The Mandie Collection (21 page)

The girls opened and closed several more doors but found only small parlors, a storage room for linens, and a small sitting room with a carved mahogany desk in it. They did not hear or see anyone.

“I think we'd better go back in the other direction,” Celia told her.

“Just one more. I see one more door,” Mandie said, hurrying to open a door at the end of a center hallway. “Oh, look what I found!” she exclaimed as she stepped through the doorway.

Celia followed. They were in a huge room full of growing plants and several small flowing water fountains with various statues standing guard. The ceiling and three of the walls were made of glass. A fresh, cool scent filled the air.

Mandie walked on the stone floor, stopping to finger the long green stems growing here and there and to smell fresh peppermint plants and tiny buds sprouting out in the midst of the jungle-like room.

“This is a beautiful place!” Celia exclaimed.

“I wonder if Snowball could be in here,” Mandie said as she tried to see between the plants. “Snowball! Kitty, kitty! Come here, Snowball.”

“Mandie, I don't think Snowball would be in here. He's supposed to be in the kitchen,” Celia reminded her.

“Yes, supposed to be,” Mandie said. “There's no telling what that French maid did with him. Remember, she seemed afraid of him. He could have run away from her.”

Footsteps sounded across the room on the other side of the tall plants. Both girls stopped and waited to see who was there. And in a moment they were surprised to see Jonathan coming toward them.

“I knew you two wouldn't stay in your room,” Jonathan said with a big grin.

“Oh, Jonathan, we only came down here to look for Snowball,”
Mandie explained. “I forgot to get him back from your maid after she fed him.”

“In that case, he's probably still in the kitchen. Come on. We'll go look,” Jonathan told her.

“We couldn't find the kitchen,” Celia said as they left the room through a different door from the first one they had come through.

“It's right here,” Jonathan said, looking back at the girls as he opened a heavy wooden door directly across the small hallway they had entered.

“What a kitchen!” Mandie exclaimed as the three of them stepped inside a huge room furnished with three of the very latest in cookstoves, several work tables upon which were utensils and equipment for cooking, an enormous pantry through an open door in the far corner, various bins and stools, and shelves and shelves of chinaware.

“It is rather big, isn't it? But then when my father entertains for a dinner of maybe a hundred people, this room doesn't seem large enough to take care of the necessary food that is cooked,” Jonathan explained.

“A hundred people?” Mandie said in surprise. “Where do that many people eat?”

“Oh, we have three dining rooms, each with a movable wall that can be opened into one large room,” he replied.

“I'm just plumb overcome with this huge house,” Celia told him.

Mandie suddenly realized the odor of cooking food filled the room. She sniffed and looked around. “Where is the food being cooked?” she asked.

“Oh, it's in all the ovens over there, and it will be ready for us to eat tonight,” Jonathan told her, gesturing toward the stoves.

At that moment, a short, hefty woman with eyeglasses perched on her long nose came into the room through a door on the far side. When she saw them, the woman stopped and put her hands on her hips, which were covered with a large white apron. “Now, now, Master Jonathan, we came to an understanding, just yesterday it was, that you would not come to raid my kitchen any more,” she said as she shook a long finger at him.

Jonathan laughed, and the girls laughed with him. “But I'm not bothering your cooking, Mrs. Cook. I'm only looking for that white cat you were supposed to feed,” he said.

“White cat? Oh yes, I fed that white cat, and he ate like he'd not had a bite today. Shame, shame for starving the poor fellow,” Mrs. Cook said, shaking her head.

Mandie laughed again and said, “But Snowball eats like that all the time, no matter how much I feed him. He never gets full. Where is he, Mrs. Cook?”

“Why, I suppose he's still out in the garden. That French maid didn't want anything to do with him and decided he needed to go outside,” Mrs. Cook explained.

“Oh no!” Mandie said with a loud gasp.

“Come on. We'll go find him. The garden is closed in with a gate, so he's probably still out there,” Jonathan said, quickly leading the way through the kitchen, down a short hall, and then opening the back door.

