“We’ve got to get our books, Mandie,” Celia reminded her.
“Yes,” Mandie agreed.
Mandie and Celia were in classes all afternoon and had to hurry to their room to get back down in time for supper. Everyone else was already in line. She saw April and Polly together ahead of her, but there was no sign of the twins.
“The twins aren’t here,” Mandie whispered to Celia.
Celia looked ahead up the line and agreed, “I don’t see them.”
After supper, when Mandie and Celia returned to their room, they again found their things on the bureau moved about.
Mandie blew out her breath and said, “I’m going to catch whoever is doing this.”
“Yes,” Celia agreed.
Mandie rushed over to the wardrobe and looked inside. Nothing seemed to be disturbed in it.
After that, almost every time they left their room they would come back and find things on the bureau rearranged.
Finally one night after supper Mandie stomped her foot and said, “I think I’m going to speak to Miss Prudence about this.” She put her things back in place.
“Yes, it’s time to do that,” Celia agreed.
They found Miss Prudence in her office. The lady looked up from her desk and invited them in.
“Come in, young ladies, and have a seat,” Miss Prudence said. Mandie and Celia sat in the straight chairs.
“What can I do for you now?” Miss Prudence asked.
“I hate to bother you with this, Miss Prudence, but it has been going on a long time now,” Mandie began. “You see, almost every time we leave our room, someone comes in and rearranges everything we have on the bureau.”
“Rearranges things on the bureau?” Miss Prudence repeated. “Please explain.”
Mandie told her everything she could think of about the situation. “So far we aren’t missing anything,” Mandie said.
“They seem to be doing this for aggravation,” Celia added.
“Do you have any ideas as to whom this might be?” Miss Prudence asked.
Both girls shook their heads.
“We left our graduation dresses at my grandmother’s because of this. We were afraid someone would do something to them,” Mandie said. “And we were wondering if you have a key to the wardrobe in our room that we could use to lock it up.”
“Yes, I do have keys to just about everything in this school,” Miss Prudence replied. “But we need to get to the bottom of this problem.”
“It seems impossible to catch whoever is doing this,” Mandie said.
“I’ll have Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Cal check on your room now and then,” Miss Prudence said. “Sooner or later they are bound to see someone going in and out of your room,” Miss Prudence said. She got up and opened a drawer in a cabinet behind her desk. “In the meantime I’ll let you have the key to your wardrobe and you can at least keep that locked.”
“Oh, thank you, Miss Prudence,” Mandie said.
Miss Prudence handed Mandie a key and said, “Now please don’t lose this, but keep the wardrobe locked from now on so no one can get in it. In the meantime maybe we’ll catch whoever is going into your room.”
“Thank you, Miss Prudence,” Mandie said as she and Celia left the office.
“At last we can lock the wardrobe,” Celia said.
“And when we bring our graduation dresses over here we can lock them up,” Mandie said with a smile.
As the days passed, someone kept moving things about on their bureau and no one was able to catch them. However, Mandie and Celia kept the wardrobe locked. Finally it was the week before graduation. Mandie decided it was time to bring their dresses to the school.
“Since we will have to fold them and put them in a bag so no one can see them, we will have to ask Aunt Phoebe to press them for us,” Mandie said as she took down her dress from the wardrobe in Mrs. Taft’s house.
“Yes, they will get wrinkled,” Celia agreed.
The girls borrowed a large travel bag from Mrs. Taft, put the dresses inside, and had Ben bring them to the school.
Uncle Cal took the bag from Ben when he brought it and the girls followed him up to their room.
“Uncle Cal, would you please tell Aunt Phoebe we’ll need our dresses pressed that are in that bag? We’ll just hang them in the wardrobe until she gets time,” Mandie said.
“I sho’ will,” the old man promised as they climbed the stairs.
Mandie and Celia’s room was isolated from the other rooms. It was at the top of the stairs by itself. As they went up the last flight, Mandie looked up ahead and saw April Snow hurrying down toward them. These steps only led to Mandie and Celia’s room.
