The Mandie Collection (38 page)

Polly looked as though she couldn't believe it. “You were glad I had to go home? But then, why did you ask me to go along in the first place?” she asked.

“Because you're my friend,” Mandie told her. “It probably doesn't make sense to you, but will you please forgive me?”

“Sure, Mandie,” she said. “I know I talked like I was brave, but I have to confess I was getting tired of all that running around all over the mountain. And I sure didn't want to come face to face with those bandits. So you see, I was glad to come home, but I didn't want anyone to know it.”

Mandie giggled. “Oh, Polly, I'm sorry,” she said. “I am so glad for your friendship, and I wouldn't want to do anything to spoil it.”

Polly changed the subject. “Guess what? My mother is sending me away to school,” she told Mandie.

“No!” Mandie couldn't believe it. “Where?”

“All the way to Nashville,” Polly replied.

“Not Miss Tatum's Finishing School for Young Ladies?” Mandie gasped.

“How did you know?” Polly asked.

“Because my mother has the same idea, but Uncle John said we'd talk it over,” Mandie told her.

“You don't want to go?”

“No, I don't,” Mandie said. “Don't tell me
you
really want to go.”

“Oh, yes,” Polly assured her. “I think that would be great fun to live at a school that far away from home.”

“Well, I don't,” Mandie stated flatly. “And I hope I can talk my mother out of it. I don't want to go so far away and not be able to see my friends and my family.”

“My mother doesn't know that I know it, but she had other motives. You see, if I go away to school, she'll be free to travel all she wants to,” Polly said. “I'll be more or less on my own, and that suits me fine. I wish you'd go, too, Mandie. We could have lots of fun together way out there away from everybody.”

“Sorry, Polly, but I don't want to go. I may have to, but I'm not going without a fight,” Mandie told her.

When Mandie got home, she found Uncle Ned alone on the front porch, and sat down beside him. Another matter still troubled her.

“Uncle Ned, I've been trying to figure out how we can give ten percent of the gold to the Lord,” she said, leaning back on her hands.

“Cherokees make Papoose boss of gold,” he said. “Papoose give tithe.”

“But I mean, what can we actually do with the ten percent? Should we just give it to your church at Bird-town, or should we do something else with it?”

The old Indian thought for a moment, and then a big grin came over his wrinkled face. “Church no have music box,” he told her.

Mandie smiled broadly. “Then that's what we'll do. We'll buy the biggest, most expensive organ we can find to put in your church,” she said excitedly. “Do you think the other Cherokees will agree?”

“Cherokees give gold to Papoose,” Uncle Ned told her.

“Yes, but I have to use it for the good of the Cherokees,” she replied. “It really belongs to them. I'm only going to spend it for their good.”

“Get music box for church,” the old man said, nodding his head. “That be tithe. Then watch window open and Big God throw blessings out to people.”

“We have already received many blessings,” Mandie said gratefully.

“More to come,” Uncle Ned assured her.

Mandie leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Uncle Ned, did you know that my mother is planning to send me all the way to Nashville to a finishing school?”

“No!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, and I will have to leave all my friends and family, and go to this strange school where there are all strange people and I won't know anyone,” she complained. “And worst of all, you can't go with me, or even come to visit. What will I do, Uncle Ned?”

“Not good,” her old friend muttered. “Must not send Papoose so far away.”

Mandie stood up. “I'm going to talk to my mother and Uncle John about it right now. I'll let you know what happens.”

Mandie found her mother and Uncle John in the small sitting room adjoining their bedroom. Entering, she sat down on a footstool near her uncle.

“Uncle John, have you talked to Mother about the school yet?” she asked, holding her breath. She feared his answer.

“That's what we've just been talking about,” he replied.

“Well, what did you decide?” Mandie asked.

“That you won't be going to Nashville to school,” Elizabeth answered. “However—”

“—That's good news,” Mandie interrupted. “I'm so glad I don't have to leave my friends and go all the way to that strange town.”

