Mandie Collection, The: 8 (7 page)

“Well, I’m glad to see y’all back, but it’s a big surprise,” Mandie said.

Dr. Woodard and Joe pulled out two chairs and sat down at the table.

“And it’s a big surprise to us, too,” Joe replied with a big grin. He looked at his father.

Dr. Woodard smiled at him and said, “Go ahead and tell them the news. It’s all yours, son.”

Mandie was impatiently waiting for an explanation.

Joe looked around the table, and his gaze settled on Mandie as he began. “It’s good news, but it’s also bad news.” He paused.

“Joe Woodard, tell us what’s going on. We’re about to ask your dad if you don’t,” Mandie told him, pretending to be exasperated.

“All right, to make it short, I’m going away to college. I’ve been accepted—” Joe was interrupted by all three young people.

“College?” Sallie asked.

“Where?” Mandie demanded.

“So you made it,” Jonathan said.

“Yes, I made it. And the where is New Orleans,” Joe replied to Mandie’s question. “That’s—”

Mandie quickly interrupted again. “New Orleans? That’s all the way down in Louisiana,” she said.

“It sure is,” Joe agreed with a big smile.

“Do you have to go that far away?” Mandie asked with a slight catch in her voice as her blue eyes suddenly filled with tears. She dropped her gaze and pretended to have swallowed wrong, holding her napkin up to her face to secretly dab at the tears.

“It’s not all that far away by train. All of you can come down and visit and see the college,” Joe insisted.

“Yes, I’d like to visit down there,” Jonathan agreed.

“I would like to go, too,” Sallie added.

Mandie finally looked back at Joe and asked, “Did you come all the way back here just to tell us you’re going away to college?”

“Oh no,” Joe said, picking up the cup of coffee Liza placed by
his plate and sipping from it. “We really had two reasons. My father has some patients over here, and he wanted to check on them before we leave. Then he is getting the train with me from here to go to New Orleans. But—” he paused slightly, “my own personal reason was to come and tell you in person, Mandie.”

Mandie quickly blinked her blue eyes to clear her vision. “Thank you, Joe,” she said in a small voice. “I’m going to miss you. After all, you’ve been around all my life.”

“Of course, I’ll miss you, all of you, too, but in order to get an education, I have to go away,” Joe said with a frown.

Dr. Woodard cleared his throat, put down his fork, and said, “We are all going to miss Joe, but, Miss Amanda, you will be going off to college one day in the near future, too, and we’re going to miss you. When you young people have completed your education, I hope you will come back here.”

“Oh, I will, Dr. Woodard,” Mandie agreed quickly. “If there was any way to keep from ever leaving here at all, I would stay here forever.”

“And I suppose I’ll live in New York forever,” Jonathan said. “After being sent all around the world to boarding schools, I don’t want to leave home ever again. So I know how you feel, Mandie.”

“And I will stay with my people forever, except for the opportunity to get a good education,” Sallie remarked.

“I’m glad you came back,” Mandie told Joe.

“When we got home, we found the acceptance letter in the mailbox, and the first thing I thought of was that I have to tell Mandie,” Joe explained with a teasing grin. “Otherwise you might try to make a mystery out of it.”

Everyone laughed, and the sad feeling left Mandie as she said, “I’m sure there must be mysteries down there in New Orleans, so I might just show up at your door one of these days.” She laughed.

“Come ahead,” Joe said, then looking around he added, “All of you. I can’t guarantee you what kind of place I’ll be living in, since I’ve never been there.”

“Never been there? You mean you’re going to a college you haven’t even seen?” Jonathan asked.

“How did you get accepted?” Mandie asked.

“I suppose I’d better explain,” Joe told them. “You see, I had
applied to several colleges through the mail, and my father and I had visited two of them, but they weren’t what I was looking for. Then our schoolteacher, Mr. Tallant, heard that I was looking. He himself went to this college and he recommended me. They allowed him to give me the examinations necessary for consideration.”

“Finish your story, son,” Dr. Woodard said, smiling at Joe.

“Well ...” Joe dragged out the word.

“Then I will finish it,” Dr. Woodard said, looking around the table. “Joe came out in the top ten percent of several hundred students taking the examinations for entrance.”

Mandie quickly clapped her hands, and Jonathan and Sallie followed.

