The Mandie Collection (13 page)

“I knows.” Liza clasped her hand to her mouth and didn't say another word.

“You know? You mean you knew there was none of it left?” Mandie asked.

“Dat's right, Missy. I knows it's all gone,” Liza replied, watching as Mandie took a small present from the bed, tore the old wrapping off, and began rewrapping it in the new paper.

“Who in the world used all that paper?” Mandie asked, preoccupied with measuring a new piece. “There was a pile of it.”

Liza ignored the question. “You cuts de paper and I he'p wrap up.” She reached for the present and paper Mandie had in her hand. “I ain't much good at cuttin' straight.”

“All right. You wrap and I'll cut,” Mandie agreed.

It was a slow process because the girls took their time and talked a lot while they were wrapping. Mandie had to tell Liza who each present was for with the understanding that Liza would never tell anyone what they would be getting from Mandie for Christmas.

They were almost finished when Mandie heard horses on the road. She jumped up and ran to the window with Liza right behind. There was a two-horse wagon going by, but it seemed to have a hard time getting down the snow-covered road.

“It's not coming here,” Mandie said in disappointment.

“No, but look, Missy. Look down there!” Liza pointed excitedly toward the front porch below. They could see just a corner of it from where they were.

Mandie quickly saw where Liza was pointing. There was Hilda on the front porch, walking backward down the front steps.

“What in de worl' is dat Hilda girl doin' now?” Liza asked.

“She's following the footprints we found. Look!” Mandie cried. “And I do believe she has some big shoes on her feet. Let's go see.”

The girls rushed downstairs and didn't even stop for coats. They jerked open the front door in time to see Hilda walking backward across the front yard toward the summerhouse.

Mandie ran down to the walkway. “Hilda!” she yelled. “Come back here! Where are you going?”

Hilda paid no attention but kept going backward till she reached the summerhouse. Then she stepped up the stairs backward and went inside.

Mandie turned to Liza. “You're not wearing boots, and I'm not either. Will you stay here and see that she doesn't disappear while I run and get a coat and some boots? I'll be right back.”

Mandie came into the house just as Joe came down the hallway toward the parlor.

“What's going on?” Joe asked.

Mandie reached into the closet under the stairs, trying to find a pair of boots. “Hilda is out there in the summerhouse. She walked backward all the way right in the track of the footprints. And I do believe she was wearing somebody else's big shoes.”

“I'll go get her,” Joe volunteered. He ran out the door.

Mandie followed and waited on the walkway while Joe raced across the lawn to where Hilda was sitting in the summerhouse. She saw Joe take Hilda's hand, trying to get her to come back with him. But Hilda resisted.

“Hilda, I have a secret!” Mandie called to her.

“We got lotsa secrets!” yelled Liza.

Hilda got up and started back with Joe. Evidently the word
secret
worked magic. As the girl came out into the yard, Joe tried to help her walk in the snow, but Hilda pushed his hand away and carefully put her feet down in the big footprints in the snow. Slowly, she made her way back to the porch and then stopped and smiled as Mandie joined her. “Secret,” Hilda said.

“Hilda, you have on some man's shoes,” Mandie said, looking down at the girl's feet. “Where did you get them?”

“Secret,” Hilda repeated, starting for the door.

Mandie laid a hand on the girl's arm. “You're the one who made those footprints before, aren't you?” she asked. “You did it backward for some reason.”

Hilda pulled away and stepped out of the shoes. Leaving them on the porch, she rushed inside the house.

Joe scratched his head. “I wonder where she got these,” he said, picking up the shoes.

Mandie looked at them. “I do believe they're Uncle John's,” she said. “He keeps a pair in the closet in the hallway to walk outside in bad weather. Let's look and see if his are in the closet.”

Liza followed them inside where they searched the closet under the front stairs. John Shaw's shoes were not there.

“If dat don't beat all!” Liza exclaimed.

Mandie sighed. “I'll never understand why Hilda does the things she does.”

“Nobody does,” Joe replied.

Suddenly Mandie gasped. “The presents!” She ran for the stairway.

Liza followed, and Joe just stood there staring.

