The Mandie Collection (63 page)

Aunt Phoebe stood up. “Now we knows de story, we gotta be goin'. It done be dahk outside,” she said.

“I puts my trust in y'all not to 'peat anythin' I tol' you,” Aunt Pansy told them as everyone else got up from the table.

“Is it all right if we tell Joe? He's my friend from back home in Swain County. He's visiting in Asheville, so he's been helping us solve the mystery,” Mandie said.

“Well, I reckons he be all right,” Aunt Pansy consented.

“We won't tell anybody else unless it's absolutely, positively necessary, Aunt Pansy,” Mandie promised.

“Yes, it might be absolutely, positively necessary,” Celia added.

“Well, I don't see wheah no hahm could be, so I reckons I won't hold y'all to no promise not to tell anybody. Jes' y'all be's careful how y'all tells whut I knows. Don't add no extry embrawdery to it,” the old woman told the girls. “ 'Cause whut I done bin sayin' be's de honest truth.”

“Then we can tell anyone we want to?” Mandie asked.

“I s'pose so, but you be's sure you tells it like I tells it,” Aunt Pansy warned her.

They promised and said good-bye to the old woman.

On their way back to school, Mandie and Celia discussed this new information. Aunt Phoebe joined in occasionally when she wasn't urging the horse on.

As they rounded a bend in the dirt road the horse suddenly stumbled and came to a standstill, whinnying loudly.

“Whut in de world done happen now?” Aunt Phoebe said, drawing a sharp breath. “Giddyup, hoss.”

But the horse just stood there snorting. When Aunt Phoebe got down to urge him forward, she noticed he was stomping his left front foot. Catching hold of it in the dim moonlight, she felt the hoof and found he had thrown a shoe. No amount of urging could make the horse move.

“He done throwed a shoe, Missies. Guess we gonna hafta leave him heah and walk home. I knows a short cut,” she said. “Cal kin come back an' git him.”

The girls followed her as she stepped off the road onto a faint path.

Celia gasped. “We're going through the woods!” she said, stopping in her tracks.

“I knows de way. It be fastuh dis way,” said the old woman, leading the way.

Mandie took Celia's hand and followed Aunt Phoebe into the woods. The moonlight shone dimly through the trees. They walked on in silence for a while. Then suddenly a big wall loomed up in front of them.

Celia stopped again. “That's the cemetery wall!” she said, shivering.

“We not be goin' in de graveyard, jes' by it,” Aunt Phoebe said, trudging on.

Mandie tugged at Celia's hand, forcing her to come along. As they came abreast of the tall wall, the sound of voices reached them.
Aunt Phoebe stopped. A shiver went up Mandie's spine, and she felt the hair rise on her head.

Celia squeezed Mandie's hand till it hurt. “Wh-h-hat's th-that?” she cried.

“Ain't nothin',” Aunt Phoebe answered. “Come on.”

They each took a step forward. The voices sounded clearer then, evidently coming from behind the graveyard wall.

“I'll take this 'un and you take that 'un,” a male voice said.

“That's a fat 'un. This 'un's a pore 'un,” said another male voice.

At last Aunt Phoebe looked frightened and she started to run. “Lawsy mercy,” she cried, “de Lawd and de Debil's dividin' up de daid!”

The girls broke into a run after her, and the three didn't stop until they came out of the woods at the bottom of the hill below the school. Mandie's side hurt, and she gasped for air. Celia was out of breath, too, and still shivering.

Aunt Phoebe wiped her face with her apron. Her chest heaved up and down from the hard running. “Nevuh . . . in my bawn days . . . has I heerd sech goin's on . . . in a graveyard,” she said between breaths. “De end of time . . . must be heah.”

Mandie's blue eyes grew wide. “Well, let's get up to the school before it happens, then,” she cried.

“Best y'all tell Miz Hope whut happened. I aks Cal to go aftuh de hoss,” Aunt Phoebe called to them as she hurried off.

When the girls got back to school, Miss Hope was waiting for them in the alcove.

“Oh, Miss Hope, Miss Hope! God and the Devil are dividing up the dead down in the graveyard!” Celia exclaimed, white as a sheet.

“What!”

