riley O’Neal? Of course she does. She is helping him teach the Cherokee children,” Mandie replied.

“That’s not exactly what I meant,” Celia said.

“Oh, oh, oh!” Mandie said with a laugh. “I understand what you mean, but no, I believe Sallie likes Dimar.” She turned to look at Celia as they tramped along in the snow. “Don’t you think they would make a nice couple?”

“Well, I suppose, but Sallie wants to travel around other places and all that and Dimar wants to stay right where he was born and raised.”

“Uncle Ned and Morning Star certainly will miss Sallie if she ever leaves home,” Mandie remarked. “With both her parents dead, Sallie is all they’ve got. I wish Uncle Ned was my grandpa.”

They had caught up with the men by then and Uncle John asked, “Which tree? We’ve located four about the right size.” He pointed to four different trees nearby. “Your mother told me to remind y’all that the limbs shouldn’t be too long or they will take up too much room in the hallway.”

“Celia, help me decide,” Mandie said as she walked around the area.

“They look pretty much alike, don’t they?” Celia asked as she looked at the cedar trees John Shaw had picked. “Maybe we should compare the branches and see which one has the shortest, like your mother wanted.”

“All right,” Mandie agreed and began examining the branches of the nearest one. “This one won’t do. You see this branch is awfully long—in fact, longer than all the branches on this tree, and if you trim it the shape of the tree might not look right.”

“How about this one?” Celia said as she examined the next tree.

“Yes, that’s a better one, but let’s look at the other two,” Mandie said.

As they were examining the other two trees, Mandie heard horses’ hooves in the distance and someone yelling. She quickly looked at her uncle. He had heard it, too.

John Shaw stood listening for a few seconds, then called to Lindall Guyer and Uncle Ned, who were looking at trees ahead of them, “Sounds like trouble.”

“I go see,” Uncle Ned called back and quickly turned to go back the way they had come.

“Let’s cut the tree quickly now and get back,” Uncle John told Mandie.

“Yes, sir, this one,” she indicated the one she and Celia had decided on.

As John Shaw began chopping at the trunk of the tree, Joe and Jonathan came to join them.

“I can cut that, Mr. Shaw, if you’d like to go with Uncle Ned to see what the trouble is,” Joe offered.