The Mandie Collection (18 page)

Mandie rubbed her eyes and looked at the girl. “Don’t tell me it’s time to get up. We just now went to bed.”

Liza looked up at the clock on the mantelpiece and said, “You means y’all dun stayed up all night? It’s seven o’clock right now and dem boys dey dun dressed and waitin’ fo’ y’all at de top of de stairs.”

Mandie pushed Snowball out of the way and swung her feet down from the bed. Snowball ran for the heat of the fire. “If the boys are up then we’d better hurry,” she said, yawning and stretching.

Celia and Sallie jumped out of bed and quickly began dressing.

Liza started toward the door and then turned back to say, “Oh, I forgot to say Merry Christmas to y’all.”

The three girls answered together, “Merry Christmas, Liza.”

As the maid went out the door, Mandie called to her, “Please tell Joe and Jonathan and Dimar we’re on our way.”

“Dat I will do,” Liza promised as she went out the door and closed it behind her.

As Mandie tied the sash on her dress she said, “I suppose I should have asked Liza if my mother and the other adults are up, too.”

“Seems like we just went to bed,” Celia fussed as she buttoned up her green dress.

“I feel that way, too,” Sallie agreed, brushing back her long black hair.

“Mandie, are you going to say anything to anyone about your graduation dress?” Celia asked.

“If I can think of a way to do it without letting anyone know we have been in the sewing room,” Mandie replied, joining Sallie at the mirror on the bureau.

“I just remembered the mother cat and the kittens,” Celia said, coming over to join them. “Do you suppose the cat stayed in the storage room this time, or maybe it got out again?”

“I hope it stayed in the storage room with its kittens,” Mandie said. “I wish I could keep one of the kittens.”

Sallie quickly turned to look at her and said, “Keep one of the kittens?”

“What would you do with it?” Celia asked. “You already have one cat, Snowball, and he is enough, don’t you think?”

Mandie looked over at the cat while he was washing his face in front of the fire on the hearth. “I suppose he is, but the kittens are so pretty and tiny.”

“Remember Snowball was once tiny, but cats do grow up, you know,” Celia replied.

“Yes, he was a tiny kitten back at my father’s house at Charley Gap when my father was still living,” Mandie replied, sadly looked at the cat. “I brought him with me when I ran away.”

“But Mandie, you did not run away. You were sent to live with those terrible people, and my grandfather brought you here to your Uncle John’s house,” Sallie reminded her.

“You are right, Sallie, and I love your grandfather so much for looking after me,” Mandie replied.

Celia started toward the door. “Come on, the boys are waiting, and no telling who else is up, and we have presents to open,” she said.

They found the boys waiting at the top of the stairs.

“We were about to come pound on your door,” Joe told Mandie. “Even your grandmother is up this early. They’re all down in the parlor.”

“Oh goodness, let’s hurry,” Mandie replied.

The group rushed down the staircase, and when they came to the open door of the parlor, they stopped, looked into the room, and all together said, “Merry Christmas!”

The adults returned the greeting.

“Now we will proceed to the Christmas tree and distribute the presents,” John Shaw said.

As they got to the tree, Mandie saw Aunt Lou and all the other servants coming to join them, and again everyone chorused, “Merry Christmas!”

And Aunt Lou added loudly, “Happy Birthday, Jesus!” and the others echoed the greeting.

Christmas Day and the week following passed quickly. During that time Jenny and Abraham decided to take the mother cat and her kittens to their house in the back of John Shaw’s property.

“I sho’ am glad dem cats ain’t comin’ into my kitchen now,” Aunt Lou told the young people one morning. “Jenny promises to keep dem at her house.”

“Yes,” Mandie agreed. “Snowball is enough to have around. I had thought I’d like to keep one of the kittens but decided it was too much trouble.”

“You couldn’t have took it back to school when you goes back,” the old woman reminded her.

“That’s right,” all of Mandie’s friends chimed in with a smile.

“I know, and my grandmother would not have allowed one to live at her house while I’m in school.”

Mandie had not mentioned her graduation dress to Aunt Lou but decided this was the right time to ask. “Oh, Aunt Lou, have you been doing any work on my graduation dress since you showed it to me?”

Aunt Lou looked at her, put her hands on her broad hips, and said, “Now I dun told you I can’t be workin’ on dat dress with so many visitors in dis here house, and I also told you I’d have it ready for you to take back with you when you come home for spring break. So now, dat’s de last of dis heah conversation ’bout dat dress.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mandie replied, and as she turned to look at her friends drinking coffee with her at the kitchen table, she said, “Guess we’d better get out of Aunt Lou’s way so she can get breakfast.”

“That’s right,” Joe agreed.

“Yes, dat’s right, now, shoo, I’se got to git de food ready,” the old woman fanned her large white apron at the young people. They all quickly rose from the table.

“Yes, ma’am,” they all agreed as they left the kitchen.

“It didn’t do any good to ask,” Mandie said with a loud sigh as she looked at Celia and Sallie in the hallway.

“No,” the two girls agreed.

Since the boys didn’t know about the missing dress, Mandie decided not to tell them right then.

