The Mandie Collection by Lois Gladys Leppard Page A

said.
    â€œAnd what was she doing picking him up out here on this road?” Mandie asked. Then she had an idea. “You don’t suppose they were visiting the Burnses, do you?”
    â€œWe could ask the Burnses,” Joe told her.
    But when they arrived at the Burnses’ house, they only found Ludie home.
    â€œMother sent you this food,” Mandie said as she held up the basket she was carrying.
    â€œCome in, come in,” Mrs. Burns invited them as she stepped aside for them to enter the house.
    â€œWould you like for us to put these baskets in the kitchen for you?” Joe asked.
    â€œYes, that would be nice,” Mrs. Burns replied as she led the way into the big kitchen. “Jes’ put ’em on the table there, and I’ll see what you brought. Do you need to take the baskets back right now?”
    Mandie and Joe placed the baskets on the long table, and Mrs. Burns pulled off the cloth covering one of them and began taking out the food.
    â€œMother didn’t say we had to bring back the baskets, so just take your time about emptying them,” Mandie replied. Then she asked, “Mrs. Burns, did you just now have company? We met a man and a woman in a buggy down the road.”
    â€œA man and a woman in a buggy? No, ain’t seen nobody,” Ludie Burns said as she took a plate of fried chicken from the basket, set it on the table, and covered it with the cloth. “Ain’t many people going up and down this road. We don’t know nobody much around here anyhow.”
    â€œDo you know Etta and Zack Hughes?” Joe asked.
    â€œHughes?” Ludie repeated as she frowned. “Don’t believe I do. Do they live around here?”
    â€œNo, they live over in Swain County,” Joe told her.
    â€œWe have to go now, Mrs. Burns. Mother told us not to stay too long,” Mandie said. She and Joe started back through the house.
    Mrs. Burns followed them to the front door. “Y’all come back agin, anytime, and tell your ma I ’preciate the food. Thank you now.”
    â€œYou’re welcome, Mrs. Burns, and I’ll tell her,” Mandie called back to her as she and Joe walked toward the road.
    As they cut back through the woods, Mandie said, “Well, evidently Etta and Zack Hughes were not visiting the Burnses.” Suddenly she stopped and said, “Joe, let’s go back and walk all the way around by the road. We might see them somewhere.”
    â€œI doubt that we will see them. They’ll be long gone by now,” Joe said. “But if you want to go back on the road, it’s fine with me.”
    â€œI feel like a long walk anyway. Come on. Let’s go back to the road,” Mandie said as she turned back the way they had come.
    It was the long way home. The road went through the business district of town, past the depot, and finally connected with the road going by John Shaw’s house. Mandie and Joe kept watching as they walked, but there was no sign of the buggy or Etta and Zack Hughes.
    Just as Mandie and Joe got to the gate in the white fence around John Shaw’s yard, Mrs. Taft pulled up in the Shaws’ buggy. She threw the reins down to Joe, who looped them on the hitching post and then assisted the lady down.
    â€œHave you been to visit someone?” Mandie asked as her grandmother stepped through the gateway. She and Joe followed.
    â€œNo, dear, I went down to the telegraph office to send my lawyera report on what transpired at the courthouse yesterday,” Mrs. Taft explained. “Where have y’all been?”
    The three walked up the walkway to the long front porch and paused there.
    â€œMother had us take some food to the Burnses. She said we had too much on hand,” Mandie explained. “And, Grandmother, we saw Etta in a buggy, and she was picking up Zack Hughes on the road down near the Burnses’ house. We had to take the food to the Burnses so we couldn’t follow