“That's what Aunt Phoebe said,” Mandie told her, explaining what had happened.

Miss Hope laughed. “That sounds just like Aunt Phoebe. I'm sure there's some good explanation. I don't think God and the Devil
would be doing such a thing. I'll get Uncle Cal to check on it. I promise to tell you what he finds out. Now you girls get upstairs. It's almost ten o'clock.”

The girls hurried up to their room. As they dressed for bed, they finished putting together all the pieces of their mystery puzzle.

“Well, now we know who the writer of those letters was,” said Mandie.

“And what are we going to do?” Celia asked, still shaky. “We'll have to talk to Joe tomorrow and see what he thinks,” Mandie decided.

“
If
the end of the world doesn't come before then,” Celia reminded her.

CHAPTER TWELVE

MANDIE'S REGRETS

The next morning Miss Hope waited for Mandie and Celia as they came downstairs for breakfast.

“Amanda, Celia, I just wanted to put your minds at ease this morning,” the schoolmistress told them in the hallway. “When Uncle Cal went back after the horse and rig last night, he found two boys inside the cemetery dividing up chickens they had stolen. So you see, the end of time hasn't come yet.”

“Thank you for letting us know, Miss Hope,” Mandie said. “I'm so glad Uncle Cal found them. I hope they're punished for stealing those chickens.”

“They probably will be. He knew who they were,” Miss Hope replied. “Uncle Cal says the cemetery is overgrown with weeds and brush. I know it's not on our property, but I've sent word to ask the boys from Mr. Chadwick's School to clean it up.”

Celia brightened at the mention of Mr. Chadwick's School. “Will Robert Rogers and Thomas Patton be in the group doing the work?” she asked.

Miss Hope looked amused. “That can be arranged, I think. In fact, we'll ask the boys to dinner—just the ones who help with the work.”

The girls thanked Miss Hope and hurried on into the dining room.

The hours dragged that day. The girls could hardly wait for Joe to come. At three-thirty, as Joe alighted from Mrs. Taft's buggy, the two girls ran down the steps, grabbed his arms, and hurried him down the hill where they could talk. Sitting on the grass within sight of the school, the three young people spoke excitedly.

“We've found out everything!” Mandie exclaimed.

“Everything?” Joe questioned.

“Absolutely everything!” Celia said, waving her arms.

“Aunt Pansy—that's Uncle Cal's mother—knew everything,” Mandie explained.

Together Mandie and Celia repeated Aunt Pansy's story, taking turns telling each detail. Joe sat there taking in every word.

“What a story!” Joe said when they had finished. “But there's just one thing I don't understand. Yesterday you told me about seeing Miss Hope with the rings. I wonder how she got them.”

“So do we,” Mandie admitted. “Now what should we do?”

“I don't know, but I have to go home tomorrow,” Joe said. “It's up to you and Celia now.”

“Oh, I wish you could stay here in Asheville for as long as I'm here at this school,” Mandie moaned.

“You know that's impossible, Mandie. I have to go home because school will be starting back,” he said.

“I sure wish we had a school break to harvest the crops like the country schools do,” Celia said.

Joe laughed. “I can see you harvesting crops,” he said.

“You aren't gathering in the crops, yourself,” Mandie teased.

“That's because we have people living on our farm just to do that. You know that,” Joe said. “Anyway, let me know what you do about this whole situation. Write me a note.”

“I will,” Mandie promised. “I suppose the best thing to do is to just give the letters to Miss Hope. They really belong to her and Miss Prudence, anyway, since their father wrote them.”

“You could burn them,” Joe suggested.

“No, that would be destroying someone else's property,” Mandie reasoned.

“Well, I'd say either give the letters to her or destroy them,” Joe advised. “Someone might find them and take them. Remember, someone already discovered those letters in your bureau drawer.”

“I think we'll give them to Miss Hope,” Mandie decided.

After supper that night, the girls went to Miss Hope's office with the letters.

“We have something that belongs to you,” Mandie told the schoolmistress as she and Celia stood before her desk.

“Something that belongs to me?” Miss Hope asked.

Mandie reached forward and put the candy box containing the letters on Miss Hope's desk. Miss Hope looked at the girls and then at the box.

