The Mandie Collection, Volume Two by Lois Gladys Leppard

Author:Lois Gladys Leppard
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781441260130
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A MYSTERIOUS FIND

Everyone pitched in the next day to help Jake and Ludie Burns get settled. The boys helped the men hammer and repair the old farmhouse and then paint the inside. The girls donned aprons, tied scarves over their hair, and had a glorious time going through all the dusty old furniture in the attic, choosing which pieces they would take to the Burnses’ house.

“We can pick whatever we want to give them,” Mandie said. “But Mother says Uncle John will have to approve anything we give away. Some of the furniture up here is old and valuable.”

“This is a great idea,” Celia exclaimed as she rummaged through the drawers of an old chest. “It’s like having our own house and filling it with the furniture of our choice.”

Sallie bent over an opened trunk containing books. “How much are we allowed to give them?” she asked.

“I suppose they’ll need enough to fill up the house,” Mandie said as she pulled old dresses out of a chifferobe. “Y’all saw it. There’s one big room and a good-sized kitchen downstairs. Then the attic will probably need at least one bed in case they have company overnight.”

“Everything seems to have something in it,” Celia observed. “Are we supposed to unload whatever we’re giving them? And where do we put the stuff?” she asked, looking around the crowded attic.

“Now, that’s a good question,” Mandie said, glancing about. “Why don’t we just open and shut everything as we go, and see what we can find that is empty’ We can’t just throw everything out onto the floor. We’ll have to find some empty furniture to put it in.”

Hilda silently joined the others as they moved about looking for empty drawers, trunks, or wardrobes, but she constantly held her hand over her apron pocket, protecting the object she had dug out of the mine.

All the furniture they went through was crammed full of clothes or other things, until the girls got to the far corner of the attic. Then they opened drawer after drawer and door after door and found them all empty.

“That’s funny,” Mandie remarked. “Everything is full and running over except right here, and there’s not even a string or a hairpin in the furniture in this corner.”

“Maybe this is the last stuff put up here and someone emptied it all out,” Celia suggested, surveying the jumble of chairs, beds, chifferobes, tables, and trunks.

“I do not think so,” Sallie said. “This corner is the farthest from the door. I think it would be the first to be filled up.”

“You’re right, Sallie,” Mandie agreed, turning around. “Look at the pile between here and the door. It would have been impossible to bring this stuff over here through all that mess.”

“Then I wonder why all this furniture is empty,” Celia said.

“Maybe Uncle John knows. We can ask him. Anyway, if all this furniture is the oldest, it is probably the most valuable, so we might as well pick out something else,” Mandie said, going over to a huge wardrobe near the window.

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