The Mandie Collection (27 page)

“Don’t you think that’s a little too much, having those children that long and having to take care of them?” Mrs. Taft asked.

Mandie smiled up at her grandmother and said, “Well, I was hoping we could buy them some presents and have a real Christmas for them on Christmas Day, with lots of toys and lots of food and some warm clothes. That is part of what we need money for.”

“Amanda, you’re always planning something,” Mrs. Taft said, and then she smiled at Mandie. “I’ll go shopping with you and I’ll even volunteer to wrap the presents if you wish.”

Mandie reached to squeeze her grandmother’s hand as she said, “I knew I could depend on you.”

“I don’t know what you all are planning to do for costumes for the children, but I would suggest asking Aunt Lou to help with that. You know she’s a wonderful seamstress,” Mrs. Taft said.

“Yes, she is,” Mandie replied. “I’m so glad you are helping us. And it was a good idea to let Aunt Lou in on our secret.”

Mrs. Taft stood up and said, “You run along to bed now. I need to get some sleep, too. Just let me know when you need me for anything.”

“Good-night, Grandmother, and thanks,” Mandie said as she tiptoed to kiss the old lady’s cheek.

Mrs. Taft quickly embraced her, and Mandie went to her own room.

Early the next morning Mandie hurriedly dressed and rushed over to the church to check on the situation. Liza and the children were all awake, but Joe was nowhere in sight when Mandie looked into the room where he had put his mattress.

“Where is Joe?” Mandie asked.

“He say he gwine to de house to git food,” Liza replied as she watched the orphans play with the toys.

“Oh goodness, I have to go see what he’s doing. I’ll be right back,” Mandie said as she rushed back out the door.

She went to the back door of the house because she figured Joe would be in the kitchen if he was looking for food. When she pushed open the door, she found Aunt Lou and Jenny cooking and Joe standing by watching.

“Joe!” Mandie said as she looked around the room, not sure what to make of the scene. Had someone let Jenny in on their secret, too?

“Mawnin, my chile,” Aunt Lou greeted her as she turned and smiled at Mandie.

“Good morning, Aunt Lou and Jenny,” Mandie said. “And Joe.”

“Mawnin’ Missy ’Manda,” Jenny said as she turned bacon cooking in the big iron frying pan. “We’se almost done wid dem chillun’s breakfast.”

Joe looked at Mandie and said, “It was too complicated trying to feed the orphans, so I took the liberty of letting Jenny in on our secret, and your grandmother had already told Aunt Lou.”

“Well,” Mandie replied, not knowing exactly what to say. Pretty soon it wouldn’t be a secret at all. Everyone would know what they were doing, she was thinking.

“Now don’t you worry, my chile, we’se ain’t tellin’ nobody else,” Aunt Lou said as she bent to pull a pan of hot biscuits out of the oven.

“No, we won’t,” Jenny quickly added. “But we all wants to he’p anyhow. It be a good thing y’all doin’.” She began removing the crisp bacon and laying it out on a plate.

“And I appreciate y’all’s help,” Mandie said, finally smiling. Turning to Joe, she said, “Liza and the children are all up, and I came looking for you so we could get breakfast for them.”

“We don’t have any more problems about food,” Joe said. “Aunt Lou and Jenny will see to every meal for us.”

“Thank you, both,” Mandie told the women. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, my chile. You and Mistuh Joe heah jes’ git ready fo’ yo’ own breakfus’ ’cause Abraham gwine run dis food over to de chilluns,” Aunt Lou told her.

Mandie looked at Joe and said, “So Abraham knows, too?”

“We couldn’t figure out how to cook two meals and serve them, so it was Jenny’s idea to get her husband to carry the food over to the church every time we eat,” Joe explained.

Mandie sighed deeply and said, “We’re getting obligated to so many people.”

“No sech thing, my chile,” Aunt Lou protested as she buttered the biscuits. “We wants to he’p dese chilluns, jes’ like you be doin’. Now like I done said, you two git washed up and ready fo’ yo’ own breakfus’.” She flapped her long white apron at Mandie and Joe. “Shoo!”

Both the young people laughed and Mandie said, “All right, thank you.”

“Thanks,” Joe added.

He followed Mandie out the door into the hallway. As they hurried down the long corridor Mandie said, “Any problems last night?”

“None at all. As far as I know, Liza and the children slept straight through, but let me tell you, they were all up early this morning. I more or less dozed all night on that uncomfortable mattress, and as soon as I dropped off to sleep, Liza woke me with her yelling, laughing, and playing with the children,” Joe explained. “She is really enjoying this.”

“I’m glad,” Mandie said as they reached the staircase. “Let’s sit down here a minute and I’ll tell you what all my grandmother has planned.”

