The Mandie Collection (15 page)

John Shaw quickly handed him the axe and said, “Thank you, Joe.” Looking at Lindall Guyer, he said, “If you don’t mind, I’d appreciate your staying here to see they get it down and back to the house all right.”

“Of course, John, I’ll be glad to,” Lindall Guyer replied. “Now, boys, let’s make a quick job of this.”

John Shaw quickly disappeared through the trees to join Uncle Ned and to investigate the yelling they had heard.

“Yes, please hurry, Joe, so we can get back to the house and find out what is going on,” Mandie urged.

“I’ll have it down in no time,” Joe promised.

The tree began to topple and everyone stayed out of the way until it was far enough down, lying on other branches, that they pulled it free. And then the boys shouldered it and they began their way back to the house.

By the time they got to the back door, Mandie saw that the riders were Mr. Jacob Smith and Riley O’Neal.

“What’s happening?” she anxiously asked as John Shaw and Uncle Ned stood talking to the two men.

“House on fire,” Riley O’Neal told her.

“Where?” all the young people asked at once.

The boys dragged the tree up onto the huge porch out of the falling snow and came back to listen.

“Over the mountain,” Jacob Smith told the group.

“Just let me tell Elizabeth where I’m going and I’ll be ready to go,” John Shaw told the men.

“And I go, too,” Uncle Ned added.

Everyone went in the back door and on down the hallway to the parlor. Elizabeth immediately stood up as she saw the new visitors. “Welcome,” she said.

John Shaw quickly told her and the others in the parlor, Dr. and Mrs. Woodard, Senator Morton, Mrs. Taft, Morning Star, and Jane Hamilton the news.

Dr. Woodard insisted on going with them. “After all, I am a doctor and might be needed,” he said.

“Senator Morton, would you please stay here with the ladies? I have no idea how long we’ll be gone,” John Shaw said, and turning to look at the boys, he said, “No, you cannot go. You fellows need to stay here with the ladies . . .”

The men, John Shaw, Uncle Ned, Dr. Woodard, Lindall Guyer, Riley O’Neal, and Jacob Smith quickly left.

Mandie and her friends began removing their coats and hanging them on the hall tree. They went back into the parlor to sit down.

“Someone’s house is burning up, right here at Christmas,” Mandie said with a frown. “I just hope no one is hurt in the fire.”

“Yes, they were in and out in such a hurry we didn’t really find out much,” Celia added.

“I would imagine there was no one in the house or Riley and Mr. Smith would have stopped long enough to try to rescue them,” Joe said.

“We at least got the tree,” Jonathan said. “And the mistletoe.”

Liza came to the doorway to announce, “Miz Lizbeth, Aunt Lou, she say de food be on de table.”

“Thank you, Liza,” Elizabeth Shaw said, rising. “We should go on in and eat. It may be hours before the men are back.”

Everyone agreed and they all went to the dining room where the table was loaded with food. But Mandie noticed that no one seemed to have an appetite at the moment.

Senator Morton returned thanks and said a prayer for whomever the house belonged to. The others joined him.

Mandie and her friends didn’t even discuss the Christmas tree. They talked about the terrible disaster that had befallen someone on this snowy night.

Supper was slow as everyone waited for the men to return from the fire. Mandie and her friends kept watching the door.

Finally Liza stuck her head in the doorway and told Elizabeth Shaw, “Dem thangs whut you hang on de Christmas tree all down from de attic, sittin’ in de hallway.”

“Thank you, Liza,” Elizabeth Shaw replied as the girl left. Then looking down the table at Mandie, Elizabeth said, “I believe we should go ahead and decorate the tree when everyone is finished with supper here. Abraham can bring it in and set it up in the hallway for us.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mandie said, trying to get excited about the tree again. She looked down the table and saw Mollie, who was sitting beside Aunt Rebecca, about half asleep. “Should we include Mollie in our decorating or let her go on to bed?”

