Annie Roe Carr

“ Laughter drove away even the fears of May, Lillie and Grace. Bess swallowed hard and laughed, too; but she pinched Nan’s arm as she whispered:
“It was that black thing we saw before in the boathouse, Nan.”
“All right. Keep it to yourself,” urged her chum.
“What are you two whispering about?” complained May. “You didn’t get us down here to try to frighten us to death, did you?”
“We’re going to give you all a good time, if you’ll let us,” laughed Nan, cheerfully. “Come on, girls! If we spend so much time outside the boathouse, somebody will be sure to see us.” ”

“ Nan rejoined, dryly.
“But she’ll tell awful stories about us at Lakeview Hall,” Bess said with a worried air.
“Let her tell,” scoffed the more sensible Nan.
“We—ell! We don’t want to begin school with all the girls against us.”
“They’ll not be. Do you suppose that girl has much influence with the nice, sensible girls who attend Lakeview Hall?”
“We—ell!” exclaimed Bess, again. “She’s rich.”
“Bess! I’m astonished at you,” declared Nan, with some heat. “Any one to hear you would think you a money-worshipper. How can you bear to be friends with me when my folks are poor.” ”

“ Nan got up. She looked all about for some means of escape. Behind her, coming down the aisle, were several other people headed by Professor Krenner. And with them came the haughty girl, Linda Riggs.
“Oh! what’s the matter?” cried Bess, starting up, too.
Nan was speechless, and red with confusion. Professor Krenner was smiling, as though he rather enjoyed Nan Sherwood’s position.
“Oh, Miss Harley!” Linda Riggs cried to her new acquaintance. “They say that dear, brave girl is in this car.”
“Is she?” asked Bess, feebly. “Oh, Nan! what do all these people want?” ”

“ In running up the ladder to the loft the child had doubtless dislodged the rattlesnake which, upon slipping to the floor of the hut, had assumed an attitude of defense. The victim, flinging herself down between two rafters to escape, at once was in imminent danger of falling upon the angry snake.
The drop to the floor of the shack would not necessarily hurt the child, for the rafters were low. But a single injection of the poison of the serpent might be fatal.
These facts and conjectures had rushed into Nan Sherwood’s mind in a flood of appreciation. She understood it all. ”

“ The fishing boats from Freeling were driving in toward the inlet, too. Wise boatmen saw the promise of “dirty weather.” Not so Nan and Bess. The tang of the spray on their lips, the wind blowing their braids and freshening the roses in their cheeks, the caress of it on their bare arms and necks, the excitement of sitting in the pitching canoe—all delighted and charmed the girls. ”

“ A SEPTEMBER SQUALL
It was a still, hazy September afternoon, so warm that the frost that had helped to open the chestnut burrs that very morning seemed to have been an hallucination. The lake was as calm as a millpond; but Lake Huron is notoriously treacherous.
Henry, the boatkeeper at Lakeview Hall, was not as weatherwise as he should have been. He had allowed a number of boats to be taken out that afternoon without warning the girls to beware of squalls. ”

“ Mademoiselle Loro (who had taken a great fancy to Nan Sherwood) presided at the tea-table. The little Frenchwoman had by no means forgotten her youth and she did not cast any “damper” upon the occasion, as Bess Harley was afraid she would.
“I don’t know how it is, Nan,” said Bess, when the entertainment was over and they were alone. “You are just the funniest girl I ever heard of. Any other girl would never have thought of inviting a teacher to a doll’s party; if she had, the girls would have been afraid to come. ”

“ I have often thought that it would be a great lark to catch Susan in the back hall, blindfold her, threaten her [71] with the boathouse ghost if she squealed, and bear off the doctor’s dinner as the spoils of the campaign.”
“But goodness me!” cried Nan, when she could speak for laughter. “Don’t they really give you enough supper?”
“Wait! Only wait!” repeated Laura, warmly. “You’ll soon see. Dr. Beulah believes most thoroughly in ‘the simple life’—for us girls. Oh, she do—believe me! And I think Mrs. Cupp even counts the crackers that go on each dish that is set on the table at supper time. ”

“ Nan was rather sorry she had yielded to Bess Harley’s suggestion and arranged this banquet. But now being given over heart and hand to the affair, Nan did all she could to make the entertainment a success.
At this distance from the Hall the girls felt free [154] to let their tongues run, and to laugh and chatter to their hearts’ content.
“Oh!” cried May Winslow, “this party is lots nicer than any we ever had in our rooms, for here we do not have to set a watch for Mrs. Cupp, or be so careful how we breathe.” ”

