Free Mandie Collection, The: 8 by Lois Gladys Leppard

Mandie.
    “Does you need me to take y’all in de buggy?” Abraham asked.
    “No, thank you, Abraham. We can walk. It’s not all that far, and the weather has turned warmer,” Mandie said. “Thanks anyway. If y’all would just keep this a secret in case Joe wanders back here, I’d appreciate it.”
    The servants promised, and the girls went to get their coats and hats.
    Stovall’s Store was the largest store in Franklin and also had the largest selection of merchandise, everything from jewelry to clothes to washtubs to cookstoves. It was Saturday, so the place was crowded. The girls moved around through the crowd and examined the merchandise as they went.
    Mandie stopped to look at the knives. “I think maybe a nice knife from Mother and Uncle John would do. And I could buy a shoeshine set for Grandmother to give him.” She paused to think and then added, “I will give him a book to keep a daily journal.”
    “I will ask my grandfather to give him one of his arrows,” Sallie said. “Joe has always admired them.”
    “Oh, Sallie, that will be the best present of all. He’ll treasure that,” Mandie assured her. “Now, Liza, since you came with us and you are helping, why don’t we get one of those leather straps over there to carry his books?”
    Liza’s eyes widened as she looked at the straps. “Does you think I could really give him one of dem?”
    “Sure, they don’t cost much. I’ll just add it on our bill today, and I’m sure it will be all right with Mother,” Mandie told her.
    “Oh, Missy ’Manda, I sho’ does thank you, and I think he sho’ gwine like it,” Liza said, fingering the rack of belts.
    “When Dr. Woodard comes back to our house, I’ll ask him if Joe needs one,” Mandie told Liza, “but I’m sure he does, so you go ahead and pick one out while I go over to get a shoeshine set. Stay right hereso we won’t lose you.” She turned to go back down the aisle they had come up and almost collided with a man. “I’m sorry,” she muttered, but the man didn’t even acknowledge her as he continued on his way. He was a tall, heavyset man with a beard and was wearing old gray workclothes with a black patch on one knee. She had never seen him before.
    “Did you see that man?” Mandie asked Sallie. “We almost knocked each other down, and he didn’t say a word. Do you suppose he’s deaf?”
    “But, Mandie, even if he is deaf, he could see that he almost bumped into you,” Sallie replied, looking back at the man, who disappeared in the crowd.
    “You’re right. Oh well,” Mandie said as she walked on down the aisle. She thought about the man while she looked at the shoeshine sets. He had been just plain rude, she decided, and if she saw him again she would tell him so.
    “I believe this one, with everything in it, would be what Grandmother would want me to buy,” Mandie said to Sallie, holding up a box that contained polish, brushes, shine rags, and even an extra pair of shoelaces.
    “Yes, that one would be special,” Sallie agreed.
    Mandie carried the box with her and said, “Let’s go get that knife for Mother and Uncle John to give him, and I believe I saw the books near that counter.”
    Mandie selected the most expensive knife in the counter and then made her way through the crowd to the stacks of books. Sallie followed.
    “I think Joe would like this one,” Mandie said to Sallie as she flipped through the pages of a journal. Looking on to the next section of the store, she added, “And you know, Sallie, we should get some of that lace and ribbons and paper over there and make some little fancy decorations.”
    “We could use some of the straw in your uncle’s barn with that lace and ribbons and create little people and animals,” Sallie suggested.
    “Oh yes, let’s do,” Mandie agreed as they moved on toward the ribbon counter. Her arms were full with the shoeshine box, the knife, and the book, and she looked around. “I wonder where Liza is. I need her