Elizabeth glanced at Mollie and said, “Rebecca, I believe Mollie needs to go to bed, don’t you think? That long journey has worn her out. I don’t believe she has even eaten much supper.”

“You’re right,” Aunt Rebecca replied. “I’ll take her upstairs and tuck her in for the night.”

Everyone rose and left the room. Rebecca managed to get Mollie up the stairs with help from Joe and Jonathan. Mandie, Celia, and Sallie opened the boxes of decorations in the hall. Elizabeth went to the kitchen to ask for Abraham’s help in getting the tree inside.

And after much huffing and puffing, Abraham managed, with the help of the boys, to get the tree standing in the hall, ready for decorating. The adults watched and supervised now and then as the young people decorated the huge tree.

“Some of these decorations are older than I am,” Mandie told her friends as she picked up a wooden cross with a red ribbon threaded through it and found a branch to hang it on.

“Y’all have so many decorations,” Celia remarked as she looked at the boxes sitting around the hallway.

“Yes, and of course we never use them all. We just pick and choose every year,” Mandie replied.

Joe and Jonathan volunteered to climb up on a ladder and attach the silver angel to the top of the tree. Dimar held the ladder since it was a little shaky.

“This ladder needs tightening up or something,” Jonathan remarked as he stood on a rung halfway up.

“That’s because it’s old and so many heavy people have used it,” Mandie said, standing back to survey the ornament at the top.

“Did y’all put up a tree in your house in New York?” Mandie asked Jonathan.

“Yes, we did,” Jonathan said, coming down the ladder. “My father has so many business friends coming and going all the time, he decided to decorate even though we won’t be there for Christmas Day.”

Joe followed him down. “We did, too, because all our people who work for us will be there during Christmas,” he said.

“Well, we didn’t even put a tree up, just a huge wreath on the front door,” Celia said. “All the help have been given the holidays off, so there is no one there.”

“Grandmother put up a tree last week, but I didn’t help decorate because I had to stay at the school until we left for home here,” Mandie said.

“Dimar got us a tree and helped put it up, then everyone went up to his house to help put up one for his mother,” Sallie said.

“And Sallie and I put one up for the Cherokee school,” Dimar said, picking up one of the wooden ornaments and examining it.

“So everybody has a tree except my mother and me,” Celia remarked, handing a silvery ornament to Joe to hang near the top of the tree.

Mandie glanced through the open doorway to the parlor. The adults had finally gone in there to sit down. “I wish Uncle John and the others would hurry up and come on back,” she said.

At that moment Snowball came racing down the hall and headed straight for the ornaments hanging on the lower limbs of the tree. Mandie quickly grabbed him. “Don’t you dare touch anything on that tree, Snowball,” Mandie told the white cat.

Liza hurried toward her. “Sorry, dat cat he got out of de kitchen,” she said. “Give me him and I take him back.” She reached for him.

“Thank you, Liza,” Mandie said, handing over the white cat. “Please keep him out of here until we at least finish decorating. I don’t think he’ll bother the tree after we finish and no one is hanging ornaments. He always thinks we are playing with him when we decorate.”

“I sho will keep him in de kitchen,” Liza said, turning back toward the kitchen. She stopped and looked back as she said, “De men done come up in de yard out dere. Dey all back.”

“They’ll come through the hallway here,” Mandie told her friends. “Then we can catch them and find out what happened at the fire.” She stepped over to the doorway of the parlor, looked across the room at her mother, and said, “Liza said the men are back, Mother.”

“Ask your uncle John to stop in here as he comes through,” Elizabeth told her.

“Yes, ma’am,” Mandie replied, and went back to her friends.

The young people kept watching the hall door and finally John Shaw, Uncle Ned, Lindall Guyer, Jacob Smith, Riley O’Neal, and Dr. Woodard came through it. They were all dirty and rumpled.

“Uncle John, did y’all save the house?” Mandie quickly asked.

“No, it was too far gone, but we did manage to save the occupants,” John Shaw replied as he and the men walked on toward the parlor.