Mandie quickly stepped in front of April as they met on the stairs. “What have you been doing in our room?” she demanded.
April frowned at her and said, “I was not in your room. I knocked on the door and no one answered, so I came back down the steps.”
Uncle Cal had stepped back and was watching the girls.
“Just what were you knocking on our door for?” Mandie asked.
“I—I—just—wanted to ask you something,” April stuttered out.
“What did you want to ask us?” Celia said to her.
“It was nothing important,” April said, and she quickly darted around Mandie and hurried on down the staircase.
“She is probably the one who has been moving things on our bureau,” Mandie said as they continued up the steps.
When the girls went into their room and Uncle Cal brought in the bag, they quickly went over to the bureau to look.
“Nothing has been moved,” Mandie said.
Uncle Cal set the bag down and said, “I’ll tell Phoebe you need some pressing done.” He went out the door.
“Thank you, Uncle Cal,” Mandie called after him.
The girls looked around the room. Nothing seemed disturbed.
“If she came in here, she didn’t bother anything. Maybe she heard us coming,” Mandie said.
Aunt Phoebe came to their room, got the graduation dresses in the bag, and took them downstairs to press. “I be sure nobody sees dese dresses,” she promised the girls. “Be right back.”
All the other girls were in classes and Mandie and Celia waited for Aunt Phoebe to return the dresses so they could lock them up in the wardrobe.
Aunt Phoebe was back in a short time. She carried the dresses over her arm and had them covered with a sheet. She helped put them on hangers and place them in the wardrobe.
Mandie took the key out of her pocket and said, “I’m locking the door now . . .” She put the key in the lock and turned it, and then returned the key to her pocket.
“They ought to be safe till you girls graduate,” the old woman said.
“Whew!” Mandie exclaimed as she sat in one of the big chairs. “I’ll be glad when everything is over and we can get away from here.”
The days seemed to pass slowly because the girls were eager to get graduation over with. Then finally everyone arrived at Mrs. Taft’s house to attend the ceremonies—Uncle Ned, Morning Star and Sallie, Riley O’Neal, Dimar, Dr. and Mrs. Woodard and Joe, Elizabeth and John Shaw, Mr. Jacob Smith, Celia’s mother, Aunt Rebecca and Mollie, and other friends and relatives.
With all these people arriving, Mandie and Celia thought about other friends.
“You never did get a reply from Lily Masterson, did you, Mandie?” Celia asked.
Mandie took a deep breath of surprise and said, “No, I didn’t, and I had plumb forgotten about sending her that note with so much else going on. I wonder why she didn’t reply.”
“Maybe she’s on a long journey somewhere and hasn’t received your letter yet,” Celia suggested.
“Well, I hope I hear from her sometime,” Mandie said. She happened to glance across the room at the wardrobe. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She quickly jumped up to run to it. The door was open. “Celia!”
Celia quickly followed. They pushed the door the rest of the way op
en and searched for their graduation dresses. Celia’s was there but Mandie’s was missing.
“Oh no!” Mandie exclaimed, tears flooding her blue eyes as she collapsed on the floor.
“I’m going to get Miss Prudence,” Celia said, and went out the door before Mandie could protest.
She came right back with the lady, who was clearly upset.
“What is going on, young ladies?” Miss Prudence asked as she looked at Mandie sitting on the floor.
“Someone has unlocked the wardrobe, but I have the key. How could they?” Mandie wailed. “My dress is gone.”
“Oh dear, oh dear,” Miss Prudence exclaimed as she rushed to look inside the wardrobe.
Aunt Phoebe stuck her head in the door. “I heard all de commotion, Miz Prudence. Somethin’ wrong?”
Miss Prudence explained. “We need to search every room in this house immediately,” Miss Prudence added. “Get Uncle Cal and Miss Hope.”
With one of the teachers standing guard at the staircase so no one could go up or down without being seen, Miss Prudence led the search. They went into all the girls’ rooms, examined their wardrobes, which were all unlocked, and found nothing.
Finally Miss Prudence and the others gathered at the top of the main staircase where they could talk.
