The Mandie Collection (56 page)

Mandie stopped to catch her breath. “Whew! That was a long trip!”

“It wasn't so bad going down, but having to come back up all those steps is too much,” Celia agreed.

Mandie looked at the cabin numbers on the doors. “Now according to the numbers, we're on the right track,” she said. “Hooray, we're right down this hallway!”

“And there comes your grandmother,” Celia told her.

The girls hurried to meet Mrs. Taft at her door. Then going inside with her, they excitedly told her what they had discovered.

“Amanda, please pause to get your breath,” Mrs. Taft scolded. “I can't understand a word you're saying.” The older woman sat down.

Mandie and Celia sat on the bed, and Mandie let Snowball down as she explained where they had been. While she talked, Mrs. Taft listened with a surprised look on her face.

“So, you see Grandmother, you
can
find a kitten in London for the little girl, can't you?” Mandie asked. “
Please
?”

“Amanda,” Mrs. Taft began, “you and Celia should never have intruded on those people down there. They are not allowed up here in our section, and you should respect their privacy too.”

The girls looked at each other in stunned silence.

“But, Grandmother, Lily was friendly with us,” Mandie protested. “Besides, how could I have found Snowball if I didn't just keep following after him?”

“One of the stewards would have found him for you,” Mrs. Taft replied. “You should be more careful and not let Snowball out of your room.” She stood and took off her bonnet. “Now, I'm going to rest a few minutes. It will soon be time for the noon meal.”

The girls stood and headed for their room.

“Grandmother, would you just give me permission to see those girls when we get to London so
I
can give Violet a kitten?” Mandie asked eagerly.

“Amanda, you know that's impossible,” Mrs. Taft replied. “We're going to be staying at the Majestic Hotel, and who knows where they'll be staying?”

“Would you just give me permission to tell Lily where we're staying, so that
if
she can find it, she can come by?” Mandie persisted.

“Come by for what? We can't just sail into London and find a kitten just like that!” Grandmother snapped her fingers.

“If they came by, I could give them enough money to buy a kitten for Violet. Please?” Mandie pleaded.

“Amanda, you've got too soft a heart,” Mrs. Taft told her. She paused. “I suppose I can give you permission for that much,” she conceded. “But let me caution you. Don't go back down there to the steerage section. You send a note by the steward. Do you understand?”

Mandie impulsively hugged her grandmother. “Oh, thank you. Thank you, Grandmother.”

Mrs. Taft hugged her granddaughter back. “Now leave me alone, girls,” she said. “I need to rest before we eat.”

Mandie snatched up Snowball, and the girls went through the connecting door to their own room. As they sat down together on Celia's bunk, Mandie put Snowball down, and he played on the bed behind them. Mandie glanced over at the fruit bowl on the little table.

“Look, the bowl is full of fruit again!” she exclaimed. “Why don't we get the steward to take it to Lily and Violet with the note when we send it. I feel so sorry for those people having to travel like that.”

“All right,” Celia agreed. “That would be nice. Do you suppose we could find Charles and ask him to do all this for us?”

Mandie jumped up. “Let's see if he's at the end of the hallway.” She caught hold of her kitten. “And, Mister Snowball, you don't get to go this time. You stay here.” She set him down on the floor.

Carefully closing the door behind them, the girls went looking for Charles. To their surprise, they actually found him sitting on the stool at the little counter, doing some kind of paperwork. He looked up with a smile and greeted them.

Mandie leaned on the counter. “Charles, could we ask you to do us a favor, please?” she asked.

He stood up. “Why yes, ma'am. Anything you ask.”

“You see, there's a place on this ship called the steerage section,” Mandie began.

“Yes, I know, and you young ladies shouldn't ever go down there,” the steward warned. “There are some unsavory characters on that deck.”

“That's why we want you to go for us,” Mandie continued.

Charles looked shocked. “You want
me
to go to the steerage section? For what, miss?”

“There's a tall girl down there named Lily Masterson,” Mandie explained. “She's about sixteen years old, and she has a little sister named Violet—”

“She's about six,” Celia added.

