Mandie Collection, The: 8 (20 page)

“That will never be,” Joe answered, also straightening up and looking down at her.

“Well, I won’t be fourteen until June, and people sometimes grow until they are about eighteen years old, so I have four years to do it,” Mandie reminded him.

They were near the crossing on the Little Tennessee River as they followed the Tomahawk Trail, and at that moment Snowball managed to get loose from his leash and ran off down the mountainside.

“Oh, the hook came undone!” Mandie exclaimed as she started after the cat with the leash in her hand.

“Leave the basket here,” Joe quickly called out as he laid down his rifle and reached for the basket, which Mandie gave him as she ran on.

Leaving the basket by his rifle, he followed Mandie and she suddenly stopped in front of him.

“Joe! Look!” Mandie exclaimed, pointing across the mountainous terrain.

Joe stopped to look in the direction she was pointing.

“Look at that pile of mica!” Mandie told him. Snowball was already down in the gap sniffing around the mica mound.

“Now, how did that mica get there?” Joe asked in disbelief. “There’s no mica mine in this area that I know of.”

The two stood and surveyed the mound. Then Mandie realized she had better go after Snowball before he got farther away. She started
down the mountainside. “Snowball, come back here!” she yelled as she carefully stepped down the rocks.

Joe was right behind her. “Do be careful, Mandie,” he said. “I don’t want you falling down and getting hurt, and then I would have to carry you home.”

Mandie didn’t dare look back to see if Joe was teasing. She slowly made her way down the slope toward the cat. And she was glad to see Snowball had not run any farther away. He seemed to be fascinated with the mica and was walking around smelling it. Vivid sparkles twinkled all over the shiny mica as the sun’s rays touched it, making it look like a thousand lights on the mound. It was blinding in the sunshine.

“Snowball!” Mandie called to him when she finally reached the level ground. “You come here immediately!” She hurried toward him.

For once, Snowball didn’t play games and run away from her as he usually did when he got off the leash. He stood there looking at his mistress and gave one loud meow when she stooped to fasten the leash back to his collar.

“Did the hook on the leash break?” Joe asked, coming up behind her.

“No, it seems to be all right. I suppose I just didn’t fasten it right,” Mandie replied, standing up and holding firmly to the red leash.

“Thank goodness that cat didn’t decide to run on over the mountain somewhere,” Joe said with a big sigh. He walked around and looked at the mica mound. “I just don’t understand how all this got down here.”

“And where did it come from?” Mandie asked as she also surveyed the shining mound. “Why would anyone dump all this down here?”

“Dump all this down here?” Joe said, smiling down at her. “I would imagine it took quite a long time to dump all this down here and a lot of work. Some foolhardy notion.”

“Maybe Sallie knows something about it,” Mandie suggested, looking up at Joe. “The Cherokee people usually know about everything that goes on anywhere near them.”

“Let’s get going,” Joe said. “We can ask Sallie about it.”

“Come on, Snowball,” Mandie said to the cat as she pulled on the leash and started up the slope.

“Let me hold on to that cat going back up, and you hold my
hand,” Joe told her, reaching for the leash. “I’m afraid you might slide down.”

Mandie smiled up at him as she handed over the leash and he reached to grasp her hand. “Just be sure you don’t slide and take us all down with you,” she cautioned him. She felt the warmth of his hand and immediately became shy with her old friend. Here was that strange feeling again.
What is wrong?
she wondered.

As soon as they were safely to the top of the slope, Mandie quickly removed her hand and went to pick up the picnic basket with her shawl still through the handle. Joe had thrown down his jacket with his rifle, and he picked them up, still holding the end of Snowball’s leash.

“I’ll either hold on to Snowball the rest of the way, or I can carry the basket,” Joe offered.

“But you have your rifle to carry,” Mandie replied, holding on to the basket.

“I know,” Joe replied. “Here, I’ll take the basket and you can carry this cat so he won’t be able to get away again.” He handed her the end of the leash and reached for the basket. “We also have to cross the river, you know.”

Mandie handed him the basket and put Snowball on her shoulder. “I can manage Snowball all right,” she assured him as they walked on, but she was secretly worrying about getting across the river on the swinging bridge while balancing with Snowball in her arms. She had been on that bridge before and she knew how it would start swinging the minute someone stepped on it.

