Free The Mandie Collection by Lois Gladys Leppard Page A

floor. “So far all these are 1880.”
    Jonathan reached for a handful, too. “These are dated 1870, I believe,” he said, flipping through the brittle papers.
    Mandie looked over his shoulder. “And these are some kind of inventory,” she said. She reached for more in the wardrobe.
    Celia also took a handful from the wardrobe. “Some of these are newspaper clippings,” she said and began reading. “ ‘Miss Aurelia Quincy was awarded the top honors in her class at the graduation on May 20, 1870.’ The print has faded.” She examined the other clippings. “A lot of these are faded, too.”
    “Well, they are a little old,” Joe joked.
    Jonathan stood up from the stack on the floor and said, “Don’t you think we ought to hurry and get back to the parlor? The cake may be all gone if we don’t get back soon.”
    “Yes, I agree with that,” Joe said, pushing some of the papers back into the wardrobe.
    “Let’s just get all of them out of sight. We can come back later and try to put them back in order,” Mandie told her friends.
    They quickly filled up the wardrobe and then put the overflow into the old empty trunk Celia had found.
    Once everything had been closed back up, Mandie glanced around for her cat. “Snowball, where are you?” she called as she moved around the room looking for him.
    Her friends spread out and searched for the cat, too. Wherever he was, he was not making a sound, not a single meow.
    “Oh, Snowball, come here,” Mandie called impatiently as she looked between old furniture and boxes. She almost stepped on him when she finally located him. He was crouched down near a loose board in the floor. He was not moving and evidently had something cornered.
    “Snowball has something cornered,” Celia said as she came up behind Mandie.
    “Yes, but what?” Mandie agreed as she stopped to watch her white cat.
    “Must be a mouse,” Joe said as he, too, watched the cat.
    “Oh, let’s just pick up that cat and get back downstairs before all the chocolate cake is gone,” Jonathan told them.
    “Yes, we can’t stay here forever and wait for him to catch whatever it is,” Mandie agreed. She reached down and picked up the white cat. He immediately jerked out of her hands, ran to the door, and disappeared down the stairs.
    “I don’t think he really wanted whatever it was anyhow,” Joe said with a laugh.
    “Let’s look around and be sure there is nothing open, or Miss Prudence might say we left it open,” Mandie told her friends.
    She moved around the dark spots with the lamp. Everything seemed to be neat and in order. Her friends quickly covered the entire attic.
    “I believe everything is just fine,” Jonathan said. “Now let’s go.” He started for the door.
    Mandie looked back and spotted one paper under an old dresser; it had evidently fallen out of the wardrobe. She quickly stooped and picked it up. Without even glancing at it, she folded it up and stuffed it into the pocket in her skirt. “I’ll put it back later. I’m not going to take a chance of opening that wardrobe and having everything spill out again,” she said as she blew out the lamp and placed it back by the door.
    “I’ve got the light,” Joe said, putting out the electric light hanging from overhead.
    They left the attic and hurried down the stairs.
    “I hope we weren’t gone too long, or Grandmother might be angry with me,” Mandie said as she brought up the rear.
    “Does anyone really know what all is in that attic?” Jonathan asked as they descended the staircase.
    “I doubt it,” Celia said. “This school has been here practically forever, and I suppose everyone keeps adding to the mess in the attic.”
    “Yes, and one day it will be so full it won’t hold anything else. Then I suppose someone will have to clean it out,” Mandie added. “I’m glad it won’t be us having to do all the work. We’ll be graduating next May.”
    “Yes, and going into some other place that might just have an