“Right,” Mandie said. “And I would like for you to take a note to them for me.”

“Do you know these people, miss?” Charles asked.

“Yes we do,” Mandie replied. “Would you do it for me?”

The steward hesitated. “If you say so, miss,” he finally agreed. “But, mind you, I'm not positive I can find them. There must be hundreds of passengers down there.”

“I'm sure you can find them,” Mandie assured him. “Just ask someone where the girls are that had visitors from the first-class section this morning.”

“You . . . went down there?” Charles was overwhelmed. “To the steerage?”

“Not on purpose,” Celia quickly explained. “Snowball got lost, and when we chased him we ended up down there.”

“And this little girl, Violet Masterson, had caught Snowball,” Mandie added.

Charles shook his head. “Do you have the note ready?” he asked.

“If you'll just come to our room in a minute or two, I'll have it ready then,” she assured him.

“Right-o,” Charles replied, stacking his papers.

Back in their cabin, Mandie quickly found some stationery, wrote a brief note giving the name of their hotel in London, sealed it in an envelope, and wrote Lily's name on the outside.

When the steward knocked on the door a minute later, the girls asked him to also take their bowl of fruit to the Mastersons, but he protested.

“But we may never even eat it,” Mandie argued. “We get so much to eat in the dining room.”

“And those people don't have enough food,” Celia added.

“All right,” Charles gave in. “But I won't take your fruit. I know where the fruit is kept, and I'll just get some for them.”

“We won't tell anyone. Thanks a lot,” Mandie said.

“It doesn't matter whether you tell anyone or not,” Charles explained. “The fruit will be included in the price of your cabins. You may have
as much as you wish, and I guess it doesn't matter if you wish to give some away.”

“Great!” Mandie exclaimed. “Then will you take some down there to the girls every day?”

The steward hesitated.

“Please?” Celia begged.

Charles looked into her big brown eyes and smiled. “Anything you wish, miss. Now let me be off.”

Mandie handed him the note. “Just in case you don't find the girls, would you please let me know?” she asked.

“Sure, miss. That I will do,” he promised. “Cheerio!”

The girls frowned, puzzled.

“Cheerio?” Mandie questioned.

“Oh, sorry about that,” he apologized. “You're Americans. Cheerio means goodbye in my country,” he said on his way out.

The girls stood at the doorway and waved. “Cheerio!” they called as he vanished around a corner.

Just as Mandie was about to close the door, she spotted the strange woman going into a cabin down the corridor. She gasped. “There she is, Celia!” she whispered loudly.

Celia looked out. “Where?”

Snowball rubbed around Mandie's ankles, and she scooped him up. “She went into a room down there.” She pointed.

“Now we know where she's staying, anyway,” Celia said as Mandie closed the door.

“And we can watch out for her better because we know she's staying in this corridor,” Mandie agreed.

CHAPTER FIVE

STORM ON THE OCEAN

In the middle of the night, a loud crack of thunder woke Mandie. She sat up in bed, her heart pounding. Outside the open porthole, lightning flashed again and again.

Mandie jumped down from her bunk, and Snowball followed. Mandie's legs felt rubbery as the ship lurched first to one side and then to the other. The ship's foghorn blew several times.

She bent down over the lower bunk. “Celia,” she said, shaking her friend. “Wake up. There's a bad storm.”

At that moment, the wind blew a chair across the cabin floor, and Mandie ran to shut the porthole. But the force of the wind was too strong.

“Celia!” she cried. “Come help me!”

Bleary-eyed, Celia stumbled over and helped Mandie get it closed. Then she slid down to the floor and sat there.

Mandie flipped the lamp switch, but the light didn't come on. “Oh, these newfangled lights!” she fussed. “No electricity! If this were a kerosene lamp, I could light it.”

The connecting door opened, and Mrs. Taft stood there holding a lighted oil lamp. She surveyed the room as the lamp cast weird shadows. “Amanda, Celia, are y'all all right?” she asked.