She felt Joe had read her mind when he said, “Now, when we get to the river, I’ll run across with Snowball and tie him to a bush or something, and then I’ll come back and get you across. I know that cat doesn’t like that bridge any more than you do.” He looked down at Mandie and smiled.

“Thanks” was all Mandie could think of to say. After they crossed the Little Tennessee River, they would also have to cross the Tuckasegee River, but that was not a big problem. The crossing was shallow and covered with rocks to step on. The Cherokee school and also the Cherokee hospital were both not very far from the other side of the Tuckasegee River.

After what seemed like ages to Mandie, they finally got across
both rivers without any incidents and the Cherokee schoolhouse soon came in sight.

“At last!” she exclaimed as they walked toward it. She held Snowball on his leash and had draped her shawl over her arm.

“Have you been here since the schoolhouse was finished?” Joe asked. He was carrying the basket and his rifle with his jacket thrown over his shoulder.

“The building was finished, but the desks that had been ordered had not arrived when I was here the last time,” Mandie replied.

“I understand from my father that it’s all complete now,” Joe told her. “And the Cherokee people are beginning to use their hospital now and then. He has had a patient or two in there, and some of the Indians living near here have been working there, taking care of everything.”

“I’m so glad the Cherokee people have finally decided to use it,” Mandie replied with a smile. “I was afraid they would never get over their suspicion about the gold that built it. They said it had a curse on it, remember?”

“Yes, but it was great that we found all that gold in the cave and used it for the hospital,” Joe replied. “If you want to, we could go on to the hospital after we see Sallie at the school. She would know if anyone is at the hospital right now.”

“Oh yes, let’s do,” Mandie agreed, looking ahead at the building in the distance.

The schoolhouse was constructed of hand-hewn logs, with a huge rock chimney rising in the center of the roof. The building stood two feet off the ground on rock pillars with space for storage beneath. A large iron bell hung at the end of the full-length front porch. The front door was in the center with glass windows on either side, protected by wooden shutters.

Mandie looked up at Joe and said, “I like it better than our old schoolhouse at Charley Gap.”

“Of course,” Joe agreed. “This is all new and ours was a real antique. This one is larger than ours, too.”

They stepped up on the porch and Joe opened the door, allowing Mandie to step inside first. Mandie picked up Snowball and entered the schoolhouse. Sallie was sitting at the head of the room and there
were four small pupils at desks in front of her. The Indian girl rose and smiled as she saw them.

“Mandie! Joe!” Sallie exclaimed, coming to meet them. “I’m so glad to see you both.”

The girls quickly embraced and then stepped back to look at each other, while Joe stood by.

“Sallie, it seems so long since I saw you, but it was really just at the Christmas holidays,” Mandie said with a big smile for her friend.

Sallie Sweetwater was almost a year older than Mandie, and she had long black hair held back by a red ribbon. She wore mocassins and a long, full skirt with a ruffled blouse and a strand of multicolored beads. Her black eyes sparkled with joy at seeing her friends.

“That is too long,” Sallie said. Looking up at Joe to include him, she added, “I wish both of you could live nearer, but I know that is not possible until we all get educated. I hope you like your college, Joe.”

“It’s a lot of hard work, but I do enjoy it,” Joe told her.

“Maybe you and I can go to his college,” Mandie told Sallie.

The pupils had turned to look and began talking among themselves.

“Oh maybe,” Sallie said, turning back to the children. “Read. I said read now. Do not talk.” She watched them until they obeyed her.

“You sure have them trained well,” Joe said with a laugh.

“Yes, the little ones are obedient. It is the older ones who give trouble,” Sallie explained. “Here we stand, talking. Come on in and sit down. I see you brought Snowball.” She walked over to a back corner of the room and motioned for them to sit on a bench with her there.

“Does Mr. O’Neal still live in the room at the back?” Mandie asked, sitting down and holding tightly to Snowball’s leash as he curled up at her feet.

Joe laid down his rifle, set the basket on the bench, and joined the girls.