“Amanda, wait until I've finished,” her mother reprimanded. “You won't be going to Nashville, because we've decided to send you to the school I attended in Asheville. It will be much closer. Also, your grandmother lives in Asheville. Remember?”

Mandie took several deep breaths to steady her voice. “But, Mother,” she protested, “why do I have to go anywhere out of town? Why can't I go to school right here in Franklin?”

“The school here in Franklin doesn't teach everything you need to learn, and their standards aren't as high,” Elizabeth explained. “You must be prepared for society.”

“Once you get settled in and make some new friends, you'll like Asheville, dear,” Uncle John tried to comfort her. “It's not very far away, and you can come home whenever you like—on weekends and holidays.”

“Oh, phooey!” Mandie said in a defeated voice. “I want to live at home all the time, with you and Mother.”

“But, Amanda, all girls have to be educated,” her mother said. “Just be thankful that we can afford a private school.”

Mandie didn't answer.

Uncle John made an attempt to smooth things over. “Let's try it for a little while, and if you don't like it, we'll bring you home. But I really think you'll make new friends there. And you'll be able to get better acquainted with your grandmother. You know, you've only seen her once.”

Mandie remembered when she met the heavyset woman in the expensive clothes. Her grandmother had not been very friendly. Mandie wondered if she could ever break through that cold wall between them.

She stood up. “I guess I have to go if you say so,” she said, managing a reluctant smile. “But at least I don't have to go to Nashville.”

Elizabeth looked at John as Mandie left the room. “She doesn't realize how much we'd like to have her stay home where we can be with her every day, but there are things you have to sacrifice sometimes,” she told him.

“I really meant that, Elizabeth, when I told her we'd bring her home if she doesn't like the school,” John reminded her.

“Yes, I agree,” Elizabeth replied.

Mandie rushed back downstairs to Uncle Ned on the front porch. “Uncle Ned, I don't have to go to Nashville to school after all,” she told him, excitedly.

“Papoose stay home?” he asked, smiling.

“No, not exactly,” she answered. “I have to go to a school in Asheville where my mother went.”

“But that not far,” the old man assured her. “I go see Papoose in Asheville.”

“Will you, Uncle Ned?” she asked eagerly. “I won't know anyone there and it'll be awfully lonesome.”

“I promise Jim Shaw I watch over Papoose. Keep promise,” the old Indian told her.

Mandie looked at him suddenly, surprise dawning on her face. “You know what? We just planned the tithe, and I've already got a blessing. I don't have to go all the way to Nashville to school,” she said excitedly.

“Blessing number one,” Uncle Ned agreed. “More to come. We thank Big God.”

“Oh, yes, Uncle Ned,” she said, reaching to take his old hand in hers. The two of them looked up toward the morning sun.

“Thank you, God. Oh, thank you,” she whispered.

“Thank you, Big God,” the old man echoed, quickly wiping a tear from his eye.

Mandie knew God's blessings were beginning to shower down upon her.

MANDIE

AND THE

FORBIDDEN

ATTIC

To My Very Special Cousins,

H. D. “Jack” Wilson

and

Mary Ellen Mundy Wilson,

With Love and Thanks

for their

Encouragement Over the Years

CONTENTS

MANDIE AND THE FORBIDDEN ATTIC

Chapter   1  A Strange New School

Chapter   2  Silly Lessons

Chapter   3  Mandie's Enemy

Chapter   4  Young Gentlemen Callers

Chapter   5  Locked Out in the Night

Chapter   6  April's Trouble

Chapter   7  More Noises in the Night

Chapter   8  Caught!

Chapter   9  Visitors at Grandmother's House

Chapter 10  Snowball Disappears

Chapter 11  The Mystery Solved

Chapter 12  Grandmother to the Rescue

“Train up a child in the way he should go;

and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

(Proverbs 22:6)

CHAPTER ONE

A STRANGE NEW SCHOOL

Mandie's heart did flipflops as the train came to a halt beside the depot in Asheville, North Carolina.

“Well, here we are,” Uncle John said. “I see the rig from the school is out there.”