“I’m not surprised. I’m proud to have known you, Joe Woodard,” Mandie said in a shaky voice.

“To have known me? Why, I still know you,” Joe teased.

“Oh, I have a wonderful idea!” Mandie exclaimed. She looked at Sallie and Jonathan and said, “We should give him a going-away party!”

“Yes!” Jonathan agreed.

“Of course,” Sallie said.

“Now, when do you have to leave on the train?” Mandie asked.

“This coming Tuesday,” Joe replied. “But you don’t have to get up a party for me.”

“Tuesday is the last day of this year,” Mandie said. “I suppose we’ll have to have the party on Monday night. I do hope Uncle Ned and Morning Star get back in time.” She looked at Sallie and then Jonathan as she added, “And your father and Uncle John.”

“Are they all gone somewhere?” Dr. Woodard asked.

“Yes, sir,” Mandie said and explained where everyone was. “My mother and grandmother should be down soon. Aunt Lou said they’re sleeping a little late because they were out late last night.”

Liza, the maid, had been standing by the sideboard listening to the conversation. Aunt Lou had left the room.

“Missy ’Manda, kin I be he’pin’ wid dat party?” Liza asked in a whisper across the room.

“Of course, Liza,” Mandie told her. “You and I could go to the store for a few things that we’ll need for the party.”

“Yessum, Missy ’Manda, dat be a good idea,” Liza said, smiling big.

“I suppose y’all have solved the mystery of the missing turkey by now,” Joe remarked as he looked around the table.

“Not yet,” Jonathan said.

“But we’ve been working on it. You can help us finish our search. All we have left is the cellar,” Mandie told him.

“You don’t really believe that turkey could be in the cellar, do you?” Joe asked.

“There’s a possibility it could be, and we won’t know until we do search the place down there,” Mandie told him. “Are you going to help us?”

“I suppose I could go along and hold the lamp or something,” Joe said with a big smile.

“And help me protect the girls from the spooks down there,” Jonathan teased as he looked at Joe.

“Jonathan!” Mandie protested.

At that moment Mandie’s mother and grandmother came into the dining room, followed by Aunt Lou, who was carrying clean dishes to set places for them on the table.

“Well, good morning, Dr. Woodard. It’s nice to see you again,” Elizabeth told him as she and Mrs. Taft sat down at the table.

“Thank you, Elizabeth. I appreciate your open hospitality,” Dr. Woodard replied. “We had to make a return trip here to catch the train and tie up some loose ends with patients.” He explained their reasons.

“I know you’re proud of Joe,” Mrs. Taft said.

Joe quickly looked at the adults and said, “Could I be excused please? We have to search the cellar.” He rose. “The turkey is still missing.”

The other young people followed, and they hastily left the room as the adults began discussing the missing turkey. Mandie led the way to the wide staircase in the front hallway, where they all sat on the steps and planned their trip into the dark and mysterious cellar.

Mandie explained to Joe about the quilt and the old book they found in the attic. “So you see, we have more than just the fate of that turkey to solve.”

“I’d like to see the book,” Joe said.

“It’s not exactly a book,” Mandie explained. “It probably was a book at one time, but now it’s just a lot of loose paper, all dirty, torn, with the handwriting all but evaporated.”

Jonathan stood up. “What do you say we get on with this job in the cellar so we can get ready for the party?” he asked.

“Let’s get some lamps from the back hallway,” Mandie said, rising to lead the way.

“And plenty of matches,” Joe added. “We have been known to have lamps go out and no matches to relight them.”

“That wouldn’t be too good in that dark cellar,” Jonathan said.

“Don’t worry,” Mandie told her friends. “I’ll bring plenty of matches.”

Mandie was anxious to complete the search and get started on the preparations for the party. That would be special because there was no telling how long it would be before Joe came back to visit. She was already missing him.

CHAPTER SIX

SECRET PLANS

The cellar was not as hard to search as the attic. Everything was in neat rows on shelves up to fifteen feet high and with proper labels.

Mandie led the way down the steep stairs from the back hallway, holding a lighted lamp up high to illuminate the way. The others followed with more lamps.

“Please don’t move anything out of order,” Mandie told her friends. “This is Aunt Lou’s domain, and just recently she had everyone down here cleaning, labeling, and stacking everything. It’s all right to move things to look behind them, but please put everything back exactly the way it was.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jonathan said with a mischievous laugh. “Anything else, ma’am?”

