Leppard, Lois Gladys - [Mandie 02]

Mandie and the Cherokee Legend

Lois Gladys Leppard

1. Mandie and the Panther
   
2. Lost in the Cave
   
3. Captured in the Dark
   
4. Dimar
   
5. Uncle Ned to the Rescue
   
6. Cherokee Kinpeople
   
7. The Pit
   
8. The Broken Wagon Wheel
   
9. Tsali’s Message
   
10. Thieves in the Night
    
11. Spreading the Word
    
12. The Cherokees’ Decision
    

About the Author

Publication Info

Rear Cover

Version Info

For My Brother and My Sisters,

James Matthew Leppard,
Margaret Louise Leppard Langer,
Sibyl Belle Leppard Langford,

In Memory of Our Childhood Joys and Sorrows.

Chapter 1 - Mandie and the Panther

Mandie sat with her feet dangling in the cool water of the Tuckasegee River. Her white kitten, Snowball, played at the edge of the rocks. It was a hot day for the North Carolina mountains and Mandie was tired. Slipping away from the others, she had hastily pulled off her shoes and stockings, thrown her bonnet on a nearby bush, and run down the bank to the river.

She had left her fine clothes at home and traveled in calico. Mandie and her new family were on their way to visit her Cherokee kinpeople, none of whom she had ever seen. She was wondering if the Cherokees would like her. After all, she was only one-fourth Cherokee herself, and not only that, she didn’t even look like an Indian with her long blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

It was so important to Mandie that the Cherokees like her, because they were her father’s people, and her dear father was now in heaven.

A faint sound behind Mandie startled her, bringing her out of her reverie. She was so frightened, it took all her willpower to turn her head to see what it was. To her
horror, directly behind her the beady eyes of a panther watched as it crouched menacingly in a chestnut tree, ready to spring. She froze, her heartbeat pulsating wildly in her throat as she gasped in fright. The others were all up at the wagon on the road. There was no one to help her. No one, that is, but God.
Please, dear God, make the panther go away
, she silently prayed, her eyes never leaving the animal. She knew she shouldn’t have slipped away by herself. The beady eyes still watched her.

Then out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a young Indian boy standing in the nearby bushes. He looked at her, then at the panther, then turned to walk away.

“Help me! Please!” she whispered hoarsely.

The boy glanced back but continued on his way. Never in her life had Mandie hated anyone as she did that boy right then.

Suddenly, from another direction, an arrow winged through the air striking the beast in the tree. Mandie held her breath—appearing through the trees was Uncle Ned! The thrill of relief flooded her body.

“Don’t move, Papoose!” the old Indian cautioned, as he quickly moved forward.

The panther, severely wounded, loosened its grip and fell from the tree. Mandie scrambled up the bank, her white kitten leaping after her.

“Uncle Ned! Where did you come from?” she asked as she paused to put on her shoes and stockings over her wet feet.

“Papoose take too long to get to Cherokee house. I come see why,” he replied, turning the panther over. “Go back to wagon, now. I come soon. Wait there.”

The girl snatched her bonnet from the bush where she had left it, calling back as she ran up the hill, “Hurry,
Uncle Ned. We’ll wait for you.”

She hurried through the trees, and as she caught sight of the others at the wagon on the road, she called out, “Mother! Uncle John! Uncle Ned is here!”

Her mother and Uncle John, standing under the shade of the trees, turned to look at her. Her friend, Joe, came from around the wagon.

“Where, Mandie?” asked Uncle John.

“Down there—down at the river,” she replied, pointing back at the way she had come. “Oh, it was awful! I was washing my feet and this panther was up in the tree getting ready to attack me when all of a sudden Uncle Ned came out of the woods and shot him with one of his arrows!”

The other three looked at one another, startled.

“Slow down, Amanda,” her mother told her. “You’re out of breath.”

“Oh, and there was this Indian boy standing there in the woods, but he wouldn’t help me at all; and he saw the panther, too,” she continued. “He just turned around and walked away, leaving me there helpless and alone.”

