Merry Christmas from Mandie

A Special Invitation "GUESS WHAT?" Mandie Shaw called out as she ran up the lane. Her good friend Joe Woodard was waiting for her on the main road. "What?" Joe asked as he reached to take her books. Mandie handed them over. "Miss Abigail is going to have a huge Christmas tree and we are all invited to decorate it," she told him. They began the walk down the road to the schoolhouse. Miss Abigail lived in the finest house in Swain County, North Carolina. "And she has piles of Christmas decorations in her attic and we can go up there and choose what we want to use. Isn't that exciting?" Joe smiled down at Mandie. "I'd say it's interesting. As long as Miss Abigail has been living here in Charley Gap, she has never had a Christmas tree." "She's doing this for Faith," Mandie declared. Faith Winters and her grandmother, Mrs. Chapman, had come to Charley Gap in the western North Carolina mountains earlier that fall and had moved into the ramshackle old Conley place. Mr. Conley had moved away years before, and the local people were surprised to learn that he had gone to Missouri to live with Faith's family, who were his relatives. Upon his death his house in North Carolina had become the property of Faith and her grandmother. And after Faith's parents were killed in a fire that destroyed their home in Missouri, she and her grandmother had come to live in it. Now she and Mandie were good friends. Miss Abigail had given Faith a home while Faith's grandmother, the girl's only living relative, went to New York for medical treatment. "Faith's grandmother may not be back in time for Christmas," Mandie said. "She wrote Faith a letter and said the doctors are still treating those scars on her face." Mrs. Chapman had been badly burned in the fire. "Yes, her doctor wrote my dad a letter. He thinks he might be able to help her enough that she won't be shy about being seen in public," Joe replied. "Oh, that would be wonderful!" Mandie exclaimed. "You know, when I first saw her face it hurt me inside. It looked so terrible I just had to try real hard to keep from crying in front of her." She blinked her blue eyes as she felt the threat of tears. "Well, we've got her house in top shape. Everything is repaired," Joe said. "Now we have to refurnish the inside." "Joe, I just can't imagine our house burning up along with everything in it," Mandie said. "And from what I can gather, they must have had an awfully beautiful home in Missouri. Now they have to live in Mr. Conley's old place." "If Mr. Conley were still living, he'd never recognize his house now," Joe said. "It's lucky for Faith and her grandmother that they inherited the place right at the time they needed a home." Mandie looked up at Joe. "Do you think Miss Abigail will let all of us go hunt for a Christmas tree?" she asked. "I know she's got people working there for her who could do it, but do you think maybe she'll let us do it instead?" "She might. Who did Miss Abigail say she was going to invite?" he asked. "All of us, all of the pupils at our school," Mandie said. "There are sixteen of us, Mandie," Joe reminded her. "Do you think Miss Abigail will really have all those people over to decorate just one Christmas tree?" Mandie stopped in the middle of the road, stomped her foot, and looked up at Joe. "Joe Woodard, I said she is going to ask all of us, which, in my opinion, means all sixteen pupils," she said firmly. "All right, all right, let's go. We're going to be late for school," Joe said with a smile as he turned to go. Mandie quickly caught up with him. "I know sixteen people are going to be a crowd toLeppard, Lois Gladys is the author of 'Merry Christmas from Mandie' with ISBN 9780553487206 and ISBN 0553487205.