“Who was in it, Mr. Shaw?” Jonathan asked.

John Shaw turned back with a big smile and said, “We brought the occupants home with us. Abraham took them to his house in the backyard.” He walked on.

The young people followed.

“They are at Abraham’s house?” Mandie repeated, slightly puzzled with this. Why didn’t he bring them to the Shaws’ house?

John Shaw stopped at the parlor door, looked inside, and said, “We just wanted y’all to know we got back all right and we need to clean up and will be right back down.”

“All right, I’ll ask Aunt Lou to get y’all some supper ready,” Elizabeth said, rising.

“She saw us come in,” John Shaw said, turning into the hallway. He and the other men quickly went down the hall and up the main staircase to their rooms.

The young people looked at each other and said, “Well!”

“Shall we go out to Abraham’s house and see who it was that they brought back with them?” Jonathan asked with a big grin.

Mandie thought about that for a second and replied, “No, I don’t believe we had better do that. We might get in trouble. We’ll just have to wait for them to come back downstairs so we can ask some more questions.”

They quickly finished decorating the tree, picked up the odds and ends left over, and placed them in the boxes. Abraham would take them back to the attic when he had time.

The young people hung around the parlor doorway, waiting for the men to return.

Mandie heard her mother say, “Now, I wonder just who was living in the house.”

“If Abraham took them to his house, they must have been some servants of some kind,” Mrs. Taft said. “Otherwise John would have brought them here.”

“This is a puzzling situation,” Jane Hamilton said.

“I’m sure he has a good explanation for his actions,” Senator Morton told the ladies.

“At least they didn’t say anything about anyone being injured in the fire,” Mrs. Woodard said.

Mandie whispered to her friends, “I have an idea. Let’s go ask Aunt Lou if she knows anything about this. We can do it real fast and be back by the time Uncle John and the other men come back downstairs.”

“All right,” Jonathan agreed.

Mandie started down the long hallway toward the kitchen door and all her friends followed. Pushing open the door they stepped into the kitchen at the same time Abraham came in the back door. He was carrying a large basket.

Aunt Lou looked at him and said, “Put dat behind de stove for right now.” She turned and saw the young people. “Now y’all git out of my kitchen. Gotta git supper on de table fo’ de men.” She shook her big white apron at them.

Mandie watched as Abraham set the basket behind the stove, and suddenly Snowball came running across the room making a loud purring noise and headed straight for the basket.

Abraham stood back and watched Snowball. “He’s a boy and dis heah cat she’s a girl.” He laughed. “I cleaned dem up best I could.”

Mandie ran across the room to look in the basket. There was a large black cat lying in it with two tiny kittens. “Look!” she excitedly told her friends. “It’s a mother cat and two kittens!” She quickly picked up Snowball, not knowing whether he intended fighting the other cat. Snowball squirmed to get down, but Mandie held him tight.

The other young people quickly came to look in the basket.

“Oh, so these were the occupants of that house that burned down,” Jonathan said with a laugh.

“Mandie, suppose Snowball is jealous of the cat,” Celia said.

“I’ll have to watch him and see,” Mandie said.

“I don’t think he will be,” Joe said. “As Abraham just said he’s a boy and that black cat is a girl.” He smiled at the other young people.

“Aunt Lou, are you going to keep those cats in the kitchen here?” Mandie asked.

“No, my chile, jes’ long enough to feed and den dey git put in de back storage room. Since dis is a strange cat maybe you’d better keep Snowball out of heah until I git finished with de mama and her kittens.”

“All right, Aunt Lou, I’ll take Snowball with me to the parlor,” Mandie replied.

The young people hurried to the parlor and got to the doorway just as the men came back down the hall. She put Snowball down and he rushed over to the hearth and curled up by the fire to sleep.

“Oh, Uncle John, was that mama cat and her babies living alone in that house? Who was feeding them?” Mandie quickly asked as she followed him into the parlor.