“I’m sorry, Amanda, but your dress seems to have completely left this house,” Miss Prudence told her.
Mandie had been crying and she said, “I’m going to my room to wash my face, Miss Prudence.”
“I’ll go with you,” Celia said.
“We will remain here until you return,” Miss Prudence replied.
When Mandie pushed open the door to her room she couldn’t believe what she saw. Her graduation dress was spread out on the bed.
“Celia, this is crazy,” she exclaimed, going to touch the dress.
“I’m going to get Miss Prudence. I’ll be right back,” Celia said, going out the door.
“I’m going in the bathroom to wash my face,” Mandie told her.
As Mandie started toward the door on the other side of the room, she heard someone sneeze. She froze in her tracks and looked around. There was no one in sight. She held her breath, waiting to see if someone was coming into the room. Then she noticed the bed skirt moving. She raced across the room, jerked up the bed skirt, and came face-to-face with April Snow, who was quickly scrambling out from under the bed.
And at that moment, Miss Prudence appeared in the doorway, followed by Celia, Aunt Phoebe, and Uncle Cal.
The schoolmistress stood there in shock as she saw April Snow crawl out from under the bed and stand up.
“Just what do you think you are doing?” Miss Prudence actually screamed at the girl.
“My dress,” Mandie quickly told Miss Prudence and pointed to it on the bed. “She had my dress.”
“The wardrobe was locked. How did you get it out?” Miss Prudence asked.
April Snow, with a smirk on her face, pulled a key out of her pocket, held it up, and said, “The key to my wardrobe. All the wardrobes have the same lock.”
“April Snow, you are expelled from this school here and now. Go to your room until your parents can come and get you,” Miss Prudence told her.
April circled around everyone and edged out of the door backward without a word.
“I’m sorry, Amanda,” Miss Prudence told her.
“That’s all right, Miss Prudence. It wasn’t your fault.” Mandie replied.
After that incident things got back to normal at the school, and the next week the graduation was held without a hitch.
Mandie, dressed in her beautiful dress that Aunt Lou had made, floated up to the podium to receive that piece of paper that said she had graduated, with honors, from the Misses Heathwood’s School for Girls.
There was a roaring applause as her friends and relatives clapped and congratulated her.
Joe Woodard was the first to reach Mandie as the ceremony ended. “You know, Amanda Elizabeth Shaw, I’m right proud of you,” he teased with a big grin.
“No prouder than I am,” Elizabeth Shaw was close behind him.
Then Mandie turned and saw Uncle Ned standing at the edge of the crowd. She quickly hugged her mother and ran to the old Indian.
Uncle Ned reached for her hand, squeezed it, and said, “Jim Shaw in Happy Hunting Ground proud of you, Papoose.”
Mandie tiptoed and kissed his old leathery cheek. “I’m proud to have you for my friend, Uncle Ned.”
Mrs. Taft held a large dinner party that night and Mandie celebrated with all her friends.
Afterward Mrs. Taft caught her long enough to say, “Now we must get ready for our trip to Europe. That will put the topping on this great event today. I’m proud of you, dear, and I love you.” She quickly gave Mandie a squeeze and moved on among her guests.
Mandie was so excited she knew she wouldn’t sleep a wink that night.
CHAPTER TWELVE
FULL CIRCLE
After much discussion with Mandie’s grandmother, mother, and Uncle John, it was decided that Mandie would go home with her mother and uncle for a few days and would come back to her grandmother’s house with them the first of June, when they would be traveling to New York.
Celia, her mother, and her aunt said good-bye, with plans to meet them in New York.
“Everyone is on their own to arrive in New York at Lindall Guyer’s house in time to sail on Sunday, June the fifth,” Mrs. Taft informed the whole crowd of people at her house.
“We’ll be there,” Dr. Woodard said.
“So will we,” Jane Hamilton added.
“And, Mother, Mandie will be coming back with John and me to your house to travel on the train with you to New York,” Elizabeth Shaw said.
