Mandie Collection, The: 8 (15 page)

“I know,” Mandie said as she pinned a streamer on a drape. “But our coats are right down there by the parlor door, and Joe would probably see us get them and ask us where we’re going.”

“Maybe Liza would get the straw for us,” Sallie suggested.

“Oh goodness, I clear forgot about Liza. I promised she could help decorate. I’ll run and find her and ask her to get the straw,” Mandie said.

Mandie found Liza in the kitchen with Aunt Lou sitting at their table.

“Liza, we’re beginning to decorate the parlor, and I want to ask you to do us a favor. We need some straw from the barn, and we can’t get our coats without Joe seeing us. Would you get it for us?” Mandie asked the girl.

“Sho’nuff, I will,” Liza agreed, rising from the table. She looked at Aunt Lou and asked, “All right?”

“Go right ahead, Liza, and help these girls get that parlor fixed up fo’ de party,” Aunt Lou told her. “Tomorrow you and me, we bake dat chocolate cake.”

The girls worked the rest of the afternoon and finally got the room looking like a party room. They stood back and surveyed their work.

“Everything’s just perfect!” Mandie exclaimed. “Y’all please help me see that Snowball doesn’t get in this room and mess everything up.”

“That would be a catastrophe,” Polly agreed.

“Sallie, I hope your grandfather and grandmother get back in time,” Mandie said. “I’m not sure Uncle John and Mr. Guyer will be here by then, but we’ll have the surprise party anyhow.”

Liza looked at Mandie and said, “Let’s hope dat choc’late cake don’t git stolen tomorrow like dat turkey did.”

Mandie smiled at her and said, “You know we found that turkey.”

“Aunt Lou she done told ev’rybody.” Liza nodded in agreement.

The girls returned to the front parlor, and Mandie signaled to Jonathan that the decorations were finished.

“Who’s winning?” Mandie asked as she walked over to watch the chess game.

Joe looked up at her, smiled, and said, “I’m not quite sure yet.”

Mandie thought again about how much she was going to miss Joe when he went away to college. He had always been around, and now his visits would be few and far between. At least she was proud of organizing the surprise party for him. She knew he would appreciate that.

CHAPTER TWELVE

SURPRISE!

The next morning, which was Monday, Dr. Woodard went out to call on a few of his patients in Franklin. Liza and Aunt Lou gave strict orders that the kitchen was off limits, and they began baking a huge chocolate cake. Mandie and Sallie went to the sewing room with Elizabeth and Mrs. Taft to wrap the presents they were giving Joe. Jonathan and Joe went for a walk.

“You made a fine choice of a present for Joe,” Mrs. Taft remarked as she wrapped the shoeshine set. “I’m sure he’ll get some use out of this.”

“Yes, and this knife will serve lots of purposes,” Elizabeth agreed, tying a ribbon around the neat package.

“I’m glad y’all like what I bought,” Mandie said as she wrote a note to Joe in the front of the diary book she had bought him.

“I trust my grandfather will return in time to give Joe an arrow from us,” Sallie remarked.

Mandie quickly said, “I heard the front door shut downstairs. I’m going to peek down the stairs and see who it is. We don’t want Joe catching us up here with all these presents.”

“No,” Sallie agreed.

“I’ll see who it is, Amanda,” Elizabeth said, going to the door.
“Mother and I are finished with our gifts.” She glanced back at the packages on the sewing table as she went out into the hall.

“I’m going down with you,” Mrs. Taft told her daughter as she stepped outside the room to join her. “If it’s Joe, we’ll entertain him to give you girls time to finish.”

“Thank you, Grandmother,” Mandie replied as she quickly tied a pencil around the diary book and began wrapping it.

As Mrs. Taft started to close the door behind her, Mandie heard someone call, “Anybody home?” and the voice definitely belonged to Uncle John.

“Sallie, it’s Uncle John!” Mandie told her friend as she quickly tied a ribbon around the package. “Come on. Let’s go downstairs.”

The girls got to the bottom of the stairs not far behind Elizabeth and Mrs. Taft. John Shaw and Lindall Guyer were removing their coats in the front hallway.

“Y’all got back sooner than expected,” Elizabeth said as John Shaw stepped over to give her a hug.

“Lindall was ready to do business and found exactly what he was looking for,” John Shaw replied.

“Just pure luck,” Mr. Guyer said with a smile for Elizabeth.

