The Mandie Collection (39 page)

“What is it, dear?” Elizabeth asked as they stood there.

“It's just that I don't know when the Guyers are coming, so I—”

“Oh, is that all? Well, neither does anyone else know,” Elizabeth told her as she and Uncle John walked on toward the stairway with Mandie. “You know how busy Mr. Guyer stays with all that government business, and he wrote that they would be here but he was sorry he couldn't tell us when because of a special job he is doing.”

“Oh shucks!” Mandie said. She quickly decided not to ask her mother if she had told her grandmother about their coming visit because
she would have to tell her mother that for some reason Mrs. Taft didn't like Mr. Guyer.

At the top of the stairs they said good-night and Mandie went to her room. Her door was standing open and Snowball was asleep in the middle of her bed. She distinctly remembered closing her door when she had gone looking for Polly.

As she got ready for bed she wondered whether Polly had been in her room. Or where had Polly gone?

And then there was the question of whether her grandmother knew the Guyers were coming.

And then there was the question of when the Guyers would arrive.

And probably the most important part of this whole thing was— what was going to happen with Joe and Jonathan in the same house for several days?

Mandie tossed and turned in bed a long time before she dropped off to sleep.

CHAPTER THREE

A MYSTERIOUS PACKAGE

The next morning Mandie opened her eyes to find Liza building a fire in the fireplace across the room. She stretched and sat up, almost sitting on her cat as she did. Snowball meowed angrily and jumped down to the floor. Liza looked up from the hearth.

“Lawsy mercy, Missy 'Manda, you 'bout kilt dat white cat,” Liza said. Snowball came directly to her, sat down on the warm marble hearth, and began washing one of his front paws.

Mandie laughed, jumped out of bed, and went to the hearth to join her. “I didn't hurt him,” she said. “He doesn't like it because I woke him up.” She reached to pat Snowball's head, and he immediately backed away from her.

Liza laughed and said, “He sho' is mad wid you.” She stood up and said, “Gotta go now, light up Miz Gramma's fire. Done 'em all but huhs.”

“Is everybody up?” Mandie asked.

Liza shook her head and replied, “Ain't nobody up. I jes' startin' early 'cause all dat comp'ny comin'.” She walked toward the door and then stopped to look back. “Where dat Miss Sweet Thing go last night when you couldn't find huh?”

“I don't know, Liza. She wouldn't tell me. She just said she went looking for me,” Mandie explained.

“I jes' knows, dat I do,” Liza said, laughing and dancing around the room. “I jes' knows.”

Mandie stood up, put her hands on her hips, and asked, “And what do you know?”

“I knows dat spell work. Made dat Miss Sweet Thing plumb disappear,” Liza replied, grinning at Mandie.

“Spell? Oh, Liza, that's all a bunch of nonsense,” Mandie protested. “There is no such thing, and you'd better not let anyone hear you talking like that or you'll be in a heap of trouble.”

“You jes' don't know 'bout spells. Dey works,” Liza replied. She went to the door and opened it. Snowball whisked by her feet and disappeared into the hallway. “Dat white cat he be hungry. I go feed him soon as I light up Miz Gramma's fire.” She stepped out into the hallway and closed the door.

Mandie shrugged her shoulders and said to herself, “Humph! Spells! No such thing!”

She brought her clothes over to the fireplace and dressed in the warmth from the fire, wondering how it would be waking up in a room heated by a furnace. While she was sure it would be much more comfortable, she loved the smell of wood burning and the sound of crackling as it fell into pieces. But she knew if she got too close she would practically scorch on whatever side of her was facing the fire, and then she would have to turn around and warm the other side.

“Anyhow, we will probably have all the furnaces in the schoolhouse when we go back after Christmas,” she said to herself as she sat on the rug and buttoned her high-top shoes.

When Mandie was dressed, she went downstairs, intending to go to the kitchen and get a cup of hot coffee that the servants would have already made. But as she was about to pass the section of the hallway that went to the front door, she saw Snowball sitting there meowing, evidently wanting out.