“Jonathan, Snowball is a cat, and cats climb. You can't fence them in,” Mandie said with a moan as she and Celia followed. “Oh, I hope I can find him.”

As they stepped into the backyard, the three of them began searching among the shrubbery and plants that were interspersed with more statues and fountains like the ones in the glass room. Benches stood among the foliage. The garden was enclosed with a high stone wall, but Mandie found the gate standing wide open, and outside was a street with busy traffic.

“Snowball, Snowball, where are you? Kitty, kitty!” she called as she stepped outside the gate to look for her cat. There was no sign of him, so she came back inside the garden and pulled the gate closed. And when she did, she heard a faint growl. She glanced behind a nearby bush and couldn't believe what she had found. “Snowball!”

“Did you find him?” Celia asked as she and Jonathan came to see what Mandie was doing.

“Look!” Mandie excitedly told her friends.

Snowball was standing there hissing at a white dog, much larger than he was, sitting behind the gate when Mandie had swung it shut. The dog looked terrified of the cat.

“I wonder whose dog that is,” Jonathan said, stooping to look at the animal, whose eyes were fastened on the white cat. Snowball paid no attention to his mistress.

“I never saw a dog afraid of a cat before,” Celia remarked.

“He has a collar on,” Jonathan said, moving closer to the dog. Then, looking up, he said, “Mandie, how about shooing your cat away so I can look at the poor fellow's collar.”

Mandie laughed and, reaching down, quickly picked up Snowball, who didn't like the idea at all and tried to escape from her arms. “No more dog chasing, Snowball,” she told him as he wriggled.

Jonathan quickly examined the collar on the dog that was still too afraid to move. “Poor fellow, I won't let that mean cat terrify you any more,” he said, slowly touching the collar. Then the dog suddenly began licking Jonathan's hand.

Mandie and Celia watched as Jonathan carefully turned the collar around. It was almost completely covered with blue, red, and green glass stones.

“No identification,” Jonathan said in a disappointed voice as he stroked the dog's head.

“What are you going to do with him, Jonathan?” Celia asked.

“Do? Why, I just don't know,” Jonathan replied. “I've never seen him before. I have no idea.”

“Well, you can't just turn him out into the street. He's so meek there's no telling what would happen to him,” Mandie said.

“Evidently that's where he came from,” Jonathan replied.

“Your father said he heard it was going to snow,” Celia reminded him. “He might freeze to death out here in the snow.”

“You could let him stay on the back porch. It's closed in enough so he wouldn't be out in the cold,” Mandie suggested.

“He looks so clean. Someone must have given him a bath not long ago,” Jonathan said as he continued rubbing the dog's fur. “I suppose he could stay on the back porch until something can be done about him.”

Jonathan stood up, and as he did, the dog also rose. Walking toward the porch, the dog followed right on Jonathan's heels.

Mandie smiled and said, “I believe he likes you, Jonathan.”

“Well, I don't want him to like me too much because I know he must belong to someone else and I wouldn't be able to keep him,” Jonathan said, continuing toward the porch.

The girls followed. Mandie had to hold tightly to Snowball, who was determined to get down.

“Mandie, we should go back to our room now,” Celia reminded her.

As they all stepped onto the back porch, Mandie agreed. “Yes, Jonathan, we're supposed to be in our room resting. We only came down to find Snowball,” she said. “We'll be back down at six like your father asked.”

“All right,” Jonathan said, carefully closing the outside door to the porch and latching it. “I'll get doggie something to eat and see you then.” The dog stayed close by.

As the girls entered the house with Jonathan, he headed for the kitchen, and then Mandie remembered they didn't know the way back to the staircase to go to their room. “Jonathan, wait,” she said. “How do we get back upstairs?”

“Simple,” he said as he pushed open a door in the back hallway.

Mandie could see the staircase from there and laughed as she and Celia headed for it. “All the time we were wandering around looking for the kitchen we must have been right at it,” she said.

“I know. Remember that's what I kept telling you all the time?” Celia reminded her as they hurried up the stairs.

“I remember, but we had a nice tour of the house anyway, didn't we?” Mandie said, holding tightly to Snowball.