“Go in the parlor and I’ll ask Aunt Lou to bring hot coffee to thaw you out,” Elizabeth said, starting to turn back down the hallway.

“Wait, Elizabeth,” Mrs. Taft said. “I’ll attend to the coffee for you. You go on in the parlor with John and Lindall.” She hurried back down the hallway.

Mandie and Sallie followed the men and Elizabeth into the parlor, where the adults sat by the fire and the girls dropped onto nearby stools.

“I want to tell y’all real fast before Joe and Jonathan get back that we’re having a surprise party for Joe tonight,” Mandie told her uncle and Mr. Guyer. And then she realized the men did not know the Woodards were back and that Joe was going away to school. She talked rapidly, filling them in on the details of everything that had happened while they had been gone. “And, Uncle John, we found some kind of old diary book in the attic. Will you look at it and tell us what it is, please?”

John Shaw smiled at her and said, “Of course, Amanda,” and turning to his wife, Elizabeth, he added, “I’m sorry, dear, you were here alone with all this happening.”

At that moment Mrs. Taft returned to the parlor and took a chair over near the fireplace. “She wasn’t alone, John. I was here.”

“Yes, ma’am, and I’m thankful for that,” John Shaw said, smiling at the lady.

“Now, if Uncle Ned and Morning Star would get back, everything would be going just fine,” Mandie remarked. “I’ll run upstairs and get the book, Uncle John.”

Mandie went up to her room, picked up the book from her bureau, and returned downstairs to the parlor. By that time Joe and Jonathan had come back from their walk and were talking to Mr. Guyer.

“What kind of mine did you buy, Dad?” Jonathan was asking Mr. Guyer.

“It’s a rather unusual kind of mine. It’s stuff called mica, but I understand there is a big market for it right now,” Mr. Guyer replied.

“Can we go see it?” Jonathan asked.

“No, Jonathan, we don’t have time this trip,” Lindall Guyer explained, “but we will come back soon, and I’ll show it to you then. In the meantime, Mr. Bond will be handling everything for me, with permission of John Shaw, of course.”

“Yes, Jason Bond will hire some help and get things moving. It hasn’t been mined in a few years,” John Shaw agreed.

Mandie had stood beside her uncle during this conversation, and now she held the old book’s loose pages out to him.

“What is this, Amanda? Looks like a lot of paper,” John Shaw told her as he shuffled the yellowed sheets of paper.

“We found it behind a drawer in an old wardrobe in the attic,” Mandie replied. “Mr. Jason thought it might be an account book for the farm here many years ago.”

“Well, yes, it could be, but it’s so old I can’t make out much of anything on these pages,” John Shaw told her. Then he looked up and added, “I know exactly who would be able to help you out on this. Uncle Ned. He lived here, you know, when I was a small boy, and he helped my father with the business of the farm.”

“All right, we’ll ask him,” Mandie agreed, taking back the loose papers. “He’s supposed to be back anytime now.”

But Uncle Ned and Morning Star did not return in the afternoon, and Mandie was so busy seeing about the party for Joe that first thing she knew, it was time for supper.

At the dining table that night, everyone seemed quiet, waiting for the surprise to happen. And everyone knew they would not get any dessert at supper. Everyone, that is, but Joe.

As soon as they were finished, Joe looked at Mandie and said, “I suppose we’re going to have chocolate cake for dessert.”

Mandie almost choked on the last sip of her coffee, trying to think of an answer, but her mother saved her.

“We’ll have coffee and cake later,” Elizabeth said, rising from the table. “That way we can get comfortable and have a chance to talk, since Joe and Dr. Woodard are leaving tomorrow for that long journey to New Orleans.”

Everyone agreed as they rose and left the room as Mandie had requested earlier. “Son, let’s step out on the porch for a whiff of fresh air,” Dr. Woodard said, getting his coat from the hall tree.

“Sure, Dad,” Joe agreed, reaching for his coat. As he and his father went toward the front door, he called back to Mandie, “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“All right,” Mandie agreed.

As soon as Dr. Woodard and Joe went outside, the others all rushed to the back parlor, slipped inside, and closed the door. The huge baby grand piano was in this room, and Mandie immediately approached her grandmother. “You are making me take piano lessons at school because you said every well-educated young lady should know music, but you have never played for me. I don’t believe you know how.” She grinned.

“Amanda, I am well aware of your tactics. You are only trying to get me to play for Joe’s party,” Mrs. Taft said, smiling down at Mandie. She walked over to the piano and asked, “What would you like?” as she raised the lid on the keyboard.