“Everyone, thank you for everything,” Mandie said at the top of her voice in order to be heard over the din of many voices as everyone stood at Mrs. Taft’s front door, ready to leave.
Mandie looked at her friend Celia and said, “I suppose it was April Snow moving our things on the bureau, don’t you think?” Mandie said.
“Yes, I believe it was her, but thank goodness we are finished with that school and all its mysteries,” Celia said. “Mandie, please, let’s not go looking for any mysteries at the College of Charleston.”
“But Celia, I don’t go looking for mysteries. They come looking for me,” Mandie said with a laugh.
“Everyone who believes that, stand on his head,” Joe said with a loud laugh behind them.
“Joe Woodard, I’m not going to speak to you on the train all the way to Franklin if you’re going to talk that way,” Mandie said with a frown, pretending to be serious.
“Well, since you girls are going to Charleston, and that’s a long way from where I go in New Orleans, I won’t have to worry about getting involved,” Joe continued teasing.
“Amanda,” Elizabeth Shaw called to her. “We’re ready to go to the depot.”
“I sure don’t want to be left,” Joe said, quickly following the crowd out the door.
In Franklin the Shaws went to their house and Dr. Woodard, his wife, and Joe traveled by the buggy they had left there, over the mountain to their home at Charley Gap.
When everyone had gone their way, Mandie felt lost. She went to her room, lay down across the bed, and began talking to Snowball, who somehow managed to sleep in the middle of it all the time.
“Snowball, I feel lost,” she said as tears came into her blue eyes. “I don’t like changes. Now I have to go make new friends at school in a strange place.” She rolled over on her back, looked up at the ceiling, and said, “Oh, Daddy, how I wish you were here. I love you.” She broke into sobs, and it was a long time before she finally sat up and went to wash her face. She had made a very important decision and she had to talk to her mother and Uncle John.
She found them in the parlor. Going straight across the room to her mother, she sat down on a footstool between her mother and John Shaw’s chair.
“Mother, I wan
t to go to see my father,” she said in a shaky voice.
“What?” Elizabeth said in surprise.
“I think I know what you mean, Amanda,” John Shaw said.
“All this graduation celebration should have included him,” Mandie said in a shaky voice. “But on the other hand, if he had lived I would not have been going to Miss Prudence’s school.”
“I understand, Amanda,” Elizabeth said, reaching to hold her hand. “You want to visit Charley Gap.”
“Yes, Mother, I want to go before we sail to Europe,” Mandie replied.
“Then we will go,” John Shaw said. “Suppose we leave early in the morning. We can stay with the Woodards. They’ll be home.”
Mandie nodded. She didn’t trust her voice not to break. She swallowed hard and whispered, “Thank you.”
———
Mandie was ready before daylight the next morning. She came downstairs and found Aunt Lou and Liza already in the kitchen preparing breakfast. John and Elizabeth came into the room right after her and they all sat in the kitchen and had their morning meal.
Aunt Lou kept glancing at Mandie and finally she put her hands on her broad hips and said, “I sho’ is proud of my chile. In all dis heah time of celebration she don’t forgit her papa. Jes’ don’t stay too long at Charley Gap ’cause we’se got to git dem clothes ready for dat trip on dat big boat, you heah?”
Mandie jumped up and hugged the old woman. “I love you, Aunt Lou,” she said.
“Now let me git some food ready for dat trip over de mountain,” the old woman said.
When they left it was barely daylight because the sun was hidden by the mountain. Mandie held Snowball in her lap where she sat in the back of the wagon.
Much later, when they arrived at the Woodards’ house, they found all of them at home. And Dr. and Mrs. Woodard were surprised to see them.
“This is a nice surprise,” Dr. Woodard told them as he came outside when the wagon came to a stop at the back door.
But Joe was not surprised. He was right behind his father, and he helped Mandie jump down from the wagon as she held on to Snowball. He held her hand for a long moment and looked into her blue eyes. “This is not a surprise to me. I knew you would want to come home to Charley Gap before we sail,” he said.
The Mandie Collection Page 24