Leppard, Lois Gladys - [Mandie 03] (12 page)

As they got to the doorway, Mandie shouted. “Uncle Ned, we’ve found it!” They all stopped their searching and gathered around her. “It’s buried out there where we’ve been standing all this time,” she said, laughing.

With everyone helping it didn’t take long to uncover the rest of the gold. After loading it into the old wagon in front of the cabin, they hitched up two of the bandits’ horses. Then they brought the bandits back into the clearing and made them get into the wagon.

Uncle John looked at them with great satisfaction. “We’re taking you into town and turning you over to the authorities,” he said.

“Mister, please don’t do that,” one of them begged. “You’ve got yer gold back. Jest let us go.”

Uncle John climbed in beside them. “How did you happen to know about the gold anyway?” he asked.

“Well, it’s sorta like this. We got some friends you’ins knows. Rennie Lou and Snuff. They still in that thar jail but we’ins got out. They was the ones what told us about the gold,” one of the bandits replied.

“Then we just hung around ’til we found out what you was gonna do with it. I acted like an ol’ drunken bum and laid in that thar alley behind the bank in Bryson City while you’ins were loadin’ it up,” he said proudly. “I heard the whole plan.”

“Oh, hesh up!” yelled one of the other bandits.

“Rennie Lou and Snuff,” Uncle John repeated. “The man and woman who kidnapped Mandie, Joe, and Sallie in the mountains and then tried to burn down your barn, Uncle Ned. Remember, we took them into town and turned them over to the law.”

“Bad people,” Uncle Ned said. “These bad people, too.”

“Take to jail,” Uncle Wirt told him.

So that’s what they did. On the way into town, the young people rode their ponies behind the men, while Uncle Ned drove the wagon full of gold and bandits.

When they turned the bandits over to the jailor, he said he would summon the local doctor for the wounded man.

Then Uncle Ned headed the wagon in the direction of the huge bank in downtown Asheville.

Uncle John knew the banker, and it didn’t take long to unload the gold and place it in the bank’s vault. It would be safe there until they could start building the hospital for the Cherokees.

Since it was getting late and they had missed their hotel stay, thanks to the bandits, Uncle John checked them into the hotel in Asheville for the night. Early next morning they began the trip back to Franklin. Elizabeth and Morning Star would be waiting for them.

It was exciting to stay in the hotel, but Mandie was anxious to get home and tell her mother all the wonderful news. Yet on the other hand, she dreaded any further discussion of the school in Nashville.

Chapter 13 - Getting Things Settled

When the tired travelers finally reached Franklin, they found Elizabeth and Morning Star waiting for them in the parlor. “Oh, John, I’m so glad you’re home,” Elizabeth said, greeting her husband with a hug.

John kissed her. “We’re all dirty, tired, and hungry,” he replied, “but very happy to be here.”

Elizabeth looked over the entire group. “You young people had better get cleaned up,” she said. “Then go out in the kitchen and get a bite to eat. But after that, into bed, every one of you. You all need a nap—and no arguing.”

There was no protest. Mandie’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, Mother! Isn’t it wonderful?” she bubbled. “The gold is safe. We finally found it. The bandits are in jail, and the gold is in the bank at Asheville!”

“I’m glad, dear.” Elizabeth smiled. “We’ll discuss your trip more after a while. Now go along with the others.” She waved Mandie on through the doorway to clean up.

Jenny and Liza weren’t around at the moment, but Aunt Lou waited for the youngsters in the kitchen. The old woman smiled and put her arms around Mandie. “My
chile!” she said. “I knowed de good Lawd gonna send you back safe!”

“Aunt Lou, we found the bandits and the gold,” Mandie said excitedly.

“I knowed you would.” The old woman grinned. “Now, y’all jest get your food waitin’ there on the stove and then git on upstairs to rest. I’se got to take some of this out to Mister John, and Mister Ned, and Mister Wirt and Miz Lizbeth.”

The hungry young people gathered around the cookstove and began filling their plates, while Aunt Lou piled a large tray full of food for the adults.

Mandie and her friends could hardly hold their heads up as they ate at the kitchen table. They were too tired to talk—almost too tired to eat. They might have fallen asleep at the table had it not been for Aunt Lou’s bustling in and out to wait on the adults. Aunt Lou finally sent them to bed, and they readily obeyed.