“Hilda may be in my room, getting into my presents,” Mandie called back to Joe.

But when the girls opened the door to Mandie's room, Hilda was not there. Nothing had been disturbed.

Mandie breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness,” she said. “Let's get these things finished and put them under the tree.”

The girls soon had all the presents wrapped again, and they carried them down to the parlor. No one was there. Carefully, they laid the gifts beneath the Christmas tree.

“I hope nothing happens to them again,” Mandie said.

“Never can tell round dis place,” Liza murmured.

“And I still have to find out where my green-wrapped presents went,” Mandie reminded her. “I'm running out of time.”

“Maybe they'll jes' come back like dese did,” Liza told her.

“I hope so.” Mandie sighed again.

CHAPTER TEN

SNOWBALL AND THE CHRISTMAS TREE

Liza again woke Mandie the next morning. Hilda slept soundly at Mandie's side, and Snowball was curled up at the foot of the bed.

“Missy, Missy!” Liza said softly, laying her hand on Mandie's shoulder. “Time to git up. Today's Sunday and Miz Taft say ev'ybody goin' to church.”

Mandie stretched and jumped out of bed, dumping Snowball onto the floor. She warmed herself in front of the fireplace, and Hilda opened one eye to see what was going on.

“It be past time to git up,” Liza told Mandie. “Past time, 'cause somebody else done been up and put all dem green-wrapped presents back under de tree, and—”

“My presents are back?” Mandie interrupted. “Are they all right?”

Liza stirred up the fire to make it burn better. “I don't rightly be knowin',” she replied. “Dey all got messed-up paper, too, like dem other ones.”

“Oh, no!” Mandie moaned, grabbing her robe and putting it on. “I have to go see.”

“But de other ones, dey still there, too.” Liza followed Mandie to the parlor with Snowball racing after them. But Hilda did not come.

Mandie ran over to the tree and knelt to look at her presents. Evidently, the green ones had been unwrapped and twisted back up in a mess.

Mandie sat on the floor and almost cried. “Why is somebody doing this to me? I don't understand who it can be.”

Liza knelt beside Mandie and put her arm around her. “Missy, don't worry 'bout it too much. I'll he'p you wrap 'em all up agin in new paper,” she said.

Mandie hugged her tightly. “Oh, Liza, I love you,” she said tearfully. “You're always so good to me.”

“I loves you, too, Missy. But now I gotta git in de kitchen and he'p 'bout breakfus'. Dat's what Mistuh John be payin' me fo',” Liza said, rising.

Mandie wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her robe. “You probably think I don't have anything for you for Christmas because you saw what was in all the red-wrapped presents,” she said. “But I have something beautiful for you, and I had to hide it so you wouldn't see it. It's not down here with all the other presents.”

“Dat's all right, Missy,” Liza replied. “When you gives me yo' love, dat's enough.” She started for the door. “Now I really gotta go or dat Aunt Lou, she be scoldin' me good. When you gits ready to wrap all dem things agin, jes' let me know, and I'll he'p.”

“Thanks, Liza.” Mandie followed her out of the parlor and turned to the stairway as Liza went on down the hallway to the kitchen.

“I wonder how much money Uncle John pays Liza,” Mandie said to herself as she climbed the stairs. “My father used to say that good people were worth their weight in gold. I sure think Liza is.”

Back in her room, Mandie noticed that Hilda was still in bed. She knew Hilda was awake, so she shook the girl's feet. “Come on, get up,” she coaxed. “Today is Sunday and we're all going to church.”

Hilda sat up in bed, and Mandie walked over to the window and drew the draperies to see outside.

“Come look, Hilda,” Mandie said. “The weather is much better today. Look, the snow is melting into little streams and puddles. No wonder Grandmother expects us to go to church. The roads will be passable.”

Hilda joined her at the window and looked out.

Mandie turned to the brown-haired girl suddenly. “Hilda, do you know who took my presents from under the tree?” she asked. “You remember, the red, green, red, green ones we put there.”

“Red, green, red, green,” Hilda repeated, smiling as she danced about. “Secret. Secret.”