“Yes, Mr. O’Neal lives back there, but he is not here right now,” Sallie said. “He had to go into town to post some mail.”

“Are you actually teaching these children?” Joe asked.

Sallie laughed and said, “Only now and then, when Mr. O’Neal has to be out. He has certain days of the week for the different ages, and today it’s the little ones, five- and six-year-olds.”

“But aren’t you going to school yourself?” Mandie asked.

“Yes, I am, but on certain days with other pupils my age,” Sallie explained. “This is much better and much nearer than going away over the mountain to the other school I attended, and Mr. O’Neal is a good teacher. I am learning more here.”

“Is Tsa’ni still going around fussing because the white people came down here from Boston to build a school for the Cherokee children?” Mandie asked.

Tsa’ni was the grandson of Mandie’s father’s uncle, and he did not like white people. His grandfather was the brother of Mandie’s grandmother, a beautiful Cherokee girl who had married Mandie’s white grandfather, both of whom had died many years ago.

“He is always saying bad things about white people, and instead of coming here, he still goes all the way over the mountain to that school I used to attend,” Sallie explained. “The other school was built by the Cherokee people a long time ago and has a Cherokee teacher and nothing but Cherokee pupils, which is what Tsa’ni likes. He will never learn very much if he does not get out into the world of the white people.”

Mandie suddenly remembered the mound of mica. “Sallie, we saw this huge pile of mica on our way here, on the other side of the Little Tennessee River,” she said. “Do you know anything about it?”

Sallie looked at her and asked with a frown, “A pile of mica? No, I have not seen a pile of mica anywhere near here.”

“It was down in the gap by the trail before we got to the Little Tennessee River coming this way,” Joe explained. “It certainly didn’t belong down there. There is no mica anywhere around here that I know of. But we couldn’t figure out how it got there.”

Sallie shook her head and said, “That is very strange. No one lives near the place you are talking about, do they?”

“No, I don’t remember seeing any houses near there, but of course there could have been some back in the woods along the way,” Joe replied.

“Sallie, if we wait for you to finish here today, could you go with us and see this mica mound?” Mandie asked.

“No, I am sorry, but I promised Mr. O’Neal I would remain here until he returns late this afternoon. The children will also be here until
then,” Sallie replied. “Maybe you all could come back tomorrow and we could go look at it then.”

“All right,” Mandie agreed, looking at Joe. “That is, if you want to.”

“Sure,” Joe agreed. “But tomorrow is Tuesday, and your uncle will be back for you anytime from Wednesday on, remember. So if you plan to visit any of your Cherokee kinpeople at Bird-town, or Uncle Ned and Morning Star, then we’ll have to work out some time schedule to get that all in.”

Mandie sighed and said, “I suppose I’ll have to let my kinpeople wait until later. I can come back this summer. And speaking of summer, Sallie, we wanted to ask you about all of us and Jonathan and Celia getting together this summer, remember?”

“I have not forgotten and my grandfather has agreed,” Sallie said with a smile. “I will tell him tonight that you are at Joe’s house and will be back tomorrow. He will help us make our plans.”

“That’s fine,” Joe agreed. Then, glancing at the picnic basket, he said, “Sallie, would you like to eat with us? Mrs. Miller packed this basket full of food, and I’m getting a little hungry.”

“Thank you for asking me,” Sallie told him. “Then I will be able to give the children the food I had brought. These little ones do not have much to eat sometimes.”

Sallie spread out her food at the front desk for the children and then returned to her friends where they ate on the bench. They made plans that Mandie and Joe would return the next day and Sallie would go with them to see the mica mound.

CHAPTER FOUR

LOTS OF THINKING

When they left the Cherokee schoolhouse, Mandie decided it was too late in the day to go see the Cherokee hospital.

“I’d rather go on back and stop by to see Mr. Jacob Smith instead of going on to the Cherokee hospital today,” Mandie told Joe as they walked up the lane from the schoolhouse to the main road. “Maybe we could go over there tomorrow when we come back.”

“All right, fine,” Joe agreed. He had put on his jacket and was carrying the empty basket and his rifle. “I don’t think it’s all that warm today.”

“I agree,” Mandie said, winding her shawl around her shoulders while she held on to Snowball’s leash.