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

protested.
    “But Uncle John is the boss here. You heard what he said. Get your plate,” Mandie insisted.
    Liza gave up. “Yes, Missy, I git me a plate and be right back,” the black girl said, returning to the kitchen.
    Elizabeth looked at John.
    “I told you I just can’t resist those blue eyes, especially when they look so much like yours,” John told her.
    “First thing you know, you’ll have all the servants in an uproar,” Elizabeth protested. “The other servants won’t like the idea at all.”
    “Leave it to me. I’ll take care of it if and when that time comes,” John told her. “After all, I’m half Indian. I’m not expected to act in the usual ‘white people’ fashion,” he laughed.
    “Oh, John, you can be funny!” Elizabeth smiled.
    Polly was sitting next to Mandie and gave her a nudge. “Mandie, you have some great parents!” she said.
    “One parent,” corrected Mandie. “Uncle John is still my uncle, even though he is married to my mother.”
    “They are very much in love,” Dimar said, helping himself to more eggs and bacon.
    She missed her father so much, it was hard to sort out her feelings about all that happened.
    Uncle John was the “richest man this side of Richmond,” according to Liza. Why hadn’t he shared his wealth with her father who was desperately poor? She wouldalways wonder about that.
    Liza came back through the door with a plate in one hand and a platter of hot biscuits in the other. After putting the biscuits in the middle of the long table, she sat down next to Mandie.
    “Here,” Mandie said. She reached for the platter of eggs and passed it to Liza.
    Joe passed the bacon and ham.
    Dimar watched in amusement from the other end of the table. “Eat,” he said.
    “That’s one word that’s good in any language—eat,” Joe laughed.
    Liza nervously helped herself to the food, and then sat there pushing the food around with her fork. She cast a sheltered glance now and then at the others at the table.
    “Liza, eat,” Uncle John’s voice boomed from the other end of the table. “We’ve got to get going.”
    “Yes, sir. Yes, sir, Mister John,” Liza answered and quickly shoved her mouth full of food.
    Sallie looked across the table at Liza and felt sorry for her.
Poor Liza!
she thought.
She’s so nervous sitting at the big table that she can’t eat
. She almost choked on the food and hurried to wash it down with coffee that was too hot.
    “Please do not worry. We are all on your side,” Sallie told her. “I felt the same way the first time I sat at this great table in this fancy house. You see, I live in a log cabin with my grandfather and grandmother.”
    “I ain’t never lived in a log cabin, Miss Sallie,” Liza replied. “I wouldn’t know how to act in a log cabin.”
    All the young people laughed.
    “I also live in a log cabin,” Dimar told her.
    “And so do I,” Tsa’ni added.
    Turning to Mandie, Liza asked, “Where all these log cabins at?”
    “Liza, haven’t you ever seen a log cabin?” Mandie asked. “You know I lived in a log cabin with my father, too. That’s how people live out in the country away from town. Log cabins are scattered all over the woods and fields.”
    “I ain’t never lived in de country either. I be born right heah in this house,” Liza told them.
    “You were?” Mandie said. “Where are your mother and father?”
    “They be done dead with de new-moanie, long time ago, when I was a li’l tyke. Aunt Lou, she tuck care of me after that,” Liza told them.
    “My father died from the same thing,” Mandie said.
    Uncle John’s voice boomed out again. “Eat up, everyone! Whoever is going with me, be ready in fifteen minutes.”
    He got up and left the table, with Elizabeth and Uncle Wirt following.
    “You heard him. Eat,” Joe said. “Let’s hurry and get done!”
    Liza tried her best to swallow the food. She
was
hungry, but to have to sit here with “Miss Amanda” and her friends was too much