The Mandie Collection by Lois Gladys Leppard Read Free Book Online

today?”
    â€œOh, Mr. Heyward, Miss Hope sent us with a list that she needs,” Mandie told him, stopping to let him catch up with them in the middle aisle. She held out the sheet of paper.
    â€œMiss Hope, now, there’s one nice lady,” Mr. Heyward said with a smile, taking the paper and peering through his glasses at it. “Seems she has quite a list here.”
    â€œYes, sir, that’s what we thought, too. If you don’t mind gathering up all those things for her, we’ll just look around as we wait,” Mandie replied.
    â€œYes, ma’am, be glad to. Y’all just make yourselves at home now. This will take a few minutes,” he said, looking at the list as he disappeared behind shelves of merchandise.
    Mandie and Celia roamed the store, looking at everything, and then Mandie happened to notice there was another entrance into the store from the street behind the building. She stopped to look out through the glass door. From what she could see, the neighborhood back there seemed to be old and run-down.
    Celia came to her side. “Looks like alleys back there to me,” she remarked.
    â€œAlleys!” Mandie exclaimed. “You are right. And we crossed King Street, remember, the one that Tommy and Robert mentioned.Let’s go take a look while Mr. Heyward gets the order together.” She pushed on the door.
    â€œMandie, wait,” Celia protested, but she followed Mandie outside. “I don’t think we ought to go out here by ourselves. Besides, Uncle Cal is waiting for us.”
    â€œCome on. It won’t take but a few minutes to walk down this street and back. Come on,” Mandie urged. She began rapidly walking toward the next alleyway.
    Celia skipped and caught up with her. “Oh, Mandie, I don’t really feel right about this. We could get in trouble,” she reminded her friend. “And it could be dangerous.”
    â€œIn the daytime? Who’s going to bother us in the daytime?” Mandie replied, hurrying across the side street.
    â€œHow will we know the alley when we see it? It was dark that night, remember?” Celia asked, panting along behind Mandie.
    â€œI’ll know it,” Mandie declared, leading the way across several other streets that looked more and more like alleys. She kept looking down the side streets. Now and then she saw someone walking, but the cobblestone corridor through the maze of buildings was mostly isolated.
    Celia stayed close by her side. “Mandie, don’t you think we’ve looked enough and we ought to go back now?” she asked timidly.
    â€œIn a minute, Celia. I just want to see a little more,” Mandie replied without slowing down.
    Then they came to an alley that ran across the street they were on. It was narrow, hardly wide enough for a rig to pass through, with old dilapidated buildings along each side. Mandie quickly stopped.
    â€œThis is it!” she declared excitedly, turning to enter the alley. “There are the old buildings we couldn’t see very well at night, and the cobblestones are rough and lopsided in places, and all those straggly trees growing in between everything.” She quickly walked into the passageway.
    Celia followed on her heels. “Well, now we’ve found it, so let’s go back, Mandie,” she begged.
    â€œI wonder exactly where the rig broke down,” Mandie murmured. “It was near there that I thought I heard the puppy whining, remember?” She stopped to look around and listen.
    â€œI don’t hear it now,” Celia whispered, huddling close to Mandie’s side.
    â€œI don’t, either, but look! There’s a man leaning on the side of a building down there. Let’s just ask him if he has seen a puppy around here,” Mandie said, moving forward.
    â€œMandie!” Celia groaned in protest.
    As they approached, Mandie saw the man was poorly dressed—holes in the knees of his dirty pants,