“ Don’t you expect to meet us in those classes?”
“No,” replied Professor Krenner, soberly. “No girl cares for such instruction.”
“No?” cried Bess, becoming interested.
“I have never had a single pupil in architectural drawing at Lakeview Hall,” admitted the gentleman.
“Then why do they have it in the list of elective studies?” asked Nan, as much puzzled as her chum.
“Why, you see,” said the perfectly serious professor, “Dr. Prescott insists upon each instructor having two courses—one study that is compulsory, and another that is elective. I am not a versatile man. ”

“ She was just as eager as she could be, however, to get to Lakeview Hall, and find out what it and the girls were like. Boarding school was an unknown world to Nan. She felt more confidence now in herself, as the train bore her toward the wild Huron shore on which the school stood, than she had when she journeyed up into the Michigan woods with her Uncle Henry, back in mid-winter.
In that past time she was leaving her dear parents and they were leaving her. Each revolution of the car wheels were widening the space between “Momsey” and “Papa Sherwood,” and herself. ”

“ I can see what’s caused all this,” went on Linda, in her high-pitched voice. “Grace was mighty glad to have me and my friends even look at her before Nan Sherwood and Bess Harley came to the Hall. I wish her all the benefit she may derive from associating with them. I know one is a thief and the other is no better.”
Bess turned upon the enraged girl with an angry retort. But Nan stopped her.
“Don’t reply, Bess,” said Nan, in a low voice. “Brawling never proves anything, or settles any argument. But if she keeps on saying in public that I am a thief I shall go to Dr. Prescott about it.” ”

“ As Nan and Bess approached this “ogress’ castle,” as the girls called Mrs. Cupp’s room, a tall, thin lady was going in ahead of them. She had on her coat and hat and was evidently a visitor from outside.
“Dear me! who’s that?” whispered Nan, to her chum.
“Oh! I know,” Bess replied eagerly. “One of the girls pointed her out to me on the street and I never could forget that funny, old-fashioned hat.”
“Well!” exclaimed Nan, hanging back, “who is she?”
“Mrs. Cupp’s sister. She lives alone in the village. She’s a milliner. That’s why she wears such an awful hat, I suppose,” giggled Bess. ”

“ Mrs. Cupp rang her bell sharply. “Young ladies!” she exclaimed, when there was comparative silence. “Young ladies! Attention! Miss Sherwood is wanted in Dr. Prescott’s office at once.”
Many of the girls stared at Nan as she slowly arose, her breakfast partly eaten. More than one whisper went around the tables. One girl asked right out loud:
“Wonder what Dr. Prescott wants her for?”
“I know!” squealed the eager voice of one of the younger pupils. “I came right past Linda Riggs’ door, and I heard her say to Cora Courtney that she knew Nan stole that necklace!” ”

“ At the table she was giving to Bess an eager account of her adventure when Laura Polk said to the chums from Tillbury:
“Heard the latest, girls?”
“Don’t know. What is the latest?” asked Bess. “Nan’s got a yarn to tell that almost passes human belief. She seems to have interviewed a ghost and got her feet wet at the same time.”
“That’s nothing,” declared Laura. “Linda’s lost that beautiful necklace.” ”

“ No! Walter Mason is as meek as Moses! As meek as his own sister. And I think Gracie is the most milk-and-watery girl I ever saw.”
“She’s timid, I know,” began Nan, but her chum interrupted quickly:
“Oh, yes! You’ll find a good word to say for her, Nan. You always champion the cause of the weak and afflicted. Every sore-eyed kitten you saw on the street at Tillbury used to appeal to you.”
“Oh, bosh!” exclaimed Nan. “You make me out a whole lot worse than I am.” [100]
The canoe suddenly dipped sideways and Bess squealed as a splash of water came inboard. “Sit down! you’re rocking the boat!” ”

“ Now Cora was immediately moved to pity by what she had discovered in Nan Sherwood’s unfinished letter. She could appreciate the sting of poverty, and knew how she should feel herself if her great aunt abruptly cut off the tuition fees. And in this case Nan seemed to be giving up all from a sense of duty.
Her heart told Cora to run to Nan with the letter and tell her how sorry she was; but her head advised her to take an entirely different course. And Cora had learned to let her head guide her, and not her heart. ”

“ She did not mind now the curious glances of those passengers from the chair-car who were within the limit of her view.
But Bess considered that one person’s interest in her and her chum was distasteful. She whispered to Nan. [20]
“Do you see that old, goggle-eyed gentleman staring at us, Nan? I declare! Are we a pair of freaks?”
“Perhaps he thinks so,” chuckled Nan.
“He’s awfully impolite.”
Nan smiled frankly at the observant passenger across the aisle.
“Why, Nancy!” gasped Bess.
“He was kind to me. Professor Krenner is his name. I heard that girl call him so.” ”

“ Her mother’s money was altogether too new an acquisition to have made much of an impression upon Nan’s mind, save to stir her imagination.
She could, and did, imagine a sublimated “dwelling in amity” on the little by-street in Tillbury. She looked forward to the time when she and her parents would be together in their old home; but she could not imagine their style of living changed to any degree.
The life before Nan in the boarding school, however, she realized would be different from anything she had ever experienced. ”

