Nan Sherwood on the Mexican Border Part 1

Nan Sherwood on the Mexican Border.

by Annie Roe Carr.

CHAPTER I

UNEXPECTED GUESTS

Elizabeth Harley jumped down from her bicycle and dropped it noisily against the steps of the Sherwood back porch.

"Nan, oh, Nan!" she called.

There was no answer. She ran up the steps and into the cottage, letting the screen door bang behind her. A friend since primary school days of Nan Sherwood, she was like one of the family and always ran into the Sherwood home on Amity Street without the formality of ringing the doorbell or pausing to knock.

Now she was more than anxious to find Nan. She had something important to tell her, news, she felt, that had to be told right away.

Grace and Rhoda and Laura and Amelia, the whole crowd that had gone to England to see the king and queen crowned in Westminster the year before were coming to Tillbury by motor to spend a couple of weeks. Nan and Bess had invited them during the last busy days at school, but Bess had only just now received a telegram saying they could come. Oh, there was so much to do!

"Nan, Nan!" she called again. They would have to have parties and picnics and hikes. Bess's mind was busy planning even as she wondered where in the world Nan was. They would have a steak fry down on the sh.o.r.e of the lake. They would stay late and after the moon was up, they would sit on the sh.o.r.e and sing and talk and build the fire up high and then when the embers were low, they would toast marshmallows and talk some more until it was time to go home. But where was Nan?

Bess called again. Again there was no answer, but Bess heard the sound of voices in the front of the house. She walked on through. Excited herself, she failed to notice the excitement in the voices that attracted her, so when she stuck her head through the door between the hall and the Sherwood front parlor, she was taken completely by surprise.

There were strangers in the room! Bess withdrew her head in embarra.s.sment, but Nan had seen her and came towards her laughing.

"Oh, Bess," she said, reaching her hand out toward her friend and pulling her into the room. "Come on in, you are just the person we wanted to see."

"Yes, Bess, it's so," Mrs. Sherwood nodded her head rea.s.suringly at her daughter's young friend.

"Yes, la.s.sie, come in," one of the strangers, a white-haired old man spoke up. "Come over here by me, and let me look at you." His bright blue eyes twinkled as he noted the blush on the girl's cheek but he did nothing to relieve her embarra.s.sment. On the contrary, he adjusted his gla.s.ses on his nose, and carefully looked her up and down.

"Hm-m-m, a pretty bit," he smiled as he rendered his verdict and then reached over and drew Nan, who was standing close beside Bess, near to him. "So this is another of the la.s.sies who went over to see the good king crowned," he addressed his remark to Nan. "And I gather you are pretty good friends."

Nan and Bess both nodded at this.

"And you go to the same school and you pay attention to your lessons and you mind your own business?" The old gentleman tried to look severe as he asked these questions.

"We try to, sir." Bess found her voice at last.

"You obey your elders and you think you are going to spend your vacation here in Tillbury, a G.o.d-forsaken place, with a half dozen bright la.s.sies like yourself?"

"Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, sir." Bess didn't know what to answer. This strange old man was like no one she had ever met before. She wanted to protest that Tillbury was not a G.o.d-forsaken place, that she and Nan both liked it, but she didn't quite dare. She wanted to speak up and tell him that vacation in Tillbury with all her friends would be fun, but she didn't dare do that either. She didn't quite know what to think of this white-haired gentleman who seemed so fond of Nan and was so outspoken. In her confusion, she was tongue-tied.

But he wasn't. Each time that he opened his mouth, the words that came forth were more astonis.h.i.+ng than they had been before. Bess found herself listening in amazement.

"Well, you're not going to stay here in Tillbury for the summer," he continued his discussion of Bess and Nan's vacation. "I won't have it.

And your friends aren't going to either. You're all coming with me.

England one summer, and Tillbury the next. Forsooth! I thought you all had more imagination than that. You, Nan, I'm disappointed in you." His eyes twinkled merrily as he looked at his young cousin, for the stranger was Adair MacKenzie, first cousin to Mrs. Sherwood, and a wealthy Memphis, Tennessee, business man.

"Now, let's see, when can we start?" He took out his watch as he spoke.

"Hm-m-m. It will take a little time to pack," he reflected. "La.s.sies are such fussy creatures. They have to have two or three dresses--"

"Two or three!" Nan exclaimed, "Why, cousin Adair, we have to have just dozens if we are going to stay away all summer."

"Who said you were?" The old Scotchman roared and then threw back his head and laughed long and heartily at the young girl who seemed so self-possessed no matter what he said or did. Nan laughed with him and then, turning toward Bess, she introduced her eccentric old relative and his pretty daughter, Alice, a young lady about five years older than Nan who, up to this time, had said nothing, but had watched her father with amus.e.m.e.nt.