Christmas week passed quickly and then it was New Year’s Eve. John and Elizabeth had planned a large dinner party for that night and the house was running over with people when the clock struck twelve.

“Happy New Year!” Mandie and all her friends said together. Everyone was standing around the loaded dining room and were taking plates full of food to a seat wherever they could find one.

“Where are we going to eat this?” Jonathan asked as he held a heavily laden plate in his hands.

Mandie frowned thoughfully and said, “Maybe no one is in the back parlor. Let’s see.” She led the way down the hall.

Luckily no one was inside the room. The young people found seats and hungrily began eating, even though they had had supper earlier that night.

“My parents and I will be leaving tomorrow morning,” Joe told them.

“I think my father is planning to leave then, also,” Jonathan said, and added between bites, “and of course I’ll have to go with him. Too bad you haven’t been able to get your grandmother to tell us whether we are going to Europe or not, Mandie.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ve done everything I could think of to find out,” Mandie said. “She just isn’t telling yet.”

“If she doesn’t hurry up and decide, my mother may be making plans for something else for the summer,” Celia said.

“I am not certain I would like to go on that huge ship all the way across the ocean so it does not matter to me,” Dimar told them.

“Oh, but Dimar, you’ve just got to go if my grandmother does take us,” Mandie told him.

“Yes, Dimar, you must go,” Sallie said. “You may never have such an opportunity to see what it is like on the other side of the ocean.”

“But Mrs. Taft may not go anyhow,” Dimar replied.

“And you must come to our graduation,” Mandie told him.

“Yes, you must come with my grandfather and me,” Sallie said. “Next school year we will all be separated in different places.”

“At least Celia and I will be together at the College of Charleston,” Mandie remarked, glancing at her friend.

“At least for one year,” Celia added. “Remember I said I would try it out for one year.”

“Yes, and if we don’t like the college we will go to another one the next year, together,” Mandie agreed.

“Y’all may end up at my college yet,” Joe teased her.

“Or they may end up at my school in New York,” Jonathan said with a big grin as he swallowed a huge bite of mashed potatoes.

Mandie looked forward to the coming year of 1904. So many things would be happening. She thought to herself that there would not be any time for any mysteries this year. Then she remembered her missing dress. That was a mystery, and unless the dress was there when she came home for spring break, she would have to really investigate the matter. After spring break, graduation day was not long off, and she certainly had to have her graduation dress.

Next day when Joe and his parents and Jonathan Guyer and his father left for their homes, Mrs. Taft informed Mandie, “We will be leaving tomorrow. Jane Hamilton and Celia will also be going. We need a day or two of rest before you girls have to return to school on Tuesday.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mandie replied and turned to ask Celia, “Will you be going home and then coming back to school on Tuesday?”

Celia looked at her mother, who was standing nearby on the platform after they had waved good-bye to the Woodards and Guyers.

“Yes, Celia, we’ll go home and then you can come back to school on Tuesday. We need a day or two by ourselves since we’ve spent the whole holiday time away from home.”

Mandie silently groaned to herself. She wasn’t looking forward to spending the next two days alone at her grandmother’s house in Asheville. She smiled at Celia, who always understood what she was thinking. Celia smiled back.

But Tuesday did finally arrive and the girls were back in the Misses Heathwood’s School for Girls at last that afternoon.

As they began unpacking their trunks, Mandie looked around the room and noticed things on the bureau had been moved about. She pulled open the drawer she used and found personal belongings jumbled up in the drawer.

“Celia, look,” she said, pointing to the open drawer. “Someone has been messing in my things, and on the bureau, too.”

Celia came to look and replied, “Yes, it looks like someone must have gone through your things in a hurry. Let me check my drawer.”

Mandie pushed her drawer shut so Celia could open the one she used beneath it.

“Oh, Mandie, mine is a mess, too,” Celia said. “I wonder if they took anything.” She anxiously tried to refold things and put them back in some kind of order.

After Celia closed her drawer, Mandie quickly straightened up her belongings in her drawer.

Celia went over to check the inside of the huge wardrobe where they hung their dresses.

“I can’t tell for sure but it looks like someone has been pushing our clothes about in here,” Celia said.

“I’m not sure, either, because I know we packed in a big hurry when we went home.”

“Should we tell Miss Prudence about this?” Celia asked as she sat in a big chair.

Mandie flopped into the other chair. “I don’t know what good it would do,” she said. “I don’t think anything of mine is missing.”

“It’s bound to have been one of the girls who stayed over here for the holidays,” Celia said.

“Yes, someone who lives too far away or has no family to go home to,” Mandie agreed. “And the first one in that category I can think of would be April Snow.”

Celia nodded in agreement. “But I don’t know why anyone would want to go through our things. Whoever it was evidently didn’t take anything.”

“Let’s do some investigating on our own and find out just who stayed here at school during the holidays,” Mandie suggested. She stood up and added, “How about sitting in the parlor until time for supper, where we can see everybody come and go, and where we can find out exactly who didn’t go home.”

“All right,” Celia agreed as she got up and walked over to the bureau. “But let’s place things here so we’ll know if anyone comes in here while we’re gone.” She moved her hairbrush and comb.

