Nan Sherwood's Summer Holidays Part 1

Nan Sherwood's Summer Holidays.

by Annie Roe Carr.

CHAPTER I

NEW YEAR'S EVE

"I just can't believe it's true! I've pinched myself a dozen times. I've pulled my own hair. I've looked at myself in the mirror again and again and told myself that it is a fact, that I am I, Nan Sherwood of Tillbury, United States of America and student of Lakeview Hall, and that I am going to sail away next spring to Scotland to visit--"

The end of the sentence was lost in a m.u.f.fle as Nan pulled off the simple silk frock she had been wearing.

Bess Harley, her closest friend since primary school days, finished it.

"Emberon, the home of your mother's ancestors." Her voice sounded unusually heavy. Nan looked around and immediately was all contrition, for Bess's eyes were full of tears.

"Why, Bess, darling, forgive me. I'm nothing but a thoughtless old meany." So saying, she wiped Bess's tears away and sat down beside her.

Bess caught her lip between her teeth and shook her head as she fought for self-control. "I'm just an old silly myself," she half apologized.

"But I can hardly bear the thought of your going so far away from all of us for a whole summer. And it's true you are going, Nan, as true as the fact that Walter Mason cut in on more than half your dances tonight."

With this jibe, Bess' eyes twinkled, and she felt better.

Nan blushed. "Oh, Bess, was it really so bad? I told him not to, but he said he was under orders to see that I didn't get into any more sc.r.a.pes."

Bess laughed. "You dear! Of course, it was all right. We all danced with him--for a few seconds at least."

Nan looked somewhat unconvinced. Walter, she felt, was paying her rather special attention these days and because she did like him, she hardly knew whether to be pleased or angry. She succeeded only in being embarra.s.sed.

Now, a knock diverted her thoughts. She jumped up, but before she could open the door, two of her other companions at Lakeview Hall entered.

"May we come in?" It was pretty little Grace Mason speaking. After her followed Rhoda Hammond, her dark eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Oh, Grace, it was such a nice party!" Nan exclaimed enthusiastically as she placed chairs for the two visitors. "Your mother and dad are perfect peaches to have us all here tonight."

Grace smiled shyly. "It was fun for me, too. Do you know, I've never before stayed up to watch the old year out and the New Year in! It's my first New Year's party."

"And we'll always remember it, too," Rhoda chimed in. Then she looked rather sad, for it was the first time she had ever spent the holiday away from her pretty blind mother, her dad, and Rose Ranch.

"Yes," it was curly headed Bess speaking now. "We will. Would you believe it? Tonight when I stood down there near the big windows, looking out across the room, and saw you all with dishes of ice cream in your hands, the clock chimed out eleven-thirty and I felt as though Mrs.

Cupp should come in, clap her hands, and tell us all to report to Dr.

Prescott's office tomorrow. That's almost always happened, you know, when we have had a really good spread at school."

The girls laughed merrily. They had pictures in their minds of everybody at the party dropping their dishes and scurrying away at the appearance of Mrs. Cupp.

"If you feel too guilty," Nan looked across at Bess, "I'll tell Dr.

Beulah when we get back to Lakeview next Wednesday. Perhaps she can be persuaded to impose the silent treatment on you."

"Oh, Nan," Bess laughed, "Remember the time she did that to you and I tried so hard to make you talk. It was so dull having a roommate who did nothing but shake her head when I opened my mouth and let out words of wisdom."

"I don't remember," Nan tried to keep her face straight as she made the statement and then paused before she added--"the words of wisdom."

The girls all laughed. Then there was silence as each one thought of all the good times they had had in the past years. It was Grace who spoke first.

"Mother will be in before long, I'm afraid," she said, "to tell us that we must go to bed. Nan, before she does, tell us more about your going to Europe. Just imagine--"

"Please, Grace," Nan interrupted her friend. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anything more tonight."

With this, all the girls looked more questioning than ever and Rhoda protested, "But Nan, you can't be mysterious about a trip abroad. We simply couldn't stand it!" This was unusual coming from the generally quiet Rhoda and for a moment they all looked at her. Her face flushed slightly. The words sounded strange even to her. Could she be forgetting those southern manners that always made her so mindful of others'

feelings? Now, as she saw the expression on Nan's face and then looked at Bess, she guessed at Nan's reasons for wis.h.i.+ng to delay talk of the European trip. With her usual tact, she changed the subject entirely.

"Have any of you made any New Year's resolutions?" she asked.

Almost as quick as Rhoda to sense the reason for Nan's unwillingness to talk, Grace answered the question.

"I've thought of a million things I ought to resolve to do, but it's so discouraging. I never seem to be able to keep any of my resolutions."

Nan smiled her thanks to both of the girls, and then turned to Bess.

"There's one resolution we all ought to make," she said.

"What's that?" Bess asked as she tried to guess what fault they all had in common.

"To be nicer to Linda Riggs when we go back to school."

"Nicer to Linda Riggs!" Bess exploded. "Why, if I make any resolution at all about that girl, it will be to utterly ignore her when I get back! Nicer to Linda Riggs! Why, Nan Sherwood, and after all she has done to you! If I had her here this minute I'd like to slap her sn.o.bbish face. Just because her father happens to own a railroad, she thinks that she owns the world."

"Why, Bess!" Nan exclaimed. "Be quiet! There's no point in your talking that way about her, no matter what she does. If you don't keep quiet, I'll think you are as bad as she."

"Maybe so," Bess half admitted. "Just the same, I wish she wasn't coming back to school at all. I don't think she should be allowed to after causing that explosion. She might have killed us all."

Nan nodded her head at this last. It was true that Linda had done a very risky thing in meddling with the steam valve in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the school.

"Yes, but even so, I'm going to be nicer to her in the spring term," Nan resolved. "Maybe she has some good qualities we don't know about."

"Nan means," Rhoda interpreted, "that there is some good in all of us.

Perhaps she is right. Perhaps Linda has never been given a chance."

Bess snorted very inelegantly. "You can all turn the other cheek if you want to," she insisted, "but I'm not going to. She's just a mean hateful old thing, and I don't care what you think, Nan. I'm going to watch her.

You had better do it too, if you're going to live to go to Europe."

At this, Grace giggled. "Nan could live through almost anything, I believe," she said. "Mama says she never knew a girl who at Nan's age had had so many adventures and had come up so smiling from all of them.

Dad agrees. He thinks Nan has a charmed life, that she has at least nine lives--"

"Like a cat?" Nan interrupted, for she was embarra.s.sed at this praise of herself. Now, her eyes twinkled as the girls all laughed. Nan was really a charming girl. Her clear brown eyes were frank and trusting. Her brown, bobbed hair, cut in a wind-blown style and brushed so that it shone and looked soft and silky, gave her an almost boyish appearance.

But her quick sympathy, her readiness to help anyone in distress, and her fondness for children made a real girl of her. Everyone liked her, but Bess Harley liked her most of all.

Bess was a pretty girl with curly hair. Though indulgent parents had spoiled her so that she was inclined to over-value the luxuries money could buy, her constant a.s.sociation with Nan through the years had somewhat remedied that. However, this New Year's Eve, she did feel out of sorts. The thought of being separated from Nan was still new to her.