“Oh, well.” Mandie gave up and started to get dressed.

“Hilda, I don't think you've been to our church before. We go to that big church across the road there. All my relatives on my father's side are buried there except my father. He's buried back at Charley Gap on top of a mountain. That's the land he loved.”

Hilda gave another quick glance out the window, then walked back to the fireplace and began undressing. Mandie watched to see what Hilda would put on, but she didn't say a word.

Hilda picked up the dress she had worn the day before, the one with the buttons on the front. As Mandie watched, she put it on right and quickly buttoned it correctly, smiling at Mandie all the while.

“I know one thing, Hilda,” Mandie said, putting on her own dress. “You sure like dresses that open in the front, don't you?”

Hilda only smiled. Putting on her stockings and slippers, she finished before Mandie and rushed out of the room.

When Mandie got down to breakfast, she expected to find Hilda there, but she was nowhere in sight. Only Mrs. Taft sat at the table.

Mandie picked up a plate and went to the sideboard. “Good morning, Grandmother,” she said. “Hilda came down ahead of me, but she didn't come in here, did she?”

“No, I haven't seen her,” Mrs. Taft replied, “but we'll have to keep her in sight today because we are all going to church.”

Mandie brought her filled plate to the table and sat down beside her grandmother. “Guess what happened during the night?” Without waiting for an answer, she told her grandmother about the green presents reappearing under the tree, and she described the condition they were in.

“I still think it must be Hilda, dear,” Mrs. Taft insisted. “I can't think of anyone else who would do such a thing.”

“I don't know what to think anymore,” Mandie admitted. “I don't think it could be Liza. She's so kind and sympathetic about it all.”

“No, I wouldn't think Liza would do such a thing,” Mrs. Taft agreed. She sipped her coffee. “Let's just keep this to ourselves for the time being. That way, maybe we'll catch the culprit.”

“I'll only tell Joe. I'm sure he's not the one,” Mandie said. “And of course Liza knows about it already.”

Within a few minutes Mr. and Mrs. Burns, Jason Bond, and Joe came into the room and served themselves some breakfast from the sideboard.

“Sure am glad to see all that snow beginnin' to melt away,” Jake Burns said as they all sat at the table.

“Me, too,” Mandie said. “And I'll be glad to get out and go to church today. It'll be a nice change from being shut up in the house.”

Jason Bond offered to have the rig waiting for them at the back door. “Even though the church is just across the road, we'll drive you over so you ladies won't get your feet wet,” he said.

“That's very thoughtful of you, Mr. Bond,” Mrs. Taft replied. “We appreciate that.”

Later, while everyone was rushing around to get ready, Hilda showed up at the breakfast table. No one had time to question her about where she had been. They knew they wouldn't get any answers anyway.

When they got to church, they found that the pastor had managed to get into town on horseback from his farm out in Macon County. The Sunday school classes put on their annual Christmas play, and the congregation joined in, singing Christmas carols.

Throughout the church service, Mandie watched Hilda, who sat next to her in the pew, and she wondered how much the girl understood.

Hilda just sat there smiling, her gaze fixed on what was happening in the front of the church. When the play had a Christmas tree in it with presents underneath, Hilda started her singsong, “Red, green, red, green.”

Mrs. Taft, who sat on the other side of Hilda, tried to quiet her. She took Hilda's hand in hers and patted it.

Hilda smiled and hushed. But when everyone stood to sing some Christmas songs with the cast of the play and one song mentioned
presents
, Hilda began singing loudly, “Red, green, red, green.” And she wouldn't stop until the carols were finished.

At the end of the service, the pastor stood at the door shaking hands. When he shook hands with Hilda, she smiled and said, “Red, green, red, green.” The pastor looked perplexed, but he simply smiled and turned to the next ones in line.

Sunday dinner was cooked on Saturday in the Shaw household because all the servants were encouraged to go to church on Sunday. There was no work for anyone to do except warming up the food and putting it on the table. Everyone always pitched in and helped.

As soon as they got home that Sunday, Mandie quickly changed her clothes and ran to the kitchen to help Liza. And Joe soon joined them.