"But how about Linda?" suggested another girl, slily. "She is some historian, too, isn't she?"
Now, Nan had said nothing in her veracious tale about the purse-proud girl; but Mabel Schiff said:
"I don't believe all that. I guess Linda was there as much as these freshies----"
"Yes, she was!" exclaimed Bess, excitedly. "And all she did was to be ill, over the rail of the boat, and scold Walter for making any effort to save us. That's the sort of a girl Linda is."
"That sounds a good deal like her," announced the red-haired girl, bluntly. "Linda Riggs can't pull the wool over our eyes--much! We've all seen enough of her to know pretty much what she would do at such a time."
"You're all jealous of her," sniffed Mabel.
"Sure!" laughed Laura. "We're jealous of her kind disposition, her honey-dripping tongue, and her delightfully social ways."
"And her money!" flashed Mabel.
"I think," said May Winslow, a peace-loving and, withal, ladylike girl--"I think we have discussed an absent fellow-pupil quite enough.
Let us say nothing about Linda that we would not say to her."
"Oh, goodness!" cried the impulsive Bess. "I'd say just what I think of her, to her face."
"That would not make it the less ill-natured," said May, quietly.
CHAPTER XVII
A LARK IN PROSPECT
Dr. Beulah Prescott herself heard of the chums' adventure and called Nan and Bess into her office before bedtime.
"What is all this I hear about your trying to cross Lake Huron in an open boat?" asked the principal, lightly.
But she looked grave enough before Nan had finished her true and particular narrative of the incident. Dr. Prescott did not scold the chums, as Mrs. Cupp certainly would have done. But she went much more thoroughly into the affair than the matron could, or would.
She sent for Henry, the boatkeeper, and that rather careless individual learned that he was expected to have a closer oversight over the use of the boats by the girls at all times; and especially was he to watch the weather signals which were flown from the pole at the life-saving station on Lighthouse Point.
Nan said nothing to the principal of the school about the person she and Bess had seen prowling about the boathouse. She thought that for once probably Henry had enough trouble!
When Grace Mason got back to the Hall at nine o'clock, she was also called in to see "Dr. Beulah," as most of the girls affectionately called the preceptress. But Linda was not called upon to give her version of the adventure at all.
Later the preceptress wrote a very nice letter to Walter Mason's father, commending his son for the bravery and good sense he had shown in saving the girl canoeists. Nan, and Bess, and even Grace, were made a good deal of by the other girls because of the adventure. And every time Walter Mason came to see his sister, Grace asked permission for Nan and Bess to meet him, too. In this way the chums from Tillbury got many an automobile ride and boat ride that they would not otherwise have enjoyed.
Because of this new association of Nan and Bess with Grace and her brother, Linda Riggs' tongue dripped venom, not honey. The rich girl had gathered around her a coterie of girls like Cora Courtney and Mabel Schiff, and they echoed Linda's ill-natured remarks and ridiculous stories. The great number of the older girls at Lakeview Hall, as Nan had very sensibly said, paid no attention whatsoever to the ill-natured talk of Linda Riggs' clique. As for those girls smaller and younger than Nan and Bess (and there were many of them) they were little interested in the controversy.
Of course, right at the beginning of her school life at Lakeview Hall, Nan Sherwood had made friends with the little girls. They all soon learned that Nan was sympathetic, could enter into their play with perfect equality, was glad to help them in their lessons, and altogether filled the part of "Big Sister" to perfection.
Bess did not care so much for children. Perhaps it was because she had some bothersome small brothers and sisters at home. Nan, who was an only child, had always longed for a brother or sister. Although she could not remember him, the tiny brother who had lived a short few weeks at the "little dwelling in amity," and then had gone away forever, was much in Nan Sherwood's thoughts.
"It gets me," Bess sputtered once to her chum, "how you can actually play dolls with those primary kids--a big girl like you."
"I like dolls," said Nan, placidly.
"Huh! I believe you do," cried Bess. "I wonder you don't litter up our room with 'em--and doll clothes and baby carriages and cradles," and Bess laughed gaily, with no idea of how close she had come to touching upon Nan's secret.
Dr. Prescott did not make the chums pay for the lost canoe, so Nan, relieved of the necessity for doing so, decided not to tell her father and mother about the canoe accident, as she knew they would worry needlessly. Nor did careless Bess tell her parents. Bess had a strong personal reason for keeping the adventure a secret. She did not want to put any obstacle in the way of the purchase of the boat she was teasing for.
Nan was writing long and enthusiastic letters to Scotland. In return she received from both "Momsey" and "Papa Sherwood" most encouraging reports of the progress of the court proceedings over Mr. Hughie Blake's will, under the terms of which Mrs. Sherwood was to receive considerable wealth. It seemed that the controversy was practically finished, and Nan's parents would soon be coming home. In one of these letters, received early in the school year, Nan found a five pound note "to do just what she pleased with."
"Oh! what'll you do with so much money?" gasped Bess. "And all in a bunch. Twenty-five dollars! 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 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."
"I--don't know."
"Have a regular big junket."
"What? Treat the whole school to ice-cream?" laughed Nan.
"Ho! ice-cream melts too fast. It's all over too soon," returned Bess, with a frown.
"Buy lollypops, then--or jaw-breakers? They last longer."
"Say! this is no time to joke. It's serious," declared Bess, putting her mind to the matter of the disbursement of her chum's windfall.
"All right," agreed Nan. "The Committee on Entertainment will now go into executive session. What's your idea, Elizabeth, about buying every one of the two hundred girls at Lakeview Hall a twelve-and-a-half cent rubber doll?"
"Doll? Pah! your mind runs on dolls, Nan Sherwood. You are certainly getting into your second childhood," said Bess, with disgust.
"Perhaps," admitted Nan.
"Do let's be serious," Bess begged again. "What is the most popular thing among the girls?"
"Those new side-combs!" exclaimed Nan.
"Yes--and I'm going to have a pair just as soon as mother sends me my next spending money."
"I'll buy you a pair," said generous Nan, quickly.
"No, you won't, silly! I'll not let you fritter away any of that perfectly splendid five pound note in foolishness."