Leppard, Lois Gladys - [Mandie 02] (2 page)

“All the Cherokees loved Jim Shaw. He was a good man,” the Indian girl said. “My father is dead also. I live here with my grandfather and my grandmother.”

“And I have known your grandfather all my life. At least, ever since I can remember. He always came to sell the baskets the Cherokees made. And I never even knew I was part Cherokee until Uncle Ned told me, after my father went to heaven. My grandmother was Talitha Pindar, a full-blooded Cherokee,” Mandie told her.

“I know. The Cherokees all know who you are,” Sallie said. “Eat. It is owl stew. It is very good.”

Joe, who was listening to their conversation, almost choked as he stuttered, “Owl—st-stew?”

“Yes, it is something special Morning Star makes.”

Mandie swallowed hard and lowered her spoon into the delicious-smelling bowl of stew in front of her. She sipped it, blinked her eyes, and smiled. “It
is
very good.” Then she dug in, thinking,
This is what the Cherokees eat and I am part Cherokee
.

Joe had to follow suit. There was no way he could let a girl outdo him. Then he also smiled and said, “Say, we’ll have to get Morning Star’s recipe for this to take back home.” He reached for a piece of beanbread and washed it all down with a huge swallow of coffee.

“I suppose you know Tsa’ni?” Mandie asked Sallie.

“Of course. He lives right down the road. He is the grandson of your father’s uncle, Wirt Pindar, who lives in Bird-town,” the Indian girl told her.

“Now, let me think that one out. In other words, he is my great uncle Wirt Pindar’s grandson? That would make him my cousin!”

“Yes. He goes to school and is very intelligent, but has no common sense about him,” Sallie said. “He—he thinks too much.”

“I see. Well, I guess he was thinking too much, or something, today, when he left me with a panther staring at me.” Mandie told her about the incident by the river.

“You might as well know. He does not like white people,” Sallie said. “The English for his name is John, but he refuses to use it and goes by his Cherokee name. Most of us are called by our English names.”

“He doesn’t like white people? Why?” Mandie wanted to know.

“Because the white people destroyed our nation and took our people’s land and homes and forced them to move away,” Sallie said.

“I know that was wrong, terribly wrong, but that was a long time back in history. The white people living today had nothing to do with it,” Mandie protested. “Besides, it was my grandfather who rescued my grandmother and her people.”

Joe leaned forward. “Oh, Sallie, you’ve got to come to Franklin and see Mandie’s Uncle John’s house. It’s complete with tunnels and hidden rooms, and all. Her grandfather had all this done to hide the Cherokees who didn’t want to leave that area.”

“I must see it, then,” agreed Sallie. “It sounds very interesting. Is that where you live now, Mandie?”

“Yes, since my father died,” she replied. “Uncle Ned helped me get to Uncle John’s house. And then Uncle John found my real mother, and here we are!”

“Most of your kinpeople live in Bird-town,” Sallie said.

“That’s what Uncle Ned said. After we visit with you a day or two, we’ll be going over there. Is it far to Bird-town?”

“No, but by wagon you have to follow the road instead of cutting through the woods and that makes it longer. Probably two, three hours.”

The grown-ups were getting up from the table.

“You men go sit and visit and you young ones go along with Sallie outside. I will help Morning Star clear the table,” Elizabeth volunteered.

“I have to feed Snowball first,” Mandie told her, and holding out the pan Uncle Ned had given her, she waited for her mother to fill it with food left on the plates, which was very little, except for Joe’s. He had not eaten all the owl stew, she noticed. She took the pan over to the hearth and the kitten purred contentedly as he hastily ate the food.

“He was hungry!” Sallie laughed.

“Come on. He’ll follow us outside after he finishes,” Mandie told her.

“Yeh, you sure can’t lose that cat. He follows you like a shadow,” Joe said as they went out into the yard.

Tsa’ni was sitting on a log under a hickory nut tree nearby. Sallie steered them in his direction. He stared at them silently as the group approached. Mandie could sense hate emanating from his dark eyes.

“Tsa’ni, this is your cousin, Mandie Shaw, and her friend, Joe Woodard,” Sallie told him.

The boy looked from one to another and merely nodded his head without saying a word.

Mandie did not like the boy, but she knew she must at least speak to him because he was her cousin. She could still visualize the panther sitting in the tree and Tsa’ni walking away.