Mandie frowned and said, “Something fast, or funny, nothing slow and sad.”

Mrs. Taft smiled at her and immediately broke into “Hello, ma Baby, hello, ma honey—”

Just as Mandie started to protest, the door opened and Dr. Woodard ushered Joe into the room. Everyone applauded and began congratulating him on his admission to college. The huge chocolate cake stood in the middle of the table in the center of the room, and coffee and cups were nearby. Joe could only stand there and stare.

“Come on, you have to cut the cake,” Mandie said, going to grab him by the hand.

At that moment Polly and her mother appeared at the doorway. Elizabeth went to meet them and said, “I’m sorry. We should have waited for y’all.”

“No, we’re late. Sorry,” Mrs. Cornwallis told her.

“I’ll help you cut the cake,” Polly said, rushing across the room to take Joe’s other hand.

Everyone laughed as John Shaw said, “My goodness, Joe, you have so many admirers.”

Joe’s face turned red, and he immediately pulled away from Mandie and Polly. “I think whoever made this cake ought to cut it,” he said, looking around the room.

Aunt Lou, Liza, Jenny, and Abraham were all standing near the doorway, smiling. Joe rushed over to Aunt Lou, caught her hand, and led her to the cake on the table. “I want you to cut it,” he said, and then grinning, he added, “but you can give me the very first piece, since you didn’t give us any dessert at supper.”

“Lawsy mercy,” the old woman said, glancing at Elizabeth, who nodded and smiled. “ ’Nuff work cookin’ dat great big cake. Now I has to cut it, too.” She sighed in protest, picked up the knife, and began slicing.

As soon as everyone had their fill of cake, Mandie removed a cover from a corner table and revealed the wrapped gifts. “Now you have to unwrap these,” she called out. “We’re not going to allow Aunt Lou to do that.” She grinned at him.

Joe, who never liked a fuss being made over him, blushed again and finally began to remove the paper and ribbons, thanking each person as the present appeared.

Mandie heard a sudden movement at the doorway to the hallway. She looked across the room and saw Uncle Ned and Morning Star standing there watching. She raced across the room, grabbed both of them by a hand, and pulled them into the room.

“You are late, but there’s still plenty of cake and coffee,” she told them.

Aunt Lou nodded at Liza, and the girl served them with a slice of cake and a cup of coffee.

Mrs. Taft kept playing the popular music of the day as everyone
moved around the room and talked. Then Mandie heard the notes of “When You Were Sweet Sixteen,” and she quickly looked at her grandmother. The lady was looking straight across the room at Lindall Guyer, who was staring back.

“Well,” Mandie said softly to Joe at her side.

“Yes, there has to have been something between those two many years ago,” Jonathan spoke up behind them.

Mandie and Joe turned and agreed.

“Someday I’m going to find out what the story was,” Mandie said. “In the meantime, let’s all sit down.”

The five young people managed to sit on one settee that was across the room. Mandie asked Joe to tell them about the college.

“But, Mandie, I’ve told you that I haven’t even seen it yet,” he said. He turned halfway around to look at her, which put his back to the others, and said, “There’s something I’ve been meaning to say to you. I’ve thought about it for a long time, and I’ve decided I should explain so you won’t misunderstand what—”

Polly had stood up and was looking at the two as she interrupted, “Oh, Joe, I’m so anxious to see your college. I’m coming down there on a visit—Mother and me. She said so.”

Mandie drew a deep breath, stood up, and said, “It’s time to show the diary book and the quilt to Uncle Ned. Come on.”

All the young people rushed upstairs. Mandie got the book from her room, and then they went on to retrieve the quilt from the attic. Joe volunteered to carry it down the steps. When they reentered the parlor, everyone turned to look.

“What on earth do you have, Joe?” Elizabeth asked.

Before anyone could say anything else, Uncle Ned stepped forward and said, “Cherokee quilt.” He reached for it and shook out the folds.

Everyone crowded around with questions.

“My grandfather, what does the story say on the quilt?” Sallie asked.

“Later. Take time to read,” the old man told her.

“Will you read it before you leave?” Mandie asked.

Uncle Ned shook his head and said, “Take quilt home. Get Uncle Wirt read.”

“But can’t you read it?” Mandie asked.

“Yes, but long time. Wirt know better, faster,” the old man said. He folded the quilt and handed it to Morning Star. “Take home.”