Read Mandie Collection, The: 8 Online
Authors: Lois Gladys Leppard
Mandie Collection, The: 8
The Mandie Collection: Volume Eight
Copyright © 1998, 1999
Lois Gladys Leppard
MANDIE® and SNOWBALL® are registered trademarks of Lois Gladys Leppard
Cover design by Dan Pitts
Cover illustration by Chris Wold Dyrud
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-6019-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
To all the
MANDIE® FAN CLUB members
Because of all you thousands and thousands of members in over forty countries and every state in the Union, I am still writing Mandie Books, and as long as you read them, I will continue Mandie’s story until she grows up, falls in love, and marries.
I read every letter you write to me, but I get so many it’s impossible to reply. However, I do love you all and appreciate your loyalty, also all the notes, pictures, and doodads you send me. I treasure them all and keep them in a safe place where I can take them out and look at them.
In the next Mandie Book, Mandie will grow a little older and things will start moving faster in time in the coming five books.
With love and thanks,
Lois Gladys Leppard
CONTENTS
Chapter 7 When Will the Mysteries End?
“Never promise more than you
can perform.”
—Publilius Syrus, First Century
B.C.
CHAPTER ONE
WHERE DID IT GO?
“Are you sure y’all can’t stay until at least New Year’s Eve?” Mandie asked Joe Woodard as they sat on the bottom step of the long staircase in the Shaws’ house. “After all, this is only the day after Christmas, and I don’t have to go back to school until the day after New Year’s.”
“Sure wish I could,” Joe told her as he ran his long fingers through his tousled brown hair. “But my father has to go home to check on some of his patients, and he won’t have time to come back just to get me.”
“Doctors have an inconvenient life, don’t they?” Mandie said with a smile. “And Dr. Woodard sure has his hands full covering all of Swain County and part of Macon County here.”
“Oh, I suppose I forgot to mention there’s a new doctor in Swain County now,” Joe said. “My father said he’s a young fellow just out of school but that he seems to be up on the latest medical knowledge. His name is Oliver, Dr. William Oliver, and he’s from some place in Virginia.”
“Good, then maybe your father won’t have to travel all over creation to see patients,” Mandie replied.
“Oh, but this doctor has opened a regular office in Bryson City, so I suppose people will have to go into town to see him,” Joe told her. “I don’t believe he’s planning on traveling around the country the way my
father does. You know my father has always had an office in our house, but very few people have ever come to him. He goes to them.”
“I’m glad you aren’t planning to be a doctor,” Mandie said with a smile, tossing her long blond hair behind her.
Joe quickly looked at her and asked with a smile, “Oh really? I wonder why?”
Mandie felt her face turn red, and she quickly stood up. “Just in case I decide to marry you when we grow up,” she said. “I wouldn’t want you running off for days at a time the way your father does.”
Joe hastily rose and reached for her hand. “I aim to be a lawyer and to work in the town where we live,” he told her. “No traveling.”
Mandie pulled her hand away, and at that moment she heard someone on the stairs. She looked up the stairwell to see Jonathan Guyer hurrying down.
“I talked to my father,” Jonathan began saying before he reached them. “And he says we have to leave on Monday to go home.” He stepped down next to Mandie and Joe. “Since today is Thursday, that gives us three more days to do whatever.”
“I have to leave today,” Joe told him. “My father has some patients to see, so I have to go with him and Mother.”
“And we will be going home on Sunday,” Sallie added as she came down the hallway toward the group. She joined them at the foot of the stairs.
Mandie laughed and said, “Then let’s make hay while the sun shines. Time is a-fleeting.”
“Just what do you suggest?” Jonathan asked.
“Well,” Mandie said thoughtfully with puckered lips. “I suggest that we do whatever y’all suggest.” She laughed again as she glanced around at her three friends.
Jonathan grinned, looked at Joe and Sallie, and, imitating Mandie’s North Carolina accent, asked, “Well, now, what do we all suggest?”
“I believe it’s almost noon, and I have to leave right after we eat,” Joe said in a disappointed voice.
“Let’s just go sit in the parlor until the food is ready,” Mandie said, walking toward the front hallway.
Her friends followed and they found the parlor deserted. Evidently the grown-ups were doing something somewhere else. Snowball,
Mandie’s white cat, was asleep on the hearth by the fire, and he opened one blue eye to look at the intruders, then snoozed back off to sleep.
After they were all seated, Mandie said, “I’m so glad all of you came for Christmas. We’ve really had a nice holiday, and I want everybody to come back soon.”
“Soon you must all come to visit the house of my grandfather,” Sallie told them. “The Cherokee people would like for you to do that so they may become acquainted.”