The women in the room heard that question and they listened as John Shaw replied, “Yes, the house was empty and practically falling in. The cat and her kittens were in the attic,” John Shaw explained.

“I’m so glad no one was in the house,” Elizabeth Shaw said. “John, Aunt Lou has supper ready for you and the men.”

“Why don’t you ladies come join us for coffee?” John Shaw asked.

Elizabeth looked at the others and they all agreed.

Mandie left Snowball in the parlor and she and her friends followed the adults into the dining room and found Liza putting chocolate cake and coffee on the table for them. They ate and listened as John Shaw explained what they had done at the old house.

“It was burning fast and we determined it was not occupied, so we were standing by, waiting for it to fall so we could put out the fire. Then we heard a cat crying, and Uncle Ned determined that it was inside the house,” John Shaw explained as he ate his supper.

“It came out on the tin roof of the porch meowing something awful,” Jacob Smith said.

“So Uncle Ned decided he was going to rescue it,” Lindall Guyer said. “He managed to get up on the porch roof, but the cat went back inside the window.”

“And of course Uncle Ned followed it and came out in a couple of minutes holding the two baby kittens. The cat followed,” Dr. Woodard added.

“Oh, thank you, Uncle Ned, for saving the mama cat and her babies,” Mandie said from down the table as she looked at the old man eating his supper.

The old Indian smiled at her and said, “Now you have two cats.”

Mandie quickly looked at Uncle John and asked, “Are we going to keep the cat and the kittens?”

Uncle John smiled at her and said, “Unless we find someplace to put them, we’ll have to.”

Celia smiled at Mandie and said, “I wonder what Mollie will think of the black cat and her kittens.”

“Since she’s already in bed for the night, we won’t find out until tomorrow morning,” Mandie replied.

The men were talking and Mandie heard Jacob Smith say to John Shaw, “I might be able to take the cat if you don’t really want it. The last one I had has disappeared and you know they are good to keep the rats out of the barn.”

“That would be fine if you care to take the cat,” John Shaw replied.

“Don’t you think you ought to wait until the kittens are a little older before you move them?” Dr. Woodard asked. “I suppose they will be kept in the house here until they are big enough to go outside. Otherwise something might happen to them.”

“Yes, you’re right. I am away a lot and it would be better if I wait awhile.” He looked at John Shaw and added, “If that’s all right with you.”

“Yes, of course. They’ll be old enough to be up and about in a few weeks,” John said.

Mandie was thinking she would love to keep the cat and the kittens, but she knew it was impossible. She would be going back to school after the holidays and sometimes it was a job getting Snowball taken care of. Then after she graduated in the spring she was hoping to go to Europe with her grandmother and friends. She decided to ask the question right here and now.

“Grandmother,” Mandie said, clearing her throat as she looked up the table at her grandmother, who immediately put down her coffee cup and looked at Mandie. “Grandmother, do you have plans made yet for the summer, that is, after I graduate in May?”

Mrs. Taft took a deep breath and replied, “That all depends on a lot of things, Amanda.”

Mandie waited, thinking Mrs. Taft would go on and explain, but she just picked up her cup and sipped her coffee.

Then Lindall Guyer came to Mandie’s rescue. He looked down the table at her and said, “I’ve been waiting for a chance to ask you, Miss Amanda. I would like to invite you and all your friends to come stay with us in New York for the summer. There is so much to do in New York and I believe you would enjoy it.”

Mandie was surprised by this invitation. She quickly looked at her grandmother, who was still drinking coffee, then glanced at her friends, all of whom also looked surprised, even Jonathan, and she replied, “This is so sudden, Mr. Guyer. May I let you know later? There is so much I’d like to do this coming summer.”

“Of course, let me know later, Miss Amanda,” Lindall Guyer replied, and looking down the table at the other young people, he added, “And you other young people, you don’t have to wait for Miss Amanda to decide. You are all welcome any time, whether she comes or not.”