They sat on the bottom step and Mandie brought him up to date.

“So how are we going to get the rig out without your mother and Uncle John knowing about it, when your grandmother asked permission to use it for herself?” Joe asked.

“We’ll just wait until my mother and Uncle John leave for the Lawsons, and then we’ll take the rig and go looking for more orphans,” Mandie explained.

So that is what they did. Mandie’s mother and Uncle John left as soon as everyone ate breakfast. Abraham harnessed one of the horses to the rig, then Mandie and Joe began their search for more orphans. By noontime they had found six more children, four girls and two boys. The boys were brothers but did not know each other because they had been placed with different families when they were babies.

Mrs. Oglesby had said, “This boy here, Jake, has a brother living with the Houstons across the river there. But they don’t know each other. We tried to take both boys when their parents died, but the Houstons insisted they found Jasper first and wouldn’t give him up. We offered them the chance to take Jake because we didn’t like to separate brothers, but they only wanted one child. That was when the boys were babies. Jake is six now and Jasper is five.”

Mandie stood there in Mrs. Oglesby’s yard listening with a heavy heart to the story of the separated brothers. “Do you suppose the Houstons would allow Jasper to come with us for the Christmas holidays?” she asked.

“They might,” Mrs. Oglesby told her. “Provided you don’t let them know you have Jasper’s brother, too.”

Joe looked back at the rig where the children were waiting and said, “That would really be a wonderful Christmas present to the boys to find each other.”

Mrs. Oglesby’s thin face lit up and she said, “It would be. Bless you young people. I’ll be praying for you.”

Mandie said a silent prayer herself as Joe pulled the rig up in the yard of the Houstons’ home. A young boy, almost identical in looks to Jake, was swinging on a rope swing hanging from a huge chestnut tree. Mandie knew at once that he was Jasper.

“Jasper, is anyone home besides you?” Mandie called to him as she and Joe stepped down from the rig.

“Them people Houstons, what I live with here, they be home.” Jasper jumped down from the swing and approached the rig.

“Where are they?” Joe asked. “We’d like to talk to them.”

“They down at the river at the still. They always tell me I ain’t supposed to go down there, but I know what they’re doin’. They’re makin’ that strong stuff what makes people wobble,” Jasper explained.

Mandie and Joe looked at each other.

“If he can’t go down there and get them and we don’t know where the still is, how are we going to talk to them?” Mandie asked as Jasper walked around her and stood staring at the children in the rig. She noticed they stared back.

“Maybe he could explain where it is and I could find it,” Joe suggested. Turning to Jasper he asked, “Could you show me the way to the still? You don’t have to go down there. Just tell me how to find it.”

Jasper stood kicking the dirt and looking down at his feet for a moment. Then he straightened up and said, “Shucks, everyone knows where it be. But I’ll show you. Come this way.” He hurried down an overgrown pathway by the side of the barn and stopped to see if Joe was following.

“I’m coming,” Joe told him as he caught up with Jasper. He called back to Mandie, “Don’t let those children out of your sight. We’re responsible for them, remember.”

“I won’t,” Mandie promised.

Mandie waited a long time in the yard. She walked around and around, watching every move the children in the rig made. Finally she spotted Joe coming back up the lane. Jasper was skipping along ahead of him, and an elderly woman walked behind Joe on the narrow path.

Jasper ran ahead and went back to stand and stare at the children in the rig. The woman kept talking as she came closer, and Mandie could finally hear what she was saying.

“The boy ain’t worth his salt, but we keep him anyhow,” she was saying. “We ain’t got no children of our own.”

Then Mandie heard Joe ask, “Did y’all adopt the boy?”

The woman stopped and put her hands on her hefty hips as she said, “My goodness, no. We don’t call him as part of the family. He just gets to live here in exchange for a few chores he does, and that ain’t much.”

Mandie walked over to meet Joe and the woman when they reached the yard.

“This is Amanda Shaw, Mrs. Houston,” Joe said.

Mandie smiled and said, “How do you do, Mrs. Houston?”

The woman stared at Mandie from head to toe and said, “Right poorly, if I do have to say so. Y’all jes’ wait here and I’ll git him a change of clothes, which is about all he’s got. I’ll be right back.”

The woman went on into the house, and Mandie and Joe stood by the rig while Jasper continued to stare at the other children.

“Was it really what he said it was?” Mandie asked in a low voice to prevent Jasper from hearing her.

“Sure was. It’s a wonder we don’t smell it all the way up here,” Joe said. “The woman’s husband and his brother take care of it. They didn’t seem upset when I walked up and asked for the Houstons. They just wanted to know what I was after, and when they were sure I wasn’t a lawman, they agreed Jasper could go home with us for Christmas, even though we are strangers. The woman said it would give her a rest from continually scolding Jasper and trying to make him work.”