“Yes, Grandmother. We just got the porthole shut,” Mandie replied. “Where did you get that lamp? All we have is this silly one that doesn't use kerosene.”

“This was in my cabin,” Mrs. Taft told her. “Don't you girls want to come in with me until the storm is over?”

“I'm all right,” Mandie said. She glanced over at her friend, who was still sitting on the floor. “What about you, Celia?”

A loud crack of thunder sent Celia scrambling to Mandie's side. “I'll be all right,” she said shakily. Turning to Mrs. Taft, she asked, “Do you think this ship is safe in such a bad storm?”

Mrs. Taft hesitated a moment before answering. “Why, Celia, I'm sure this ship has been through dozens of storms.”

The ship swayed and Celia grabbed Mandie's hand. “But we're way out here in the middle of the ocean, and it's too far to swim to shore.”

“Celia, we don't know how to swim anyway,” Mandie said. “Grandmother, don't worry about us. We'll be all right. I'll sleep with Celia. I don't want to get thrown out of the top bunk when the ship sways.”

“Well. . . . If y'all are sure you will be all right, I guess I will go back to bed,” Mrs. Taft said, turning to leave. “I would leave this lamp, but I don't think we ought to leave it burning while we are asleep. It could fall off the table in all this pitching of the ship and set the place on fire. But if you need me, don't bother to knock, just come on in.” She paused in the doorway. “Good night, girls.”

“Good night, Mrs. Taft,” Celia said. The ship lurched again, and she gripped Mandie's hand tighter.

Mrs. Taft almost lost her footing.

“Good night, Grandmother,” Mandie said. “Come on, Celia, let's get back in bed while we can see where we're going.”

Her grandmother held the light high for them to see until they both got into Celia's bunk and pulled the sheet up over their heads. Then she went back to her room and closed the door.

“Celia,” Mandie said in a quivering voice, “we ought to say our verse, don't you think?”

“You're right,” Celia agreed. “Let's say it together.”

Holding each other's hand, the girls quoted their favorite Bible verse, the one that always gave them confidence to get through problems.

“ ‘What time I am afraid I will put my trust in Thee,' ” they said in unison.

Mandie relaxed a little. “Now I feel better,” she said. “God will take care of us.”

“I know,” Celia said. “He always takes care of us.”

Feeling the warmth of God's care and the rocking of the ship, the girls soon drifted back to sleep.

When daylight came, they awakened to a hot, stuffy room with the porthole still closed. But when they looked out, they saw that it was still raining hard. The wind was blowing, but the thunder and lightning were gone.

“Celia,” Mandie suggested, “do you think we could slip out on the deck for a little fresh air? It's hot in here, and if we open that porthole, everything will get blown around.”

Celia hesitated a moment, then said, “Why not? We can just stay five minutes maybe and then come back.”

Mandie walked over to the dressing table drawer and took out her watch. “My goodness,” she said. “It's only five minutes till six. I don't understand how we woke up so early after being up last night during that storm.”

“The alarm clocks in our heads probably thought we were back home and had to get up for school.” Celia laughed. “I sure hope we don't have any more storms like that one last night.”

At that moment the ship lurched a little but nothing like it had the night before. Celia grabbed the post to her bunk bed.

Mandie laughed. “This ship is going to do that as long as the wind blows,” she said. “Let's get dressed and go out before Grandmother wakes up.”

As the ship continued to tilt from side to side, the girls managed to get dressed. Mandie carried Snowball with her and Celia led the way out into the corridor. They had to hold onto the handrail along the wall as they headed out to the deck.

When they pushed through the outside door, the wind blew their capes and their skirts. In an effort to hold her clothes down, Mandie released her kitten, but he seemed too frightened of the wind and rain to run off. He stayed close around her ankles.

Rain pelted their faces, and the wind was so strong that they could hardly walk. They hadn't gone more than a few feet when Celia stopped
her friend. “Mandie, don't you think we ought to go back inside? This is terrible,” she yelled above the roar of the wind and the waves beating against the ship.

Mandie shook her head. “Not yet,” she yelled back, reaching up to hold the hood on her cape over her head.