After that much-needed nap, as soon as Mandie could get away from the others, she hurried over to Polly’s house. She had to make things right with her friend.

Polly sat on her front porch with her foot propped up on a stool. “Hello, Mandie,” Polly greeted her. “Aunt Lou told our cook that y’all had got home. Do sit down and tell me what happened.”

Mandie related the details of their trip to her friend and then fell silent.

“There’s something you aren’t telling me, Mandie,” Polly said.

“Yes, there is,” Mandie replied, twisting around in her chair. Her heart pounded as she tried to find the right words. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ve had some
bad feelings toward you, and I want to ask your forgiveness for being rude.”

“Bad feelings toward me? When?” Polly asked in surprise. “And how can I forgive something that I don’t even know about?”

“I suppose—I got a little jealous of, uh, of you and Joe,” Mandie faltered.

“Me and Joe? That’s funny.” Polly laughed.

“And then when you hurt your foot, I was glad you had to go home,” Mandie confessed. “Will you forgive me?”

Polly looked as though she couldn’t believe it. “You were glad I had to go home? But then, why did you ask me to go along in the first place?” she asked.

“Because you’re my friend,” Mandie told her. “It probably doesn’t make sense to you, but will you please forgive me?”

“Sure, Mandie,” she said. “I know I talked like I was brave, but I have to confess I was getting tired of all that running around all over the mountain. And I sure didn’t want to come face to face with those bandits. So you see, I was glad to come home, but I didn’t want anyone to know it.”

Mandie giggled. “Oh, Polly, I’m sorry,” she said. “I am so glad for your friendship, and I wouldn’t want to do anything to spoil it.”

Polly changed the subject. “Guess what? My mother is sending me away to school,” she told Mandie.

“No!” Mandie couldn’t believe it. “Where?”

“All the way to Nashville,” Polly replied.

“Not Miss Tatum’s Finishing School for Young Ladies?” Mandie gasped.

“How did you know?” Polly asked.

“Because my mother has the same idea, but Uncle John said we’d talk it over,” Mandie told her.

“You don’t want to go?”

“No, I don’t,” Mandie said. “Don’t tell me
you
really want to go.”

“Oh, yes,” Polly assured her. “I think that would be great fun to live at a school that far away from home.”

“Well, I don’t,” Mandie stated flatly. “And I hope I can talk my mother out of it. I don’t want to go so far away and not be able to see my friends and my family.”

“My mother doesn’t know that I know it, but she had other motives. You see, if I go away to school, she’ll be free to travel all she wants to,” Polly said. “I’ll be more or less on my own, and that suits me fine. I wish you’d go, too, Mandie. We could have lots of fun together way out there away from everybody.”

“Sorry, Polly, but I don’t want to go. I may have to, but I’m not going without a fight,” Mandie told her.

When Mandie got home, she found Uncle Ned alone on the front porch, and sat down beside him. Another matter still troubled her.

“Uncle Ned, I’ve been trying to figure out how we can give ten percent of the gold to the Lord,” she said, leaning back on her hands.

“Cherokees make Papoose boss of gold,” he said. “Papoose give tithe.”

“But I mean, what can we actually do with the ten percent? Should we just give it to your church at Bird-town, or should we do something else with it?”

The old Indian thought for a moment, and then a big grin came over his wrinkled face. “Church no have music box,” he told her.

Mandie smiled broadly. “Then that’s what we’ll do.
We’ll buy the biggest, most expensive organ we can find to put in your church,” she said excitedly. “Do you think the other Cherokees will agree?”

“Cherokees give gold to Papoose,” Uncle Ned told her.

“Yes, but I have to use it for the good of the Cherokees,” she replied. “It really belongs to them. I’m only going to spend it for their good.”

“Get music box for church,” the old man said, nodding his head. “That be tithe. Then watch window open and Big God throw blessings out to people.”

“We have already received many blessings,” Mandie said gratefully.

“More to come,” Uncle Ned assured her.

Mandie leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Uncle Ned, did you know that my mother is planning to send me all the way to Nashville to a finishing school?”

“No!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, and I will have to leave all my friends and family, and go to this strange school where there are all strange people and I won’t know anyone,” she complained. “And worst of all, you can’t go with me, or even come to visit. What will I do, Uncle Ned?”

