The Mandie Collection

by Lois Gladys Leppard

  “Yes, that could mean trouble for that cat,” Jonathan agreed as they went on into the parlor.

  Although they had searched the parlor first, all of the young people quickly looked again behind and under all the furniture.

  Dimar walked over to the window to look out. “I do not believe it has snowed much more since last night,” he said.

  The others came to join him.

  “There’s not much out there after all,” Mandie said.

  “We won’t have any problem getting to church this morning,” Celia remarked.

  “Not enough to build a snowman,” Jonathan told them.

  “It would melt right down anyway because it’s not cold enough to stay,” Joe agreed.

  Sallie pushed back the curtain a little to see out. She quickly jumped back. “The cat is there!” she told the others, pointing behind the curtain on the wide windowsill.

  “Please help me see that it doesn’t get away,” Mandie said, slowly approaching the window. She eased back the curtain and the mama cat sat up and meowed. “Nice girl, I’m going to pick you up and take you back to your bed.” She reached for the cat but the cat jumped down and ran across the parlor to the door. “Well, at least the kitten is still here,” Mandie said, picking up the tiny cat.

  They followed the cat down the hallway as it headed straight for the kitchen. Mandie pushed open the door and let it into the room. It began meowing loudly and Aunt Lou looked at it and said, “Dat cat hungry. Liza, git some food down by de woodbox for it, quick like.”

  Liza fed the cat and Mandie put the kitten in the woodbox with the other kitten. She laughed and looked at her friends. “Well, we at least solved that mystery.”

  “Oh, but Mandie, we have an unsolved mystery,” Joe teased her. “Where is Snowball?”

  Everyone looked around the room. Mandie said, “We let him out of our room, but I don’t remember seeing where he went.”

  “This cat business could take up the whole day,” Jonathan teased.

  So the search began for Snowball. Every nook and cranny in the big house was searched as the young people quickly spread out through the rooms. But Snowball was nowhere to be found.

  The adults came down for breakfast and sat in the parlor waiting for the call to the dining room. Mandie and her friends were already sitting together in one corner discussing what they should do next to look for the missing cat.

  “Maybe some of the grown-ups have seen Snowball,” Celia suggested.

  “Yes, we should ask,” Sallie agreed.

  Mandie looked across the room and waited until her mother seemed to have finished a conversation with the others. Then she stood up and said, “Mother, we can’t find Snowball. He seems to have disappeared. Have any of y’all seen him this morning?”

  The adults quickly looked at each other and shook their heads.

  “No, I haven’t, Amanda, and I don’t think anyone here has,” Elizabeth Shaw replied. “Have you looked in all the rooms?”

  “Yes, ma’am, except the adults’ rooms, of course,” Mandie replied. She told her mother about finding the cat with the kitten in her bed, and all the grown-ups laughed.

  Mandie looked at her friends and frowned. She didn’t think it was funny, so she sat back down and turned her attention to Joe. “Do you think Snowball could have gone outside? Remember when we lived at Charley Gap how he always darted out the door every time it was opened?”

  “Yes, why don’t we go look around outside?” Joe replied. “If he did go outside I don’t think he’ll stay long because it’s cold out there.” He stood up.

  “Amanda, put on your coat and hat if you’re going outside,” Elizabeth told Mandie.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Mandie said, and turning to her friends she said, “Joe and I will go look around. Y’all don’t have to come with us because we’re only going to be a minute or two.”

  “I hope so,” Jonathan said. “I believe the call to breakfast is due any minute now.”

  All the young people laughed.

  “Jonathan, you are forever thinking about food,” Celia told him.

  “We’ll be right back,” Mandie said, quickly going out into the hall to get her coat and hat from the hall tree and put them on.

  Joe did the same and hurried to open the front door.

  “It is cold out here,” Mandie said, shrugging her shoulders in the cold frosty air.

  Joe glanced up at the sky and said, “Probably more snow is on the way.”

  “That’s fine as long as we can get to church and back before it gets too bad to travel,” Mandie replied. “Let’s walk around the house. If he is out here he’s probably sitting at one of the doors and crying to get back inside.”