“Snowball, you must have eaten awfully fast if Liza took you to the kitchen,” Mandie told him. “But then, come to think of it, she said she had to go to Grandmother's room to start her fire, so you probably just ran off. Oh well, if you want out I'll open the door.”

Mandie opened the heavy door enough to allow Snowball to slip through and was about to close it when she thought she saw something
on the porch. Pushing the door open wider she saw what looked like a red box sitting on the top step.

“Well, what is that?” she said to herself. She pushed the screen door open and stepped out onto the porch. It was a large box wrapped with red paper. Mandie picked it up. It was a little heavy. She looked at a Christmas tag on the white ribbon. “Amanda Shaw!” she read out loud. “Wherever did this come from? I wonder who sent it?”

She hurried back inside the house, pushed the door shut with her foot, and ran into the parlor, where she placed the box on a table. She examined it again. Her name was written in rough block letters as though someone who could not write very well had written it. “Oh, what should I do?” she asked herself aloud.

“Open it, Missy 'Manda,” Liza said from behind her.

Mandie had not heard the girl come into the room. “Do you know where this came from, Liza? I found it outside on the steps. It has my name on it.”

Liza danced around the room without looking at her as she said, “Open it, Missy 'Manda.”

Mandie frowned at the girl and began untying the ribbon. When she pulled off the red paper, she found a plain white box. She paused as she looked at it.

“Open de box, Missy 'Manda,” Liza insisted as she came closer.

Mandie removed the lid and gazed at the contents in disappointment. “Why, Liza, it's nothing but a bunch of weeds and dirt, holly berries, and stuff,” she said. She glanced at the girl who was also staring into the box.

Liza straightened up, smiled, and said, “But it sho' be a purty mess o' dirt, all dem red berries and holly leaves. Sho' look purty to me.”

Mandie became suspicious of the girl. “Liza, did you send this to me?” she asked as she watched Liza.

Liza looked back down into the box and said, “Now, Missy 'Manda, whut fo' I go and send all dis heah stuff to you?”

“Do you know who did? Did you see anyone leave it on the doorstep?” Mandie asked.

Liza started across the room toward the door to the hall. “I gots to go,” she said.

“Liza, what were you doing down at this end of the hall? I thought you were helping in the kitchen,” Mandie asked.

“I is,” Liza replied. “I fed dat white cat, and he dun run 'way 'fo he finish de food. Aunt Lou she say bring him back to eat de rest, and I ain't found him yet.”

“Well, he's outside, Liza,” Mandie told her. “I just let him out the front door. That's how I found this box.”

“Den I goes back to de kitchen,” Liza said, hurrying out into the hallway and disappearing.

“And I'll just leave this silly present here,” Mandie said, dropping the lid halfway back over the box and brushing her hands. “And I'll also go to the kitchen where I started in the first place and get me a cup of coffee.”

When Mandie opened the kitchen door, she expected to find Liza telling Aunt Lou and Jenny about the gift. She was surprised to see the girl silently taking dishes down from the cupboard.

Aunt Lou closed the oven door, wiped her hands on her big white apron, and smiled at Mandie as she said, “And how's my chile this bright sunshiny mawnin'?”

“I'll be fine if I can beat you out of a cup of that coffee I smell perking away over there on the stove,” Mandie replied with a big grin as she walked toward the stove.

“Dat won't be hard to do,” Jenny said, reaching for a cup from the dishes Liza was setting down on the table. She filled it with coffee from the pot and set it on the table.

Mandie hurried to the icebox, took out the milk, and went to pour a little of it into her coffee. Then she added a little sugar from the bowl on the table. Taking a sip from the cup, she looked at everyone and said, “Y'all make the best coffee I've ever tasted. I wonder what makes it so good?”

Aunt Lou and Jenny looked at each other. Liza stood by listening. When neither woman answered, the girl said quickly, “Dey puts black 'lasses in de coffee, dats whut dey do.”

“Black molasses? In the coffee?” Mandie asked in surprise. Looking at Aunt Lou and Jenny, she asked, “Do y'all really put black molasses in the coffee?”

Aunt Lou laughed and said, “Dat be old-time secret, and Liza dun went and told. My mama and her mama befo' huh always put jes' a drop or two of good black molasses in de coffee. Takes out de bittuh taste.”