“Hello, Tsa’ni. Could we sit with you?” she ventured.

He immediately moved all the way down to the end of the long log.

“Sit. The log belongs to Sallie’s grandfather. It is not mine,” he told them.

They sat down, Mandie next to Tsa’ni.

“Mandie lived at Charley Gap with her father before he died,” the Indian girl told him.

“Charley Gap? Tsali, our great warrior, whom you white people call Charley, lived in a cave near here before you white people killed him,” Tsa’ni said.

“He did? I know the story of Charley, how he fought with the soldiers during the removal and killed one—” Mandie told him.

Tsa’ni interrupted, “—and how your soldiers forced Cherokee prisoners to shoot him down when he surrendered. You killed his brother and his two sons.”

“I didn’t kill anyone, Tsa’ni. Let’s get this straight. What we are talking about was long ago in history—” Mandie’s voice raised.

“I know, I know,” he interrupted again.

“That was something I was not responsible for, nor my family,” continued Mandie. “You can’t live in the past, and you can’t change history. As far as that goes, the Yankees killed my grandfather during the War of Northern Aggression, but I don’t hold a grudge against the people living in the North now. They had nothing to do with it.”

“Cherokee blood must be thicker than white blood then,” Tsa’ni said.

“Well, just remember my grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee,” Mandie reminded him.

Joe, anxious to smooth the feelings between the two, spoke up, “Could we go see this cave, Tsa’ni?”

The Indian boy hesitated a moment, looking at Mandie. “Sure. It is not far. I will take you there tomorrow, all of you.”

Mandie spoke up. “I’d really like to see it, Tsa’ni.”

“I will go with you,” Sallie added.

The sky was almost completely dark and the air was becoming much cooler. Snowball came bouncing across the yard and jumped into Mandie’s lap.

“And so will Snowball,” Mandie laughed, snuggling the kitten on her shoulder.

Tomorrow would be a day long to be remembered.

Chapter 2 - Lost in the Cave

Mandie awoke the next morning to the sound of a rooster crowing, and she had to think for a minute before she knew where she was. Sallie was asleep on the cornshuck mattress next to her, and she knew Joe was sleeping on the other side of the rough hand-sawed wall dividing the room. She pulled the long cotton nightgown over her head and quickly reached for her dress hanging on a nail. Today was not a day to be wasted sleeping. She was in Uncle Ned’s house, among the
Cherokees
!

The Indian girl looked up at her and smiled.

“You are in a hurry,” she said.

“Yes, I don’t have a minute to spare. I want to enjoy everything I can about our visit,” Mandie replied.

From beyond the wall, Joe called to them, “Right. We gotta get going so we can go with Tsa’ni to the cave. Remember?”

“Of course,” Mandie agreed.

“I smell coffee. Someone else is already up,” the Indian girl commented as she, too, pulled on her skirt and blouse.

The three hurried down the ladder and found Uncle Ned, Uncle John, and Elizabeth sitting at the table. Morning Star was tending a pot over the fire.

“Good morning,” Mandie called, as she came down the ladder.

“Come, eat,” Uncle Ned said as they lined up at the washpan to wash their faces in the cool creek water from the bucket.

“You won’t have to say ‘eat’ twice to me this morning. I’m starving!” Joe joked as he sat down across from Uncle Ned.

The girls joined them, and the Indian woman placed bowls of steaming hot oats and slices of homemade bread, with thick slices of ham between, in front of them. Elizabeth filled the coffee cups and passed them around.

“Good morning, Morning Star,” Mandie smiled as she caught the old squaw’s hand. The Indian woman smiled too and patted the girl’s long blonde curls.

“Love,” she whispered, and Mandie returned the word.

“Love. Oh, Morning Star, you are learning English!”

Sallie was listening. “She can understand some of what you say in English, but I have never heard her say an English word before. You are a good influence, Mandie.”

After the chores were done and the noon meal eaten, the three wandered outside, waiting for Tsa’ni. Soon he arrived, carrying a lantern.

“Sallie, get the lantern from your grandfather’s barn, too. It will be dark in the cave,” Tsa’ni told her.

Sallie got the lantern and gave it to Joe to carry.

“Ready?” Tsa’ni asked.

“Yes, but I should tell my mother that we are going now,” Mandie told him.