Mandie could not speak. She knew the dreaded time for parting had come. She would be left at the school alone while her mother and Uncle John returned home to the city of Franklin where they lived. She couldn't stand the thought of leaving them.

It seemed like only yesterday that her father had died and she went to live with Uncle John. Mandie didn't know her real mother, Elizabeth, until Uncle John brought them together. Then before long Uncle John and Mandie's mother were married, and Mandie was delighted. But now, they were making her go to the boarding school her mother had attended.

“Come along, Amanda,” her mother urged.

As though in a daze, Mandie trudged down the aisle. She felt numb and detached from the scene as she stepped off the train.

Elizabeth hurried over to the waiting surrey, and the old Negro driver came forward to greet her.

“Uncle Cal!” Elizabeth said as the family joined her. “This is my daughter, Amanda, and my husband, John Shaw.”

Uncle Cal tipped his hat.

“John is my first husband's brother,” she explained. “You probably remember Jim. I left the school to marry him. He was Amanda's father.”

“Yessum, I sho' do 'member Mr. Shaw,” the old man replied. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. John Shaw,” he said, shaking hands.

Mandie held out her small gloved hand. “How do you do, Uncle Cal,” she said.

“I'se jes' fine, Missy.” The old man squeezed her hand warmly. “You sho' de spittin' image of yo' mama when she be 'bout yo' age,” he said, surveying the little blue-eyed blonde. “Jes' wait 'til Phoebe see you. She gonna think Miz Lizbeth done come back to school agin.”

Mandie smiled. “Thank you, Uncle Cal.” Instantly, she knew she had a friend.

Uncle John began helping the old man load Mandie's trunk and bags onto the surrey. As Mandie watched them, pains of protest gripped her stomach. But she had promised her mother and Uncle John that she would give the school a try. They promised her that if she couldn't be happy there, they would bring her back home, and she could go to school in Franklin.

Mandie was determined to fight the sadness and loneliness of being separated from her mother and Uncle John. She would trust God to give her the strength.

As they drove the short distance from the train station to the school, Mandie rode in silence. She did not hear the horses clip-clopping down the cobblestone streets, nor her mother's conversation with Uncle Cal. She saw nothing of the town as they passed through. She was trying to be brave, but it wasn't easy.

As Uncle Cal turned the surrey up a half-circle graveled driveway, Mandie stared at the huge white clapboard house surrounded by magnolia trees at the top of a hill.

The surrey stopped in front of the long two-story porch supported by six huge white pillars. A small sign to the left of the heavy double doors read “The Misses Heathwood's School for Girls.” Tall narrow windows trimmed with colorful stained glass
flanked each side of the doors. Above the doors, matching stained glass edged a fan-shaped transom of glass panes.

Behind the bannisters along the veranda were white rocking chairs with green, flowered cushions. Over to the left, a wooden swing hung by chains attached to the ceiling. At the corner, the porch turned and went around the left side of the house.

Mandie's attention returned to the doorway as a short, thin, elderly lady, wearing a simple black dress, came out to welcome them. Leaving the surrey, John, Elizabeth, and Mandie started across the lawn.

“My, my, Elizabeth, dear. I'm so glad to see you,” the schoolmistress said, smoothing her jet black hair with her hand. “This must be your husband and Amanda, of course.”

“Yes, Miss Prudence, this is my husband, John Shaw,” Elizabeth replied.

John removed his hat and nodded his head slightly. “How do you do, ma'am,” he said.

Miss Prudence nodded in acknowledgment.

“And, Amanda,” Elizabeth continued, resting her neatly-gloved hand on Mandie's shoulder. She pushed her daughter a little forward. “Amanda, this is Miss Prudence Heathwood.”

Not knowing what else to say, Mandie echoed her uncle's greeting. “How do you do, ma'am.”

“Welcome, Amanda. I know you're going to like it here,” Miss Prudence told her.

Mandie wished she could be that sure.

Miss Prudence called to the Negro who waited by the surrey. “Uncle Cal, please take Miss Amanda's things to the third floor, room three.”