Uncle John lifted a rifle from the wagon and started down the hill. “Let me go see what Uncle Ned is doing. He might need some help.”

“Guess I’ll go, too,” called Joe, hurrying after John.

“Amanda, dear, please don’t
ever
go off alone like that again,” her mother pleaded. “Something awful could have happened to you.”

“I’m sorry, Mother,” Mandie said soberly, putting her arm around her mother’s waist. “But it was so hot I just had to wash my feet to cool off a little. It has been such a long journey all the way from Franklin. Wonder how much farther we have to go?”

“I know, I know,” her mother replied, stroking the blonde curls. “We are all hot and tired. It shouldn’t be much farther. Uncle Ned will know.”

When the men came up the hill with Joe, Mandie ran to meet them. She hugged the old Indian. “You always come just in time, Uncle Ned.”

“I promise Jim Shaw I see after Papoose when he go to happy hunting ground,” the old Indian reminded her.

“I know, Uncle Ned, but now that I have found my real mother and she has married my Uncle John, you don’t have to worry about me,” the girl replied.

“May be fine, but I promise. I keep promise. Even when Papoose get to be squaw and marry Joe here, I keep promise,” he told her, with a twinkle in his eyes.

Joe blushed and kicked at the stones under his feet. He intended to marry Mandie when they grew up, but he certainly didn’t want people talking about it. He stole a quick glance at Mandie. She was looking at him.

“I’m glad, Uncle Ned. If you had not come along when you did, I don’t know what might have happened to me. I probably wouldn’t be here to tell about it,” Mandie admitted. “Did you see that Indian boy in the woods there? He just looked at me, and then at the panther and walked away.”

The old man turned quickly toward her, his eyes squinting. “I no see Indian boy. Where he go?”

“I don’t know. He just disappeared into the woods,” she replied.

The old man tightened his lips and murmured, “Mmm.”

“All right, let’s get going,” Uncle John said, changing the mood. “We want to get to Uncle Ned’s house before sundown.”

The road they traveled on ran parallel to the Tuckasegee River for many miles. After a while Uncle John turned the wagon onto an old wooden bridge and crossed to the other side, traveling upward along the banks of Deep Creek.

“Oh, how I’d love to get into that water!” Mandie exclaimed, as she peered at its clear, shallow stillness.

Joe leaned out to look. “There’re enough rocks to walk plumb through it.”

“Won’t be long now,” Uncle John called back to them from his seat at the front.

And it wasn’t long before cornfields started showing up along the way. Here and there tobacco was growing. At one place a hog ran grunting across the road in front of the wagon, causing the horses to buck and snort. There was an odor of food cooking, and as they came around a sharp bend in the road, a settlement of log cabins came into view. Mandie and Joe became excited.

“Looks like we’re here!” exclaimed Joe.

“I can’t wait to meet all my kinpeople!” Mandie cried.

“Just better not be any boys among them casting their eyes on you,” Joe warned.

Mandie’s mouth dropped. “I do believe you have a jealous streak in you, Joe Woodard.”

“Remember, you promised. I get your father’s house back from that woman he was married to, and you’ll marry me!” Joe reminded her.

“Oh, Joe, it’ll be years and years before you’ll be old enough,” Mandie replied.

“Not so long. I’m past thirteen already.”

They were slowing down in front of the largest cabin in the group. There was a barn at the rear and horses could be seen behind a split-rail fence. The house looked
very similar to the one in which Mandie had lived with her father. It was made of logs chinked together, with a huge rock chimney at one end. The door stood open, and they could smell the strong odor of food cooking.

“This is where Uncle Ned lives,” Uncle John called back to the two young ones. He stopped the wagon by the barn and helped Elizabeth down as Uncle Ned took the reins to unhitch the horses. Mandie and Joe jumped down and looked around. There, standing across the road, was the Indian boy she had seen in the woods.

“Uncle Ned, look! There’s the boy I saw in the woods!” she called, pointing to the boy.