“Yes,” Mandie said, coming to straighten up her belongings on top of the bureau. “I have already straightened out things in my drawer, so I’ll know if they are disturbed again.”

“So have I,” Celia said.

When Mandie and Celia went to the main parlor on the first floor, there were only two girls walking through the room to sit at the far end. They were talking to each other and didn’t even glance in Mandie and Celia’s direction.

“Twins!” Mandie said with surprise. “And I’ve never seen them before.”

“Yes, they are identical,” Celia agreed.

They stared at the two girls as they sat on a sofa. Even the curl of their long hair seemed to be identical. They wore the latest fashion in bright red grown-up dresses that offset their long dark hair.

Mandie frowned as she whispered to Celia, “Don’t you think they look too old to be going to school here?”

“Yes,” Celia whispered back. “But do you suppose they are students here, or just visitors?”

“I don’t believe Miss Prudence has accepted any new students in the middle of the year since we’ve been here,” Mandie said.

Other girls began coming into the parlor and Mandie noticed none of them passed near the two new girls or spoke to them. However, they did all stare at the twins.

“I don’t believe anyone here knows them,” Mandie whispered to Celia.

“No, but they sure are staring,” Celia agreed.

Mandie saw April Snow enter the room, and she went to sit at the other end as she glanced at Mandie and Celia but didn’t speak. Not far behind April, Polly Cornwallis quickly slipped into the room and, without even looking at anyone, went to sit in a chair in a small alcove by herself, where she could view the room.

Polly was Mandie’s neighbor back home but was always causing trouble of some kind.

“There’s Polly,” Mandie said. “Mother said she and her mother had gone to New York for the holidays, so that’s why she didn’t put in an unwanted appearance at our house.”

“I sure hope she doesn’t go to the college we’re going to,” Celia said.

“Oh, that would be disastrous,” Mandie agreed. “I have an idea she will go to school in New York. She likes the big city. And besides, Jonathan lives there.”

“But Jonathan is not interested in her,” Celia said.

“Now you know a person doesn’t have to be interested in Polly Cornwallis for her to push herself on them,” Mandie reminded Celia.

“You are right,” Celia agreed.

Mandie looked at the twins across the room again. They were still talking to each other and seemed unaware of the fact that every girl in the room was glancing at them now and then. And Mandie imagined they were all trying to figure out who the new girls were.

“Mandie, do you think anyone looks guilty?” Celia whispered.

“Looks guilty?” Mandie asked.

“Yes, of going through our things in our room,” Celia reminded her.

“Oh, the guilty one might not even look guilty. You know how Miss Prudence has been teaching us to act aloof, to act like young ladies,” Mandie whispered back. “However, I would like to find out if April Snow stayed here for the holidays.”

“But Mandie, it could have been someone who went home for the holidays and got back ahead of us,” Celia said.

“That’s right,” Mandie agreed.

The bell in the backyard of the school began ringing for supper. All the girls hurried to get in the line headed for the dining room. Mandie watched the new girls who just sat there, evidently wondering what the fuss was all about.

“Should I go tell them they need to get in line for supper?” Mandie whispered to Celia as they slowly got up to join the line.

“But they might not be students,” Celia said.

“Now that Miss Hope has changed the rules and has only one sitting for each meal, they won’t get anything to eat if they don’t come on with us,” Mandie reminded her. She stood there undecided as all the other girls had formed a line. “Come on, let’s go explain to them,” Mandie decided. She started across the room toward the twins. Celia followed.

“Hello, I was wondering if you knew you were supposed to get in that line there in order to get supper.”

The girls looked at each other and finally one spoke, “Grazie, we did not know.” They stood up.

“My name is Mandie Shaw and this is Celia Hamilton,” Mandie introduced them. “The line is moving. We have to hurry.”

“My name is Maria and my sister is Margret,” the other girl told them.

At that moment Miss Hope came hurrying across the room to them and told the twins, “Please excuse me, but I was tied up and didn’t get here in time to explain about the line. Just follow the other girls into the dining room.”

The twins nodded to her as she hurried around the line and into the dining room to take her place at the head of the table.

The line moved fast and there was no more chance to talk. The twins sat on the other side of the room from Mandie and Celia. The long dining room tables had been moved and pushed together to form a T-shape when the new rules about the seating had been instated.

Mandie whispered to Celia as they stood behind their chairs waiting for Miss Hope to ask the blessing, “So they are students here.”

“Yes,” Celia whispered back.

“And they are not American, probably Italian,” Mandie added.

Celia nodded her head as Miss Hope shook the little bell sitting by her place and announced, “Young ladies, we will now return thanks.” Everyone immediately bowed their heads as Miss Hope said the blessing.

Then Miss Hope solved the mystery as she again shook her little bell and announced, “Young ladies, we are pleased to introduce you to Miss Maria and Miss Margret Cassell who have come here for the last half of this school year from Italy. Their father is a diplomat in Washington. Let’s show them our welcome.” She began clapping her hands and all the girls joined in.

Mandie noticed the twins looked confused and uncertain as to what this was all about. When Miss Hope silenced the noise, she looked directly at them and they both said, “Grazie.”