“Yes, and I can imagine what would have happened if you and I had been caught in the kitchen without Jonathan. I don't think Mrs. Cook would have been very pleased with us,” Celia said.

Moving quickly down the hallway to their room, Mandie stopped and said, “And we do have a mystery. Where did the dog come from? Who does he belong to?”

“Oh, come on, Mandie,” Celia told her as she continued on to their room and opened the door.

Mandie hurried to catch up. “Yes, we can figure that all out later.”

CHAPTER THREE

THE STRANGE GIRL

Mandie set Snowball down on the carpet in the room she was sharing with Celia and then flopped on one of the beds. Celia was already on the other bed.

“Do you think Jonathan will keep the white dog?” Celia asked.

“If he can't find the owner, his father may not allow him to keep it,” Mandie said. “He has never owned a pet, you know. So I just don't know what will happen to the poor dog if we can't solve the mystery.”

“He is a beautiful dog. I wouldn't mind having him, but I know my mother would say we have enough animals back home,” Celia told her. “Anyhow, I think—”

“Snowball!” Mandie suddenly interrupted Celia as she jumped up from the bed. Snowball was running around in circles and making loud growling noises. “What is wrong with you?” She bent down to get a look at him. He meowed and continued rushing around the room.

“What is wrong?” Celia asked, excitedly joining Mandie.

“A sandbox. He wants a sandbox, that's it. Oh, where is the sandbox?” Mandie exclaimed, growing excited herself as she raced about the room looking for one.

“Mandie, there isn't one in here,” Celia told her.

“Isn't one? Oh, how could we forget to ask for one?” Mandie replied as she tried to figure out what to do next.

“Take him back outside,” Celia told her.

“I'd never find the way in time,” Mandie said as she bent to pick up the cat. “I'll put him in the bathtub. You ring the bell for the servants fast.”

Mandie quickly carried Snowball into the bathroom and set him down in the tub as Celia raced for the bell cord. The cat was puzzled by his mistress's actions and meowed as he raced around inside the bathtub. He tried to jump out, but Mandie pushed him back down.

Remembering that Celia's mother was in her room on the other side of the bathroom and was probably taking a nap, Mandie whispered to Celia through their open door, “Did you ring?”

Celia came to the doorway and whispered back, “Yes, I pulled and pulled. I'm sure it rang downstairs or wherever it's connected.”

“Well, I wish somebody would hurry,” Mandie said, bending over the tub. “Snowball, you just stay down there.”

At last a knock sounded on the door to the hallway. Celia rushed to open it. There stood the maid who had helped Monet serve coffee in the parlor.

“Oh, thank goodness you are here,” Celia said, stepping back to allow the woman to come into the room. “In the bathroom.”

The woman looked at her in puzzlement and walked to the bathroom door.

“I'm so glad to see you,” Mandie said. “You see, we should have had a sandbox put in our room for my cat to use, but we forgot all about it. Now he has need for one, and I can't find the way out of the house to let him in the backyard.”

“Oh, zat ees all,” the woman said and reached for a towel. “Just geeve him to Zelda. I take him out.” She picked up the cat, wrapped the big towel around him, and started back through the room to the hall door.

“Wait!” Mandie called to her as she ran to a table and picked up the cat's red leash. “I have to put this on him or he might run away if he goes outside.”

The woman stopped and looked at the leash in Mandie's hand. “But he ees not a dog,” she said.

“But he still likes to run away,” Mandie said, fastening the leash to his red collar. “I'll go with you.”

As Mandie followed Zelda out the door, Celia called, “Don't be too long. We have to get dressed pretty soon.”

“As soon as I can find out where to get a sandbox, I'll be back,” Mandie replied.

Zelda led the way through the house and out to the backyard, where she set Snowball down. He immediately began scratching around in the dirt. Mandie held on to the end of his leash.

“Could somebody get us a box with sand in it to take up to our room for Snowball to use next time?” Mandie asked the woman, who stood watching the cat.

“Box weeth sand?” Zelda asked. “Sand ees out here.”