Uncle Ned turned to look. “Oh, that Tsa’ni. He go to school. He not good Indian. I not know why he not kill panther.”

An Indian squaw with a red kerchief tied around her head appeared at the door of the cabin. Mandie ran to hug her.

“Morning Star! I’m so glad to see you!” she squealed.

The old Indian woman grunted and held her tightly.

“She can’t speak English, but she understands what we say pretty well,” Uncle John told Mandie.

“I know. She came with Uncle Ned when he brought me to your house in Franklin,” she replied. “But how did you know?”

Uncle John winked and smiled. “I stayed here at Deep Creek with the Cherokees while you were at my house hunting for my will, remember?”

“Oh, yes, of course,” she laughed.

Uncle Ned and Morning Star motioned for them to come inside the log cabin. Mandie set Snowball down and looked around. It was very similar to her father’s house in Charley Gap. There was a huge rock fireplace
with the kettles hanging in it. A homemade table nearby was draped with a cloth, and when Morning Star removed the cloth, Mandie saw that the table was set and supper was ready and waiting.

At the far end of the room were several beds built into the wall and covered with cornshuck mattresses. Curtains hanging between them could be pulled around each one. Over in the other corner was a spinning wheel and a loom. And against the wall was a ladder going upstairs where Mandie knew there would be more beds.

“Food sure smells good!” Joe exclaimed.

Uncle Ned was speaking Cherokee to Morning Star, explaining who Mandie’s mother was. All the Cherokees had known her father and now Morning Star embraced her mother. With tears in her eyes, Elizabeth smiled at the old woman.

In his Indian fashion, Uncle Ned tried to make the white people feel welcome. “Wash! Eat!” he told them, pointing to a washpan on a shelf. A clean towel was hanging on a nail beside it. A bucketful of fresh drinking water was also nearby with a gourd dipper hanging on a nail over it. Ned was a full-blooded Indian, but he knew how the white people lived.

“Save food for Snowball,” Uncle Ned told Mandie, handing her a pan from the shelf. She understood they were to save the scraps from their plates for the kitten.

A beautiful young Indian girl about Mandie’s age came through the open door. She was wearing a long, full skirt with a ruffled blouse; multicolored beads hung from her slender neck. Her long, black hair was held back by a red ribbon. Moving silently in her soft mocassins, she smiled as she came forward.

Uncle Ned put his arm around the girl. “This my
son’s papoose. She Sallie,” he told the others.

“Hello, Sallie, I’m Amanda Shaw—Mandie for short,” Mandie greeted her. “This is my mother, Elizabeth Shaw; my stepfather, who is also my uncle, John Shaw; and my friend, Joe Woodard, the doctor’s son.”

“Welcome,” Sallie replied. “I know John Shaw. We are so excited to have you all visit us.” Her speech indicated she was well educated.

Elizabeth took her small brown hand in hers. “Sallie, we are so happy to be here.”

“Yes, we are, Sallie,” John Shaw added.

Joe stole a glance, admiring her dark beauty, and then put in his greeting. “Sallie, we love your grandfather, Uncle Ned.”

Morning Star spoke quietly to Uncle Ned and he announced loud and clear, “We eat now! Eat! Sit! Sit!”

The adults gathered at one side of the table and were soon deep in conversation. Mandie found a place on the other side between Joe and Sallie. Morning Star took the plates to the kettles over the fire, filled them, and brought them back to the table. Uncle Ned passed them around.

“Give thanks, John Shaw,” Uncle Ned spoke again, as Morning Star sat down.

They all bowed their heads as Uncle John raised his voice in thanks. “We give thanks to thee, O Father, that we are all together, and for the wonderful food prepared for this meal. Bless this house and the people that dwell here. Amen.”

“Guess we can eat now,” Joe remarked.

“Yes,” Sallie told him and then turning to Mandie, she said, “I was very sorry to hear about your father. I remember Jim Shaw. He used to visit us now and then.”

Mandie was surprised. “You knew my father! Well,
yes, I suppose you did. Uncle Ned said my father used to come to visit his people here.”