Mandie whispered, “They are terrible people, aren’t they? I wonder if they beat the boy.”

“It’s possible from the way they talked,” Joe said.

The woman came out of the house with a stuffed flour sack and handed it to Joe. “This ought to be enough to last till he gits back,” she said. “Now, I got to git back to work. Jes’ bring him on back when y’all git ready.” She hurried back down the pathway.

Mandie turned to look at Jasper, and she saw that he had been listening. “Come on, Jasper, we’re going to visit some other people,” she told him as she reached to take his hand. He quickly pulled his hand away and drew back from her. “Jasper, don’t you want to ride in this rig and talk to these other children?”

The boy stood still and looked from Mandie to the rig and then at Joe. He suddenly ran to Joe’s side. “I’ll ride with him,” he said, frowning at Mandie.

“All right,” Joe said. “You can sit on the front seat with me and Mandie.” He lifted the boy and set him down inside. Mandie got in from the other side.

When they were all seated and Joe had picked up the reins, Jasper edged closer to Joe and gave Mandie a stern look. The other children were silently watching and listening. Very little was said until Joe drove the rig into town. Then the children all became excited and started talking. Evidently none of them had ever been in town before.

“Are we going to church?” Jake asked loudly as Joe pulled the rig around behind the church.

Mandie smiled and said softly to Joe, “At least one of them knows what a church is.”

“No, we’re not exactly going to church,” Joe explained as he tied the reins. “You see, we’re going to live in the church for a while.”

The children jumped down to the ground and one of the girls asked, “Live in a church? Nobody but
God
lives in a church.”

Mandie stooped to quickly embrace the little dark-haired, dark-eyed six-year-old girl and said, “Well, He’s going to let us live in here for a little while. Come on. There are more children already here.”

As Mandie opened the door to the church, the children inside stopped their playing to stare at the children outside. No one moved, and Mandie had to give each one a little push to get them all to enter.

Liza watched and then suddenly asked, “Well, I hope I never! Them be twins you got dere?”

Mandie looked at her and saw she was watching Jake and Jasper. Now that they were standing together she could see a strong resemblance between the two. “No,” Mandie told Liza as she looked back at Joe, who had come in behind her. He shook his head, and she understood they wouldn’t give away the fact that Jake and Jasper were brothers.

“Now we has to git dese coats and thangs off,” Liza told the new children as she began removing their wraps.

Mandie and Joe helped until Jake said loudly, “A ball!” He ran to pick it up from the middle of the other toys. That finally broke the silence and the other children hastily threw off their coats and hats and raced to join him. Then it became noisy.

“Whew!” Mandie said, blowing out her breath.

“Amen!” Joe said with a little laugh.

Liza added, “Y’all can say dat agin.”

The three watched as the children played with the toys and talked to each other.

“We’d better see about their dinner,” Mandie said.

“Dey done et,” Liza told her. “Jenny done been over and fed ’em. Said she wanted to let dem eat first.”

“Then we’d better go find us something to eat,” Mandie said. “Liza, have you eaten?”

“I sho’ has, Missy ’Manda,” Liza said, smiling. “I et wid de chilluns.”

“Then we’ll go and come right back so you can take some time off away from the children. You’re probably tired of them by now,” Mandie said.

“Lawsy mercy, Missy ’Manda, I don’t be tired of dese heah chilluns. I’se been havin’ a good time playin’ wid dem and if I goes back to de house, Aunt Lou she put me to work. I druther stay right heah,” Liza said as she danced around the room.

Mandie laughed and said, “All right, Liza, but we will be back in a little while to make some plans for the play.”

“I wonder if the children we brought with us have had their dinner,” Joe said.

Mandie and Joe questioned the new children, and they all claimed to have already had their noon meal.

“That’s strange, because it’s just now a little after twelve, and we picked up the girls a lot earlier,” Mandie said.

“Why don’t we just bring them back some cake and milk or something?” Joe asked. “That way we’ll at least know they won’t be hungry till suppertime.”

“Good idea,” Mandie said. Looking back at Liza, she teased, “Too bad you already ate.”

“But we had chocolate cake, too.” Liza said, grinning at her.

“Sounds like we’d better hurry and see if Aunt Lou has given away all our chocolate cake,” Mandie said as she rushed out the door ahead of Joe.

When they reached the house they found that Dr. and Mrs. Woodard had already arrived and were just sitting down to eat with Mrs. Taft.

“Sorry, we’re almost late,” Mandie said as she rushed into the dining room after leaving her cloak on the hall tree. Joe was right behind her.