At that moment Miss Prudence walked into the office. “And what have we here?” Miss Prudence asked her sister.

Miss Prudence reached forward and opened the lid, disclosing the letters.

“I don't know, Sister,” Miss Hope replied, taking an envelope from the box and opening it.

Miss Prudence also picked up a letter, unfolded it, and began reading silently. The two ladies read in unbelief and then looked up at the girls standing before the desk.

“What is this?” Miss Prudence demanded. “Where did you get these?”

“Who wrote these letters?” Miss Hope asked.

“Y'all's father wrote them,” Mandie explained.

Miss Hope gasped. “Our father?”

“We found the letters in the attic,” Celia added.

Miss Prudence arrogantly shoved the box of letters toward Miss Hope. “Don't include me. He was no father of mine,” she snapped.

“My father was not your father?” Miss Hope asked, not understanding.

“You never did know that we had different fathers, did you? My father died when I was a baby and Mother married your father later. Then he gave me his name,” Miss Prudence explained.

Miss Hope was overcome. Tears streamed down her face.

Mandie tried to help the situation by explaining. “You see, Miss Hope, your father wrote these letters to Mrs. Scott's daughter, Helen, before he ever knew or married your mother.”

Celia cleared her throat. “Since you already have the rings he bought for her, we thought you'd like to have the letters, too,” she added.

“Those rings!” Miss Hope exclaimed, bursting into sobs.

Miss Prudence came around the desk and pointed to the door. “Get out of here!” she demanded.

Mandie and Celia, frightened by the outcome, quickly stepped out into the hallway, and Miss Prudence slammed the door behind them.

The two girls turned around quickly, only to find April Snow standing in the hallway.

“So you two are in trouble again, eh?” April laughed.

“Keep out of our business, April!” Mandie said angrily.

“In case you're wondering, I'm the one who put the rings on Miss Hope's desk. They just looked too tempting when I found them in your room, especially after I read those old letters and figured out what y'all were up to,” April told them.

“You stole those rings out of our room?” Mandie gasped.

“I didn't steal them. They didn't belong to you,” April reasoned. “I had no idea who the owner was, but I knew they weren't yours. I saw you find them out there in the woods at that old cabin. So I took them from your room and put them on Miss Hope's desk.”

“Oh, you troublemaker!” Celia snarled.

“Just ignore her, Celia.” Mandie tried to calm her friend. “She's just trying to get us to start something. Come on. Let's go to our room.”

The two girls hurried up the stairway.

“You've already started something,” April called after them.

In their room, the two girls sat on the window seat.

“Celia, we've hurt Miss Hope badly,” Mandie said with a shaky voice. “Of all people, I didn't want to hurt Miss Hope.”

“But, Mandie, we didn't know all that would happen,” Celia said, trying to comfort her. “If Miss Prudence hadn't come in right then, it might not have been so bad. I think Miss Prudence is really angry with us.”

“I know, I know,” Mandie said, trying to keep from crying. “Mandie, it's almost time for the ten o'clock bell. Isn't Uncle Ned coming tonight?” Celia asked.

Mandie straightened up, wiping tears from her eyes.

“That's right,” she said. “He
is
coming to see me tonight. I'll tell him what happened. Maybe he can help us straighten everything out.”

Later that night, Mandie met the old Indian in the yard. As she told him the whole story, her tears dampened the shoulder of his deerskin jacket.

Uncle Ned listened until she was finished, then smoothed back her long blonde hair, and turned her around to face him. “Papoose, let this be lesson,” he said, staring deeply into her eyes. “No make trouble with other people's business. You hurt your friend's heart. Miss Head Lady Number Two your true friend, and you hurt her, Papoose. Must ask forgiveness from Miss Head Lady Number Two. Letters private business of Miss Head Lady Number Two. She not know about father's sweet friend. Remember, I tell you, Papoose—must be careful. Not hurt people.”

Mandie looked up into his weather-lined face and with a quivering voice, she said, “I know, Uncle Ned. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”

“Papoose must think with head first. Then do things,” he told her. “Always best not to get in other people's business. Would have been best to leave letters in trunk.”

“What should I do, Uncle Ned?” Mandie asked.