At the introduction, Adair MacKenzie bowed gracefully and, taking Bess's hand lightly in his, kissed it quickly. "You're a nice la.s.sie," he said then. "Now let's all sit down and talk a while about this trip to Mexico."

"To Mexico!" Bess was wide-eyed as the exclamation slipped off her tongue. "Are we going to Mexico?"

"Why, yes. That was all settled weeks ago," MacKenzie knitted his brows as he looked at Bess. "Such a bright young la.s.sie and yet she didn't know that!"

"Don't mind father," Alice took Bess's hand in hers. "He goes about planning all these things and never says anything to anyone until he has everything all ready. It used to wear me out, but now I think it is quite charming of him. Of course, it keeps everyone at home in a constant state of turmoil and it makes the housekeeper furious, but then we manage."

"Manage!" the old man exploded again. "Manage! Why, you imp, you, you love it and you know you do. It's the spice of life to you. Mexico, Europe, Alaska, South America, Egypt, why, the world's a place to live in, not just to read about. India and China and j.a.pan, these are places we haven't been."

"And daddy, we're not going just yet." Alice acted as though she wanted to forestall any possibility of their starting off the next day or the next hour for the Orient. "Remember, it's Mexico we're going to this summer. We're going to live in that big hacienda that was dumped into your hands when you sued those clients of yours that were exporters in Mexico City. Oh, daddy, remember, when you came back the last time, you said it was a grand old place with gorgeous vines flinging scarlet sprays all over everything."

"Yes, I remember. I said that the sunsets were more gorgeous, the birds more brilliant, the flowers brighter, the moon more silver, the sea bluer than anything we've ever seen."

"And that wasn't all you said," Alice seemed to be baiting her father now.

"I know it." He fell right into the trap of the daughter whom he adored.

"I said also that there was a bunch of darn Mexicans cluttering up the place down there who put the politeness of us Southerners to shame.

Never saw anything like it," he turned to Mrs. Sherwood with this. "They fall all over themselves every time they turn around, and women just eat it up. Can't stand it myself. Never get anything done. Have to change that."

Mrs. Sherwood laughed softly at this. Adair had not changed a bit since she saw him last, and that was longer ago than she liked to remember.

That was at her wedding. She smiled now to herself in recalling it. She and Bob, in their anxiety to escape from the wedding reception without being followed, had taken Adair into their confidence. He had promised to get them a horse and buggy, to see that they got off safely to the train that was to bring them up North on their honeymoon. He had told them to leave everything to him, and, in their innocence, they had.

Adair had meant well, but somehow or other in his peremptory handling of events, he got everything in such confusion that practically the whole town turned out to see the Sherwoods off. They, in their turn, almost missed the train, for the horse and buggy never did arrive. However, it had all turned out happily, and when the bride and groom stood on the back of the train and waved to their friends, they had an especially fond feeling for Adair. He, however, felt pretty glum, and their last view of him was of a perplexed young man standing off alone on one corner of the station platform, wondering how in the world all of the people had happened to be there.

No, Adair, she could see, hadn't changed a bit. He still liked to manage people, still liked to follow up any impulsive idea that came to his active mind. Through the years, tales of his adventures had reached her by letter from friends and relatives. Adair himself was not given to writing. "Takes too much time," he said. "Can't sit still that long."

His visit now was a surprise. He had arrived, unannounced, when she and Nan were in a turmoil unpacking the trunks that Nan had brought back from school with her. Only the peremptory peal of the doorbell had announced his coming. When she opened the door, he had taken her in his arms and kissed her and then, without even introducing Alice whom she had never met, he began immediately to call for Nan.

"Where's that girl?" he asked almost before he was inside the door.

"Come all the way up here from Memphis to see her and then she doesn't even come to greet me." In his impatience, he pounded on the floor with his cane. Mrs. Sherwood called her daughter.

"You're Nan," he said positively, when Nan finally entered the room.

"I'm Adair. I would have known you anyplace. You look and walk and talk (Nan hadn't said a word) just like your mother. The same eyes, the same hair, the same determined chin. Now I believe everything I've been hearing about you. Didn't before. Sounded like a bunch of nonsense to me."

"Young school girl takes part in English coronation. Young school girl saves child from rattlesnake. Young school girl saves life of old lady.

Didn't believe a word of it. Now I do. You're going to Mexico with me."

"Adair MacKenzie!" Mrs. Sherwood exclaimed. "Will you please lay your cane aside, take off your coat, put your hat down and have a chair before you go sweeping Nan off her feet with your scatterbrained ideas.

"Nan, don't worry, darling," she turned toward her daughter and laughed.

"This man is really quite harmless. He is Adair MacKenzie, our cousin.