Leppard, Lois Gladys - [Mandie 03] by Mandie, the Ghost Bandits (v1.0) [html] Page B

whirled to look at her. Grinning, he said, “Is that so, Mandie? Then you must think more of me than I thought you did.”
    Mandie jumped up and headed toward her pony. “It’s time to go,” she called back, picking up Snowball on her way.
    Joe ran to catch up with her. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he turned her around to face him.
    “Mandie, you don’t have to be jealous of Polly,” he said. “She’s just a friend, that’s all.”
    Mandie shook free from his grasp. “Oh, yeh,” she replied sarcastically. She mounted her pony.
    As the others got ready to move, Sallie rode up beside Mandie. Having witnessed the scene between Joe andMandie, she tried to relieve the tension. “I would like to ride beside you, Mandie, so we can talk,” she said.
    “Of course, Sallie. Come on.”
    Riding off behind the men, the two girls talked back and forth about nothing in particular, but carefully avoided the topic of Joe. Finally Mandie decided to tell Sallie about the school in Nashville. She hadn’t said a word about it to anyone else. She was hoping that somehow she wouldn’t have to go.
    “Sallie, do you know what my mother is planning?” she asked. “She is planning to send me away to school—far away from home.”
    “Oh, Mandie!” Sallie cried. “You will have to leave all your friends and your nice home?”
    “Right. Mrs. Woodard gave me some papers for Mother,” Mandie explained. “Mother had asked her to find out about a place called Miss Tatum’s Finishing School, way out in Nashville.”
    “Do you have to go?” the Indian girl asked.
    Mandie brushed a branch out of her way. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I told Uncle John I didn’t want to. He said we’d talk about it with Mother when we got home. I don’t want to leave all my friends and family to live at some school where I don’t know anyone. That name sounds silly anyway. Imagine going to a ‘finishing’ school. Everyone would laugh at me.”
    “I would not laugh at you. I would feel sorry for you,” Sallie told her. “Why can you not go to school in Franklin where you live now?”
    “That’s what I asked Uncle John, but he said they didn’t teach some things my mother wants me to learn. I can’t imagine what things they are, but I know I’d rather go to school at home where my friends are,” Mandie said.
    “I have heard that some of the girls enjoy going to these schools away off,” Sallie told her. “They make new friends.”
    “I don’t want to leave my mother and Uncle John and Liza and Aunt Lou and everybody. I’d even have to leave Uncle Ned. He couldn’t come to a girls’ school to watch over me,” Mandie said.
    “You do not know my grandfather,” Sallie laughed. “He promised to watch over you, and nothing will keep him from doing that.”
    “It would be a hardship on him. He’d have to find a place to stay in Nashville. He couldn’t very well stay at the school, and it’d be too far away for him to go back and forth,” Mandie replied. She looked at her friend pleadingly. “Please hope and pray that I won’t have to go.”
    “I will,” Sallie promised. “Now I understand why you have been so upset since we got to Doctor Woodard’s house.”
    “Upset? You mean you could tell it?” Mandie asked.
    “Yes, you have not been as cheerful as usual,” Sallie answered, “I believe you hurt Joe’s feelings back there, but I understand now.”
    Mandie’s eyes widened. “Hurt
Joe’s
feelings?
He
got mad at
me
!” she said defensively.
    “Did he? I think
you
caused the problem by criticizing your friend, Polly,” Sallie told her bluntly. “Of course, it’s none of my business, but I hate to see my friends angry with each other.”
    “You think I caused it?” Mandie asked, trying to remember exactly what she and Joe had said.
    “Yes,” Sallie replied. “I heard my grandfather say you were jealous, and I agree with him. Think about it, Mandie. You and Joe have been close friends all your