The Mandie Collection by Lois Gladys Leppard

her uncle, so maybe he was just gone on an errand of some kind.
    â€œDo you know if my grandmother is still in her room?” Mandie asked.
    â€œShe sho’ is,” Liza said. “She writin’ letters on dat fancy pink paper when I goes in dere to make up huh bed. She tole me work real fast, so I did, and I lef’ huh writin’ dem letters.”
    â€œThanks, Liza,” Mandie said.
    â€œI’se got to he’p Aunt Lou now in de kitchen,” Liza said as she went on past Mandie toward the stairway.
    Mandie continued down the hallway to the door of the room that her grandmother occupied. Joe followed and waited as Mandie tapped on the door.
    â€œGrandmother, are you in there?” she called through the closed door.
    â€œYes, dear, come on in,” Mrs. Taft replied from inside the room.
    Mandie pushed the door open and stepped inside. Joe hesitated in the doorway.
    Mrs. Taft looked up from the desk where she was writing on the pink paper that Liza had mentioned and asked, “What is it, dear?”
    Mandie stepped over near her and was aware that her grandmother moved just a little to shield whatever she was writing from Mandie’s view.
    â€œYou are the only one in the house, Grandmother,” Mandie told her. “You know when Mother left in the buggy she said Uncle John and Uncle Ned were working on the barn, but they are not. And Uncle John’s rifle is missing from over the back door. Do you have any idea as to what is going on?”
    â€œGoing on, Amanda?” Mrs. Taft questioned.
    â€œYes, you see, when Joe and I went in the kitchen earlier, I overheard Aunt Lou saying somebody or other ought to know they can’t keep a secret from me,” Mandie told her.
    â€œA secret, dear?” Mrs. Taft asked.
    â€œA secret, Grandmother,” Mandie replied. “Somebody is keeping a secret from me.”
    â€œKeeping a secret from you is not unusual practice around here,” Mrs. Taft said with a big smile. “Everybody knows if you have the slightest inkling of a secret you’ll go after it tooth and nail, and sometimes it’s better if you don’t know everything that goes on.”
    Mandie frowned and said, “Grandmother! I only want to know where Uncle John and Uncle Ned are. Why should that be a secret?”
    â€œThat would depend on where they’ve gone and why,” Mrs. Taft said, then added, “But, anyhow, I’m as much in the dark as you are, dear. I have no idea about their whereabouts. And evidently your mother didn’t know they were gone when she told you they were working on the barn.”
    â€œOh, shucks!” Mandie exclaimed, stomping her foot. Then she asked, “And I suppose you don’t know where Mother went?”
    Mrs. Taft smiled at her and said, “Why, no, I don’t really know where she went. She only told me she wanted to go downtown, and I certainly didn’t ask what for. And, by the way, I thought you and Joe were so bent on searching the rest of the house. Why aren’t you at it?”
    Mandie sighed and said, “Because the next place we need to search is the cellar, and since it’s all dirty down there, we’re waiting until after we eat at noon. We’ve finished everything else except the main floor of the house.”
    â€œAnd you haven’t found anything,” Mrs. Taft reminded her. “And I don’t much believe you will, because whoever stole that will must have taken it with them out of this house. Or they could have just destroyed it.”
    â€œMaybe they were afraid to destroy a legal document,” Joe said from the doorway. “They would really get into trouble doing that.”
    â€œI suppose so, but then someone would have to prove they destroyed it,” Mrs. Taft told him. “Now, if y’all don’t mind, I’d like to get my letters finished so Mr. Bond can mail them for me when he comes