  They circled the house to the back door with no sign of the cat. Then Mandie spotted him sitting on the outside of a window looking into the kitchen.

  “There he is,” she exclaimed and went toward him.

  Snowball immediately jumped down and hurried to meet her, loudly purring as he approached.

  Mandie stooped down to talk to him. “I’m not picking you up because you are bound to be wet in all this snow. Therefore you will have to walk with me to the back door.”

  Snowball looked up at her and loudly meowed. She and Joe went on to the back door and Snowball quickly followed and almost tripped Mandie when she opened the door in his haste to get inside.

  Aunt Lou and Liza were in the kitchen, finishing the food for breakfast. Snowball ran over to the stove and sat down to wash his face.

  “I thought dat cat had more sense den to go outside in de snow,” Aunt Lou said.

  “I thought I saw him run out when Abraham brought de wood fo’ de cookstove,” Liza said.

  “Maybe he’ll stay inside now that he’s found out how cold it is out there,” Mandie said, removing her coat and hat.

  Joe also took off his coat and hat. “I suppose y’all put the mother cat and the kittens back in the storage room?” he asked.

  “Yes sirree, can’t have dem strange cats cluttering up my kitchen. Dis heah kitchen belongs to Snowball,” Aunt Lou said. “Now y’all git back in de parlor ’cause we’se ready to announce breakfast.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Mandie said with a big smile.

  “Den dis afternoon after we all go to church I wants you to try on dat dress so’s I kin hem it, you understand?” Aunt Lou told Mandie.

  “Oh yes, ma’am, Aunt Lou. I know it’s going to be beautiful,” Mandie replied. “Remember all those pretty clothes you made for me when I first came here to live?”

  “I sho’ does. Po’ child didn’t have nuthin’ fittin’ to wear,” Aunt Lou replied. “But right now git out of my kitchen. Shoo!” She fanned her big white apron at Mandie and Joe.

  They both laughed and went back to the parlor to join the others, and to tell them Snowball had been found and was now in the kitchen.

  Aunt Rebecca had joined the group in the parlor and was saying, “So I thought it best if we just keep Mollie in her room.”

  The young people looked alarmed.

  “What has Mollie done to be kept in her room?” Mandie quickly asked.

  “Oh, dear, she hasn’t done anything but come down with a terrible cold,” Aunt Rebecca answered.

  “A cold? Can we help in any way, Aunt Rebecca?” Mandie asked.

  “Yes, what can we do?” Celia added.

  “Nothing, dears, I can take care of her. She’ll be as good as new in a couple of days,” Aunt Rebecca told them.

  “So you are not going to church with us then,” Elizabeth Shaw said.

  “Not today, but I hope she recovers enough to attend the Christmas Eve service. Since this is Sunday and Christmas Eve is not until Thursday, I’m pretty sure she will make it,” Aunt Rebecca replied.

  “And we wanted to show her the kittens,” Mandie said with a sigh.

  “They’ll still be here then,” Joe reminded her.

  “If they don’t get carried around again,” Celia added.

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sp; Liza came to the doorway of the parlor and said, “Miz Lizbeth, de food be on de table.”

  “Thank you, Liza,” Elizabeth Shaw said, rising and looking at the others. “Shall we go eat now?”

  “And then get off to church before it gets worse outside,” Mrs. Taft said.

  Since there were so many guests, Aunt Lou had served breakfast in the dining room rather than the breakfast room. A blazing fire in the huge open fireplace warmed the room, and the odor of freshly baked biscuits and ham filled the air. John Shaw returned thanks and Liza began filling the coffee cups at each plate.

  “Are you going to let us see this dress Aunt Lou has made for your graduation?” Jonathan asked, looking at Mandie across the table.

  “See my graduation dress? No, no, no! No one sees it until I put it on for the graduation exercises,” Mandie replied.

  “That’s strange. What’s so secretive about this?” Joe asked.

  “No one sees anyone else’s dress beforehand,” Mandie explained. “Otherwise someone might see someone else’s dress and decide to go copy it. And Miss Hope finally got Miss Prudence to allow us to have our own different dresses. We don’t have to dress alike for graduation anymore.”