“I would very much like to visit your grandfather,” Jonathan replied. “I have to keep reminding myself that you are Uncle Ned’s granddaughter and that you live with him and your grandmother.”
“Yes, my mother and father left this world before my memory,” Sallie replied. She straightened her long, gathered skirt as Jonathan continued looking at her.
“Don’t forget my house,” Joe said, then turning to Jonathan he added, “And when you come to visit us, you can see Mandie’s father’s house where she lived before she came here to Franklin to live with her uncle John.”
At that moment Polly Cornwallis, Mandie’s next-door neighbor, appeared at the doorway to the parlor. “I just ran over for a few minutes to see what y’all are doing,” Polly said as she came into the room and sat down next to Joe on the settee.
“We’re waiting to eat, and then Joe will be going home,” Mandie told her from where she sat in a chair nearby.
“Joe, you are going home!” Polly exclaimed. “But the holidays are not over yet.” She pushed back her long, dark hair as she turned to gaze at Joe with her dark eyes.
“Oh, but I am the only one leaving today,” Joe told her with a big grin. “Jonathan is not leaving until Monday and Sallie—”
“Jonathan, you will be here until Monday. Oh, how nice!” Polly interrupted Joe, quickly turning to Jonathan with a big smile.
Mandie smiled at Joe. She knew how Polly always followed Joe around whenever he came to visit the Shaws, and she realized that Joe was trying to get Polly’s attention away from him and on to Jonathan.
Jonathan didn’t seem interested in Polly. He shrugged and said, “Yes, I won’t be going home until Monday.”
“Home to New York!” Polly exclaimed, “Jonathan, you must give
me your address. My mother and I will be going up there on our next holiday, which will be Easter, I believe.”
“Oh sure,” Jonathan said with a frown. “I’ll write it down for you before I go home.”
Mandie knew Polly had never been to New York, but she had. Mandie and her friend Celia Hamilton and Celia’s mother had spent the Thanksgiving holidays at the Guyers’ huge mansion in New York. And the three of them had solved a mystery after getting into a lot of trouble.
“Don’t you forget now, you hear?” Polly was saying to Jonathan.
“Right,” Jonathan said as he stood up and walked to the door. “M-m-m! I do believe I smell food!” he added.
Joe drew a deep breath and said, “I know I smell food.”
At that moment Elizabeth Shaw, Mandie’s mother, came to the doorway of the parlor and told the young people, “I’m afraid we have a problem with dinner, but it should be ready in just a little while. I’ll let you know when.” She turned to go back down the hallway.
Mandie quickly jumped up and hurried out into the corridor after her. “Mother,” she called to her. Elizabeth stopped to look back, and Mandie caught up with her. “Will it be very long before we eat?” she asked. “Do we have time to do something else before it’s ready?”
“No, I don’t think so, dear,” Elizabeth replied. “The turkey just disappeared out of the oven—”
“Disappeared out of the oven?” Mandie interrupted, her blue eyes opened wide. “It disappeared out of the oven?”
Elizabeth smiled at her and said, “Yes, it just disappeared right out of the oven, but we do have ham already cooked from yesterday. So as soon as Aunt Lou can get that warmed up, we’ll eat.”
“Mother, you are saying the turkey just disappeared out of the oven? How did it do that?” Mandie asked, thinking she must have misunderstood.
“Aunt Lou was the only one in the kitchen. Jenny had run outside to her house for a minute, and Liza was upstairs. Jenny seemed to be gone too long, so Aunt Lou went after her, and when the two of them came back into the kitchen, the oven door was open and the turkey was gone,” Elizabeth explained. “Now I do have to get back to our guests.
They’re all in the sunroom. Just be sure you and your friends don’t run off somewhere.” She continued down the hallway.
“But, Mother, weren’t Mr. and Mrs. Burns supposed to be working here today, too?” Mandie called to her. The Burnses lived on the Shaw property.
Elizabeth slowed to look back and reply. “No, dear, they aren’t coming to help until late this afternoon.” She walked on.
Mandie quickly turned to hurry back to the parlor. This was a mystery! Who took the turkey out of the oven? And what did they do with it?
“Listen, everybody!” Mandie exclaimed as she entered the parlor where her friends were sitting. “Y’all won’t believe this, but we have a mysterious theft.” She sat down in a chair.
“What?” Joe asked, frowning.
“What did they steal?” Jonathan wanted to know.
“Do we have a mystery to solve?” Sallie inquired.
“My mother just told me that someone stole the turkey out of the oven, so dinner will be a little late,” Mandie began.