“I won't tell anyone y'all's secret,” Mandie promised as she sat down at the long table. “But I want to tell y'all about what was supposed to be a Christmas present to me.” She explained about finding the gift-wrapped box on the front step. “I left it on the table in the parlor. When y'all have time, go and look at it. See what y'all think it is.”

“I'll sho' do dat,” Aunt Lou said as she turned back to open the oven.

“Sounds strange to me,” Jenny said, getting another pot down from a hook on the wall.

“I dun seen it, and it do look strange,” Liza said as she continued stacking dishes on the other end of the table.

“Thank you for the coffee,” Mandie said as she took the last sip from her cup and stood up. “I'd better go and see if anyone else is up yet.”

Aunt Lou looked at the clock ticking away on the shelf over the sink. “We be puttin' de food on de sideboard in de dinin' room in 'bout twenty minutes, you hear?”

“Yes, ma'am,” Mandie replied as she left the room. “I'll tell everybody.”

When she got back to the parlor, Mandie found her mother, Uncle John, and her grandmother studying the box she had left on the table. They all turned to look at her when she entered the room.

“What is this mess, Amanda?” her grandmother asked.

“I see your name here. Did someone actually send you this?” her mother asked.

“Doesn't make sense to me,” Uncle John added.

“I don't know what it is, either, unless someone is trying to play a joke on me,” Mandie replied, then she told them how she had found it. “Liza acted strange and wouldn't exactly answer my questions about it, so I'm a little suspicious of her.”

“Would Liza do something like this?” Uncle John asked.

“Maybe she had good intentions. Maybe she wanted to give me a present and decided to make one herself. I suppose you could consider it a little garden of some sort,” Mandie said, looking down at the contents of the box.

“It does look like something she would make,” Mrs. Taft agreed.

“Well, maybe,” Elizabeth said with doubt in her voice. “What are you going to do with it?”

“I thought after we put up the tree tonight I'll just set it under there,” Mandie said. “The grass and leaves will dry up and wither away in a day or two anyhow.”

“That's the best thing to do,” her grandmother agreed. “Then, if she did make this, it won't hurt her feelings.”

“Right now I wonder if breakfast is ready,” John Shaw said.

“It should be by the time we get to the dining room,” Mandie told him.

And it was, with Liza standing by to refill coffee cups. Everyone greeted the girl with a big smile as they began filling their plates with food from the sideboard, and Mandie knew they were all thinking of her present, supposedly from Liza.

As they ate their breakfast, Elizabeth and Mandie discussed shopping.

“We'll take the buggy,” Elizabeth told Mandie. “And we should be on our way as soon as we finish here so we'll have plenty of time to look around in the stores.”

Mandie was worried that the Guyers might just happen to arrive while they were gone and would not receive a warm welcome from her grandmother. “It won't take much time to buy what's on my list,” she told her mother.

“I don't really have a lot to purchase, either, but I thought if we just looked around awhile we might see something else we wanted,” Elizabeth told her as she buttered a biscuit.

Mandie looked at her grandmother and asked, “Don't you want to go with us, Grandmother? We might see something you would like to buy.”

“No, no, dear,” Mrs. Taft replied, setting down her coffee cup. “You just go on with your mother and enjoy shopping. I have lots to do here—presents to wrap and letters to write. In fact, it will be nice to be left alone so I can catch up a little.”

Mandie sighed to herself. Her grandmother was not going to be persuaded, so she would just have to hurry through her shopping and persuade her mother to return home as soon as they were finished.

Franklin was not a very big town, but during the holidays out-of-town craftsmen set up their wares around the courthouse, on sidewalks, in vacant lots, and wherever they could find space to pitch a tent or build a temporary shelter. Most of the people around the countryside
came into town to shop on Saturdays, and Mandie realized it was Saturday—the only Saturday left before Christmas. So she was not surprised to see the hundreds of shoppers about the town.

Elizabeth helped Mandie select some writing paper and envelopes for Sallie. “I know this kind of thing is scarce out there where the Cherokee people live,” Elizabeth said as they looked at the supply in the stationer's shop.