“ I’m awfully interested. It’s lots more entertaining than drawing butterflies and flowers. Can’t a woman be an architect?”
“Hoity-toity! what’s this?” asked the professor, and sat down again to stare at her.
“I really do like it, Professor,” repeated Nan.
And from that time there dated a friendship between, and companionship of, Nan Sherwood and Professor Krenner that really made a great difference in both their lives.
Just now both chums from Tillbury were, immensely interested in the secret banquet to which twenty-five of their closest friends were to be invited. ”

“ Prescott’s sentence of silence made no difference to Bess.
“You’ve got to tell me what it means, or I’ll never speak to you again, so there!” cried Bess. “How is it your own chum never knows anything about your secrets, and other girls do? It’s a horrid shame!”
Nan, much troubled herself now, having discovered the loss of her unfinished letter, ran off to the principal and begged to be relieved of her sentence of silence. “Else I shall lose my dearest friend!” she told Dr. Prescott, quite wildly. “Something has happened that I must tell her about, dear Dr. Prescott! I must!” ”

“ She hurried to light the big lamp and make the girls welcome. At least the discovered raid on the viands served to banish all fear of the boathouse ghost. Ghosts certainly do not have an appetite for chocolate ice-cream, tuna-fish salad, and chicken sandwiches. [153]
“Start the fire—do, Amelia,” begged Nan. “Set the plates and knives and forks, Bess. Make yourselves at home, girls. Don’t be afraid of starving, Laura. There’s loads to eat left.” ”

“ Why, Nan, your father must be richer than mine!”
“They know I haven’t had much heretofore to spend extravagantly,” responded Nan, her eyes twinkling, “while you have been extravagant all your life.”
“Well! My father never gives me such a sum all at once for spending money. But you’re so cautious, Nan. Ugh! ‘sensible!’ I hate that word!”
“So do I dislike it,” said Nan, briskly. “I don’t [132] think I am any more sensible than other girls—unless I’m more so than you, Bess,” and she laughed at her chum.
“Well! what will you do with your money?” asked Bess. “That will tell the story.” ”

“ The man occupying the seat directly ahead of the two girls left at the very next station. Immediately Professor Krenner, who seemed to be much interested in Nan and Bess, crossed the aisle with his bag and sat down in the empty seat.
“Well, Miss,” he said to Nan, his eyelids wrinkling at the corners as though a smile lurked behind the shell-bowed spectacles, “I see you have not allowed that little contretemps to blast all the pleasure of your journey. Are you and your friend going to school?”
“Yes, sir. This is my chum, Elizabeth Harley, Professor Krenner,” Nan said. ”

“ Skating was in the offing, and she and Bess loved to skate.
Professor Krenner had reported the day before that the strait between the lake shore where his cabin stood, and the Isle of Hope, half a mile out in the lake, was skimmed over with ice. Here, at the foot of the flight of stairs and along by the haunted boathouse, the edge of the water was fringed with a crust of thin ice.
“Not much more fun for me at dear old Lakeview Hall,” Nan was thinking as she skipped lightly along the edge of this uncertain ice. “But I’ll get my skates sharpened, as Bess begged me. ”

“ No reward is offered, for they are gone forever!’”
“How ridiculous!” chuckled Bess.
“It is no laughing matter, girls,” said Nan, with gravity.
“What isn’t; the maxim?” cried Bess.
“No. Linda’s loss.”
“Pooh! What do I care?” scoffed Bess. “I’m wasting no tears over Linda.”
“But that lovely necklace!” cried Nan.
“It was a beauty,” admitted Laura.
“Oh! her father won’t mind. He has more money [208] than anybody else in the world—to hear her tell it,” laughed the heartless Bess. ”

“ Now he leaped up and rushed out of the car. Several of the train crew came running to the spot, too, but it was the odd instructor who reached the fallen girl first, with the sobbing child beside her.
“Snake! snake!” was all the little one could gasp at first.
A brakeman ventured into the hut and kicked out the writhing body of the rattlesnake.
“Great heavens! the girl’s been bitten!” cried one man.
“And she saved the kid from it,” declared another.
“It can’t be,” said Professor Krenner, firmly. “You’re not bitten, are you?” he asked Nan. ”

“ We could see out better.”
“But we have a nice lunch, you know,” Nan objected.
“Just the same, it’s common to eat lunch out of a shoe-box on a train. I don’t know what mother was thinking of. And we could have seen that girl with the fancy dress in the dining car.”
“Pshaw!” laughed Nan. “You’re always crazy after the styles. I don’t wish to see her again, I assure you.”
“I never saw such a girl as you,” complained her chum. “You’re as bold as a lion about some things and as meek as a mouse about others.” ”