Mandie turned back to look at him and said, “Yes, watch out for snakes and spiders. Plenty of those things live down here.”

“Jonathan, you and I could search the top shelves, and the girls could look at the lower ones they can reach,” Joe suggested, looking around.

“Right,” Jonathan agreed. He started toward the far end of the huge room. “I’ll begin at this end, and you start back there, and we’ll eventually meet.”

“Sallie, let’s you and I just work together,” Mandie told her friend.
“That way we can take turns holding the lamp while the other one searches.”

“That is a good idea,” Sallie agreed.

But searching through the cellar didn’t turn out to be a good idea. All that work, and they didn’t find a single clue to the mystery of the missing turkey. All they accomplished was to get so dirty they had to go to their rooms, clean up, and change clothes. And they were almost late for the noon meal.

During the conversations at the table, Mandie kept in the back of her mind that she needed to speak to her mother about having a party for Joe, but she couldn’t do it with Joe around. So when the meal was over, Mandie waited until her mother and her grandmother had gone to the parlor and the young people were standing around in the hallway.

“Why don’t y’all sit down on the steps there and wait for me? I have to see my mother about something,” Mandie told her friends.

“Go right ahead, Mandie. We will wait for you,” Sallie told her.

The boys agreed, and the three drifted over to the stairs and sat down.

Mandie found her mother and grandmother both reading in the parlor. She smiled as she entered the room. “Those must be awfully interesting books for y’all to get back to them so soon after we ate.”

“Yes,” both women said.

Before they could say any more, Mandie told her mother, “I want to ask your permission to give Joe a going-away party. And we need to do it on Monday night because he and his father are leaving Tuesday.”

Elizabeth looked at her and said, “That’s a thoughtful idea, dear. Now, what do we need to do to get things started?”

“I’d like to decorate the back parlor and keep the door closed until time for the party so it will be a surprise to Joe,” Mandie replied. “And I’d like to ask Aunt Lou to bake a huge chocolate cake, which is his favorite.”

“Fine,” Elizabeth agreed.

Mrs. Taft looked up from her book and said, “Maybe we ought to give him going-away presents. What do you think?”

“Oh, Grandmother, that’s a great idea!” Mandie agreed. “Liza asked me this morning if she could help if we have a party, so I thought Sallie and I could take Liza to the store and buy a few things while Jonathan keeps Joe occupied.”

“Would you mind shopping for me?” Mrs. Taft asked her. “Get him something that you think he would like and wrap it up for me. Of course, I’ll give you money to spend in the store.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea. You know better than we do what Joe likes, so I’ll let you get something from me to give him, too,” Elizabeth said. Looking at her mother, she said, “You don’t need to give Amanda any money. We have an account at Stovall’s Store, so she can just get whatever we need from there. They do have a big variety of merchandise.”

“All right,” Mrs. Taft agreed. “You and I can settle the bill afterward.”

“Mother, I do hope Uncle John and Mr. Guyer get back in time for the party, and Uncle Ned and Morning Star, too. Everyone would have to be gone somewhere,” Mandie said.

“I’m sure they will all be back by Monday night, dear,” Elizabeth assured her.

Mandie thought about the old book and the quilt they had found in the attic and would have liked to discuss it with her grandmother, who was old enough to remember the Shaw family who had farmed the land. But right now she just didn’t have time to talk about it. Maybe later she would have the opportunity.

“Thanks, Mother,” Mandie said. “I’ll go talk to Aunt Lou, and then Sallie and Liza and I will go to the store.”

As she passed the staircase, she found Sallie and Jonathan waiting there. She stopped to whisper, “Where is Joe?”

“He went to his room for a minute,” Jonathan told her.

At that moment the three heard footsteps on the stairs above.

“He’s coming down now,” Mandie whispered quickly. “Jonathan, please keep him occupied while the rest of us get the party planned. Sallie, come with me, and we’ll get Liza and go to the store.”

“How am I supposed to keep him occupied?” Jonathan asked.

“Mother and Grandmother are in the parlor. Ask them if you and Joe can play a game on Uncle John’s chess set, or checkers, or something, just anything,” Mandie quickly told him as she rushed down the hallway toward the kitchen with Sallie following.