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NAN SHERWOOD'S
SUMMER HOLIDAYS
BY
ANNIE ROE CARR
[Illustration]
THE WORLD SYNDICATE
PUBLISHING COMPANY
CLEVELAND NEW YORK
_Published 1937 by
The World Syndicate Publishing Co._
[Illustration]
_Printed in the United States of America_
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I NEW YEAR'S EVE 1
II SECRETS 13
III PLANS AND MORE PLANS 24
IV DOUBT ON ALL SIDES 34
V SURPRISE FOR EVERYONE! 44
VI ADVENTURES AHEAD! 52
VII A MYSTERIOUS LETTER 62
VIII OLD FRIENDS AND AN ENEMY 70
IX THEY'RE OFF 80
X TROUBLE FOR NAN 86
XI BESS HOLDS HER TEMPER 93
XII A SCORE TO EVEN UP 101
XIII FRIENDS ABOARD SHIP 108
XIV A STORM AT SEA 116
XV IN THE SHIP'S HOSPITAL 123
XVI THE HUNCH-BACK AGAIN 131
XVII NAN PUZZLES OVER HER SECRET 141
XVIII THE CAPTAIN'S DINNER 149
XIX LAND IS SIGHTED 156
XX BE CAREFUL, NAN! 162
XXI WELCOME, LASSIES, TO SCOTLAND 171
XXII EMBERON 179
XXIII SCOTTISH GAMES AND SCOTTISH TUNES 187
XXIV AN ACCIDENT NEAR THE CASTLE 193
XXV JAMES BLAKE DOES SOME EXPLAINING 200
XXVI NAN'S DISAPPEARANCE 209
XXVII BESS HAS HER SAY 216
XXVIII NAN COMES INTO HER OWN 225
XXIX LONDON ON HOLIDAY 232
XXX THE KING IS CROWNED 241
NAN SHERWOOD'S SUMMER HOLIDAYS
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 muffle 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
scrapes."
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
embarrassed.
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 wishing 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 snobbish
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 basement 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 embarrassed 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 association 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.
Moreover, she was envious. She had heard some place that Linda Riggs was
going to spend the summer in Europe, and she did not want Linda to go
any place that she couldn't go. Now, as she sat quietly, after
expressing herself on the matter of that overly proud young person, she
was really thinking of ways and means of persuading her parents to let
her go to Europe, too.
"Anyway," Grace brought the girls back to the subject of Linda, "maybe
Nan is right. So, I hereby resolve," she said solemnly, "to be nice to
Linda Riggs for one whole month, the month of January. During that time,
I will not say one mean thing to her."
"Bravo!" Nan applauded. "And you, Rhoda?"
But it was not Linda Riggs that troubled the pretty southern girl. She
had really never had any direct contact with her. So when Nan turned to
her, she began, "Well, Linda doesn't really annoy me. I simply overlook
her. But there is something else that does bother me. You all know that
when I first came to Lakeview Hall, it was hard for me to fit into your
way of doing things."
The girls nodded their heads sympathetically. Rhoda had stood apart
from them for some weeks after her arrival but they had forgiven her for
her apparent misunderstanding of them. They had long before forgotten
that she had been a "poor sport" at the hazing when she first entered
Lakeview. Now Rhoda herself brought it back to mind.
"I simply couldn't understand your way of making me welcome when I came
north," she said in her own soft southern drawl. "I puzzled about it for
a long time, sure all the while that you were wrong and I was right!"
Nan caught her eye and smiled. "We were mean, weren't we?" she admitted.
"Oh, Nan, it wasn't you," the loyal Bess interposed. "You tried to make
everything easier for Rhoda, but we simply wouldn't help you. Why, I
believe we were jealous," she ended as though the idea was an entirely
new one. "Girls, remember how Rhoda looked the first time we ever saw
her?"
They all nodded.
"You were lovely," she went on speaking directly to Rhoda.
Rhoda blushed slightly at the frank praise, but Bess paid no heed. "You
were dressed in the most perfect brown hat and coat I've ever seen," she
continued. "I'll never forget it."
"Nor will I," Rhoda ruefully agreed. "I have never in my life felt so
strange and so entirely alone. You were all talking among yourselves and
having a grand time. Everyone seemed to know everyone else. I was such
an outsider! And when Laura Polk addressed me as Rollicking Rhoda from
Rustlers' Roost, the wild Western adventuress that you had heard so much
about, I wished that the floor would open wide and swallow me.
"Since it didn't, I wanted to turn and run, run as fast as I could back
to Rose Ranch and the people I knew. Have you ever felt like that?"
"Many, many times," Grace agreed heartily. "I've wanted to run when I
flunked in recitations before the whole class. I've wanted to go away
and hide just dozens of times when things went wrong. I can hardly bear
it when Mrs. Cupp tells me before everyone that Dr. Beulah wants to see
me."
"Especially when Linda Riggs is there and hears it and looks as though
she was the most perfect person in the world," Bess chimed in.
"Sometimes, when I see her looking that way when you people have to go
to the office, I feel as though I'd like to tell all I know about her."
At a warning look from Nan, Bess subsided. Nan patted Grace on the
shoulder. "You mustn't take those things too seriously," she said. "We
all feel that way."
"But you just can't help yourself," Rhoda continued. "My mother has
always tried to teach me to have poise, but generally, when I feel as
I did that night, I forget everything she has ever said, and I act
like such a fool. I feel miserable afterwards, because I know how
disappointed she would be.
"Now, I want to resolve to be a good sport, no matter what happens. I
want to remember to stand my ground and not run just because things seem
to be unpleasant."
The girls were silent for a moment after this. Rhoda was so utterly
sincere that they realized for the first time how unhappy she must have
been in the days after her hazing, when for so long they ignored her.
"Well, I declare," the cheery voice of Grace's mother broke in on the
silence. "A good old fashioned round table, I do believe!" She had
entered the room quietly and now stood alone near the doorway. "I hate
to send you all off to bed, but it really is getting late. Tomorrow you
must all be up early, pack, and catch that early train for Lakeview. I
promised Dr. Prescott on my word of honor that I'd have you all back to
school on time."
At this, the girls got up, wished one another and Mrs. Mason a Happy New
Year, and then prepared for bed.
"It has been a happy, happy day," each one thought as she pulled the
covers up over her shoulders and fell off to sleep. It was only Nan who
lay awake. She was thinking of her trip and wondering what lay before
her. But had the others been able to see into the future, they, too,
would have lain awake thinking, and planning, and hoping.