“Not good,” her old friend muttered. “Must not send Papoose so far away.”

Mandie stood up. “I’m going to talk to my mother and Uncle John about it right now. I’ll let you know what happens.”

Mandie found her mother and Uncle John in the small sitting room adjoining their bedroom. Entering, she sat down on a footstool near her uncle.

“Uncle John, have you talked to Mother about the
school yet?” she asked, holding her breath. She feared his answer.

“That’s what we’ve just been talking about,” he replied.

“Well, what did you decide?” Mandie asked.

“That you won’t be going to Nashville to school,” Elizabeth answered. “However—”

“—That’s good news,” Mandie interrupted. “I’m so glad I don’t have to leave my friends and go all the way to that strange town.”

“Amanda, wait until I’ve finished,” her mother reprimanded. “You won’t be going to Nashville, because we’ve decided to send you to the school I attended in Asheville. It will be much closer. Also, your grandmother lives in Asheville. Remember?”

Mandie took several deep breaths to steady her voice. “But, Mother,” she protested, “why do I have to go anywhere out of town? Why can’t I go to school right here in Franklin?”

“The school here in Franklin doesn’t teach everything you need to learn, and their standards aren’t as high,” Elizabeth explained. “You must be prepared for society.”

“Once you get settled in and make some new friends, you’ll like Asheville, dear,” Uncle John tried to comfort her. “It’s not very far away, and you can come home whenever you like—on weekends and holidays.”

“Oh, phooey!” Mandie said in a defeated voice. “I want to live at home all the time, with you and Mother.”

“But, Amanda, all girls have to be educated,” her mother said. “Just be thankful that we can afford a private school.”

Mandie didn’t answer.

Uncle John made an attempt to smooth things over.
“Let’s try it for a little while, and if you don’t like it, we’ll bring you home. But I really think you’ll make new friends there. And you’ll be able to get better acquainted with your grandmother. You know, you’ve only seen her once.”

Mandie remembered when she met the heavyset woman in the expensive clothes. Her grandmother had not been very friendly. Mandie wondered if she could ever break through that cold wall between them.

She stood up. “I guess I have to go if you say so,” she said, managing a reluctant smile. “But at least I don’t have to go to Nashville.”

Elizabeth looked at John as Mandie left the room. “She doesn’t realize how much we’d like to have her stay home where we can be with her every day, but there are things you have to sacrifice sometimes,” she told him.

“I really meant that, Elizabeth, when I told her we’d bring her home if she doesn’t like the school,” John reminded her.

“Yes, I agree,” Elizabeth replied.

Mandie rushed back downstairs to Uncle Ned on the front porch. “Uncle Ned, I don’t have to go to Nashville to school after all,” she told him, excitedly.

“Papoose stay home?” he asked, smiling.

“No, not exactly,” she answered. “I have to go to a school in Asheville where my mother went.”

“But that not far,” the old man assured her. “I go see Papoose in Asheville.”

“Will you, Uncle Ned?” she asked eagerly. “I won’t know anyone there and it’ll be awfully lonesome.”

“I promise Jim Shaw I watch over Papoose. Keep promise,” the old Indian told her.

Mandie looked at him suddenly, surprise dawning on her face. “You know what? We just planned the tithe, and
I’ve already got a blessing. I don’t have to go all the way to Nashville to school,” she said excitedly.

“Blessing number one,” Uncle Ned agreed. “More to come. We thank Big God.”

“Oh, yes, Uncle Ned,” she said, reaching to take his old hand in hers. The two of them looked up toward the morning sun.

“Thank you, God. Oh, thank you,” she whispered.

“Thank you, Big God,” the old man echoed, quickly wiping a tear from his eye.

Mandie knew God’s blessings were beginning to shower down upon her.

About the Author

LOIS GLADYS LEPPARD has been a Federal Civil Service employee in various countries around the world. She makes her home in South Carolina.

The stories of her own mother’s childhood are the basis for many of the incidents incorporated in this series.

Publication Info

Mandie and the Ghost Bandits
Copyright © 1984
Lois Gladys Leppard

MANDIE® is a registered trademark of Lois Gladys Leppard

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number
84-71151

ISBN 0-87123-442-4