“Never mind. I will tell your mother, and your grandfather, Sallie.” The Indian boy hurried up to the open door of the cabin with Mandie right behind him. Looking inside, he said, “I am taking the boy and the girl to see the mountain, the woods, and the creek. Sallie is going with us.”

Elizabeth spoke up. “How kind of you, Tsa’ni. Amanda, you won’t be long, will you?”

“No, Mother,” she replied, turning to join the others waiting in the yard. “Tsa’ni, you didn’t mention the cave.”

“That is all right. The cave is included in the mountain and the woods. Come, let us go.” He started off down the road toward the creek.

Mandie picked up Snowball and carried him on her shoulder. At first it was great fun, skipping along by the creek bank, throwing pebbles at the fish, plucking wild flowers, chasing butterflies, but after a while it became an uphill climb, and it was beginning to get hot. There was no definite trail, but Tsa’ni seemed to know the way all right. The other three grew more quiet and slowed their pace as they became more and more exhausted.

“Whew! Tsa’ni, how much farther?” Mandie complained, holding her skirt close to her legs through the thick undergrowth.

The Indian boy laughed. “Not far.”

“Not far to you must mean miles to us,” Joe sighed, as he pushed a brier away from his pant leg.

“Tsa’ni, where
are
you taking us?” Sallie demanded.

“To the cave, Sallie. I know the way,” the boy replied.

Mandie turned to the Indian girl. “Don’t
you
know
where the cave is, Sallie?”

“No, I have only heard of it. I do not wander around the way the boys do.” Sallie smiled. “And I have not lived long with my grandfather, so I do not know this land.”

“Do not worry. I will not get you lost. I know exactly where we are going,” Tsa’ni assured them.

A long time later a rushing, roaring waterfall came into view. Mandie stopped to admire it.

“Oh, how beautiful!” she exclaimed.

“That is where we are going,” Tsa’ni told her.

He ran ahead of them and when they reached the falls, he stopped and gave them directions. “Now, you must walk across the rocks in the creek behind the waterfall. The entrance to the cave is behind the falls,” and he started forward.

“We’ll get all wet!” Mandie screamed above the noise of the water.

“No, you will not get wet if you stay against the cliff away from the water when you walk through. Just watch where you step. The rocks are slippery sometimes,” Tsa’ni yelled back and continued on.

Mandie followed, with Sallie behind her, and Joe bringing up the rear. Snowball was frightened of the water and clung desperately to Mandie’s shoulder.

Once under the falls, Mandie looked up and could see a ledge protecting the walkway as the water cascaded down into the creek. It felt terribly damp under there and the rocks were awfully slippery. There was no use trying to talk. No one could be heard above the sound of the water.

Joe lost his footing once, and if the girls hadn’t grabbed for him, he would have fallen into the creek. The slip caused the girls to almost lose their balance, and
Mandie felt her free hand scrape a rock as she grabbed for a hold. Regaining her footing, she stuck her hand out into the waterfall to wash away the grit and slime. The water was ice cold.

Tsa’ni had stopped ahead of them, and when they caught up they found him waiting in front of a huge, dark hole in the cliff which appeared to be the mouth of the cave. He had taken a match from his pocket and was lighting his lantern, motioning for Joe to light the one he carried, and then he entered the cave.

Once inside, the loud roar of the falls became a muffled sound and Mandie looked around, afraid to go any farther. Joe, right behind her and Sallie, swung the lantern around, lighting up the cave. They could see huge, moss-covered boulders around the entrance. The floor seemed to be solid rock.

“Come!” Tsa’ni called, going deeper into the cave. “I want to show you something.”

The three hurried on, passing into another part of the cave with enormous, long spears of rock hanging from the ceiling and sprouting up from the floor. They looked around in wonder.

“What are those things?” Mandie asked, breathlessly.

“That is what I wanted to show you. The ones hanging from overhead are stalactites and the ones sitting on the ground are called stalagmites,” Tsa’ni explained.

“Well, what caused them?” Joe asked.

“They are formed by the water dripping from above,” the Indian boy replied.

“It must have taken an awfully long time,” Sallie remarked.

“Hundreds of years, maybe thousands,” Tsa’ni nodded.

Mandie set Snowball down, and he began to check out the scent of the floor.

“You mean this cave has been here that long?” Mandie asked.