  Jonathan looked at Joe, winked, and asked, “Do you think we could all get different suits for our graduation at the schools we go to?”

  “Nope, too late for me,” Joe said. “I have already graduated from school, remember? And when I graduate from college it will be a cap and gown I’ll have to wear, just like everyone else’s.”

  Sallie turned to Celia and asked, “And do you have a different dress for the graduation, too?”

  Celia nodded and replied, “Yes, mine will be different, also. I don’t have it made yet, but it won’t be like Mandie’s.”

  “Does everyone try to look at everyone else’s dress?” Dimar asked.

  “Yes, if they can find them. We aren’t going to bring our dresses to the school until the last minute and then we will guard them so no one can see them,” Mandie replied. “I hope you and Sallie can come to our graduation in May.”

  Dimar smiled and said, “I will try very hard to do that.”

  “And I will see that my grandfather brings me to the school to the graduation ceremony,” said Sallie. Looking across the table at Riley O’Neal, she said, “This is something we should do for the Cherokee school, have a big graduation day. The children would be happy to do that.”

  “Yes, you are right. We’ll plan something when we get back home,” Riley O’Neal replied.

  Mandie was anxious to see her dress and began wishing the day away until time to do that. She was sure she would have the most beautiful dress in the school because Aunt Lou was the most wonderful seamstress around.

  And gradution day was not so far off.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  UNCERTAIN PLANS

  After the hurried church service, which the minister shortened because of the increasing snow, everyone returned to the Shaws’ house and had a meal that was prepared the day before and warmed up in the warmer of the huge iron cookstove. The leftovers would be their supper.

  Later Mandie and Celia and Sallie went up to Aunt Lou’s sewing room where Mandie’s graduation dress was hanging. The boys were emphatically told they must remain downstairs, and no peeking at this special dress. Joe, Jonathan, and Dimar sat in a corner in the parlor, waiting.

  When Mandie opened the door to the room, Aunt Lou was busy getting pins out of a drawer. Mandie rushed forward to look at the dress.

  “Oh, Aunt Lou, it’s absolutely the most beautiful dress I have ever seen,” Mandie exclaimed.

  “Yes, it is,” Celia agreed.

  “Most beautiful,” Sallie added.

  Mandie carefully inspected the rows of pastel ribbons that were threaded through eyelets in the skirt of the white silk dress, and also through the neckline and the sleeves. Tiny pastel flowers were embroidered around the top and the hemline of the dress. A multicolored sash, made of tiny strands of matching ribbons, hung around the waistline.

  Tears came into Mandie’s blue eyes as she looked up at Aunt Lou. And as the big woman turned to smile at her, Mandie threw her arms around her and began to cry.

  “Now, now, what fo’ my chile cry?” Aunt Lou asked, patting Mandie’s blond head as she held her tight. Taking a large white handkerchief out of her apron pocket, she wiped at Mandie’s tears.

  “Aunt Lou, I love you so much,” Mandie said between sobs as she straightened up and looked up at the old woman. “And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. My dress will be the prettiest of all.”

  Aunt Lou cleared her throat and said, “Not de way it looks right now. My chile got to put it on so I kin measure the hem.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Mandie agreed and began removing the dress she was wearing.

  Once Mandie had the new dress on, she found it was dragging on the floor. She looked down at it, smiled at Aunt Lou, and said, “It does need a hem, a big hem.”

  “I’ll hold the dress up and you just step up right heah on dis chair so I can measure,” the old woman told her, assisting as Mandie stood up on a straight chair.

  Celia and Sallie stood watching and smiling. Then when Aunt Lou had pinned up a hem and Mandie began removing the dress, Celia asked, “Aunt Lou, you embroidered all those little flowers on the dress by hand, didn’t you?”

  Aunt Lou smiled at her and replied, “I sho’ did, only way to git dem on dere.” She hung the dress back on the hanger.

  Mandie buttoned up her dress and asked, “Aunt Lou, when will the dress be finished?”

