The Mandie Collection Read Online Free PDF Page A

guard the hospital tomorrow night?”
    â€œWell, I suppose so, but your father should be here before tomorrow night. You’ll have to ask him, of course,” Uncle John said. “You boys will have to promise not to let anyone see you. They could harm you. All we want you to do is watch, and when you see someone doing this malicious work, you hurry and get us men. Is that understood?”
    â€œBut I’m almost fourteen,” Joe protested. “And so is Dimar. We could put up a pretty good fight.”
    â€œNo, no, that won’t ever do. You might get hurt,” Uncle John told him. “The only way I’ll let you stay out there is under the conditions I’ve mentioned.”
    â€œWell, all right, sir. I’ll do whatever you say,” Joe gave in.
    Mandie turned to Joe. “You and Dimar will see all the excitement. Sallie and I will miss out on that,” she protested.
    â€œYou’ll find out what’s going on when we come back to tell Mr. Shaw that there’s someone there,” Joe told her.
    â€œ If you come back,” Mandie replied. “I know you.”
    Tsa’ni sat through the whole conversation without saying a word. He listened and took it all in.

CHAPTER FOUR
    THE TORN-DOWN HOSPITAL
    The first bright rays of sunshine the next morning peeped through the upstairs window and played around on Mandie’s face. Opening her eyes and squinting in the light, Mandie looked around bewildered. Then she saw Sallie sleeping next to her on the cornshuck mattress and she remembered that she was in Uncle Ned’s house. Also, her friend Joe was sleeping on the other side of the rough wall dividing the attic into two rooms. And today was the day she was to finally see the hospital being built.
    Slipping out of bed, trying not to wake Sallie, she quickly pulled her cotton nightgown over her tousled blonde curls. Snowball jumped down and rubbed around her legs as he meowed. Hastily grabbing the dress hanging on a nail near the bed, she pulled it over her head and buttoned the waist.
    Sallie sat up, rubbed her eyes and smiled at her friend. She rolled out of bed.
    â€œYou are up early this morning,” Sallie said, exchanging her gown for her red flowered skirt and white waist.
    â€œI don’t want to waste a minute. We’re going to see the hospital, remember?” Mandie told her, quickly brushing her long hair and braiding it into one long plait down her back.
    â€œHey, wait for me!” Joe called from the other side of the partition.
    â€œI’ll meet you downstairs,” Mandie yelled back at him, tying her apron over her blue gingham dress.
    â€œI smell coffee,” Joe called from the other side.
    â€œMy grandmother is already up. She gets up before daylight every morning,” Sallie said loudly to Joe. She hurriedly tied her dark hair back with a red ribbon.
    The three of them scrambled for the ladder to go downstairs. Joe managed to get down first and stood there waiting for the girls. Mandie had to carry Snowball down. He refused to go down the ladder.
    â€œAren’t y’all pokey this morning?” Joe teased, standing with his long legs spread apart and his hands on his thin hips.
    â€œYou won because your legs are longer than ours. It wasn’t a fair race,” Mandie told him, setting Snowball on the floor and straightening the skirt of her dress.
    Joe, laughing, told them, “Come on. Let’s see who gets to the wash-pan first.” He turned to run across the room, Sallie and Mandie following. The girls lined up behind Joe to wash their faces and hands.
    Morning Star, Uncle Ned, Elizabeth and Uncle John, sitting at the table, looked at them in surprise.
    â€œWhat’s the big hurry?” Uncle John asked.
    Mandie’s blue eyes sparkled. “We want to go to the hospital.”
    â€œBut it isn’t far from here,” said Uncle John. “We don’t have to hurry that