  “I be busy right now wid all de company and everything, but I’ll have it hemmed and ready for you to take back to school with you when you come home for your spring holidays. Now y’all jes’ git on back down dere to de parlor. Dem boys been waitin’ long enough.” She shooed them out the door with her big white apron.

  The girls laughed as they hurried back down the stairs to the parlor.

  “Well, are you going to at least tell us what it looks like?” Jonathan asked as he and Joe rose when the girls entered the parlor.

  “Of course not,” Mandie said with a quick smile. “Then you would know what it looks like, which is a deep dark secret right now.”

  “Why bother to ask, Jonathan? You know she’s not going to let us know anything about the dress,” Joe told him, grinning as everyone sat down.

  Mandie looked around the room. “Where is everybody?” she asked.

  “Various places,” Jonathan replied. “I believe the men went out to your uncle’s workshop.”

  “And the ladies went to their rooms to rest awhile,” Joe added.

  “I was hoping I could catch Grandmother and try to find out what she has decided about going to Europe,” Mandie said. “Sooner or later I will find out.”

  But during the coming week Mandie could not catch her to ask any questions. Then it was Christmas Eve and everyone prepared to go to the service. Mollie was recovered from her cold and was finally allowed to come downstairs.

  Mollie went straight to Mandie when Aunt Rebecca brought her into the parlor. “Mandie, did you ever find any leprechauns in this house? Did you?” she asked in a loud whisper as she shyly looked at the other young people.

  “No, Mollie, remember I told you before when you came to see me that we don’t have leprechauns here.” Mandie replied, putting an arm around her shoulders as Mollie leaned on Mandie’s lap.

  “But maybe leprechauns came to stay after I was here. Could they not have done that? Maybe a few wee ones?” Mollie asked.

  “No, Mollie, we will never have leprechauns here,” Mandie replied, and then she had a sudden idea and asked, “Would you like to go back and visit Ireland, where you used to live?”

  Mollie quickly straightened up, her eyes wide, and said, “Yes, we must go back to Ireland so I can find a leprechaun. When, Mandie? When can we go?”

  Mandie looked at her friends, grinned, and said, “Why don’t you ask Grandmot
her? She might know when we can go back to Ireland.”

  “Mandie!” Celia exclaimed.

  Joe and Jonathan grinned at her. Sallie and Dimar listened to the conversation.

  “Mandie, that may be a way to find out if we are going to Europe,” Jonathan said in a loud whisper. He glanced at the adults who were sitting on the other side of the huge parlor and carrying on their own conservation.

  Mollie looked at Mrs. Taft, who was talking to Senator Morton, and then quickly looked back at Mandie. “When must I ask Grandmother? When, Mandie?”

  “Anytime you get ready, Mollie.” Mandie replied.

  “Must I ask at this very moment, then?” Mollie asked, uncertain of what she should do.

  “If you want to, Mollie,” Mandie replied.

  Elizabeth Shaw stood up and looked across the room at them. “Amanda, it’s time to get our wraps and go to church,” she said.

  The other adults also rose, hurried out into the hall, retrieved their winter coats and hats from the hall tree, and put them on. Mrs. Taft went with them as Mollie watched.

  “Grandmother is getting ready to leave,” Mollie said.

  “Yes,” Aunt Rebecca said, coming to put Mollie’s coat and hat on. “We are all leaving now.” She led Mollie out into the hall.

  “Oh, shucks!” Mandie said under her breath as she and her friends prepared to go outside.

  “You can always try again,” Jonathan whispered with a big grin.

  “Yes, if and when I can get Mollie in the mood again,” Mandie said as she and her friends followed the adults out the front door.

  Mr. Bond was waiting with the rig, and John Shaw came up behind him in a larger rig that the Shaws very seldom used. But for this occasion with so many visitors, it took two rigs to squeeze them all in. The driveway had been cleared of snow and there was none falling at that time. Although the church was only across the road, down apiece, it was too slippery to walk.

  Mandie watched Mollie now and then as she sat with Aunt Rebecca down the pew from her and her friends. But Mollie didn’t say a word to anyone. She seemed to be interested in the Christmas play that was being performed.