<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></SPAN>CHAPTER XVII<br/> <small>A LARK IN PROSPECT</small></h2>
<p>Dr. Beulah Prescott herself heard of the
chums’ adventure and called Nan and Bess into her
office before bedtime.</p>
<p>“What is all this I hear about your trying to cross
Lake Huron in an open boat?” asked the principal,
lightly.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!<span class="pagenum">[129]</span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Of course, right at the beginning of her school<span class="pagenum">[130]</span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“It gets me,” Bess sputtered once to her chum,
“how you can actually play dolls with those primary
kids—a big girl like you.”</p>
<p>“I like dolls,” said Nan, placidly.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum">[131]</span>
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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>“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!”</p>
<p>“They know I haven’t had much heretofore to
spend extravagantly,” responded Nan, her eyes
twinkling, “while you have been extravagant all
your life.”</p>
<p>“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!”</p>
<p>“So do I dislike it,” said Nan, briskly. “I don’t<span class="pagenum">[132]</span>
think I am any more sensible than other girls—unless
I’m more so than you, Bess,” and she laughed
at her chum.</p>
<p>“Well! what will you do with your money?”
asked Bess. “That will tell the story.”</p>
<p>“I—don’t know.”</p>
<p>“Have a regular big junket.”</p>
<p>“What? Treat the whole school to ice-cream?”
laughed Nan.</p>
<p>“Ho! ice-cream melts too fast. It’s all over too
soon,” returned Bess, with a frown.</p>
<p>“Buy lollypops, then—or jaw-breakers? They
last longer.”</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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?”</p>
<p>“Doll? Pah! your mind runs on dolls, Nan Sherwood.
You are certainly getting into your second
childhood,” said Bess, with disgust.</p>
<p>“Perhaps,” admitted Nan.</p>
<p>“Do let’s be serious,” Bess begged again. “What
is the most popular thing among the girls?”</p>
<p>“Those new side-combs!” exclaimed Nan.<span class="pagenum">[133]</span></p>
<p>“Yes—and I’m going to have a pair just as soon
as mother sends me my next spending money.”</p>
<p>“I’ll buy you a pair,” said generous Nan, quickly.</p>
<p>“No, you won’t, silly! I’ll not let you fritter
away any of that perfectly splendid five pound note
in foolishness.”</p>
<p>“Oh!” responded Nan, drily, much amused to
hear Bess Harley so very practical.</p>
<p>The practicality of the discussion might be doubted
by anybody save boarding-school girls. Bess
quickly proved to her own satisfaction, if not
entirely to Nan’s, that the small, “after-hours supper”
was the most popular form of entertainment
then in vogue at Lakeview Hall.</p>
<p>“You know, Cora Courtney and that crowd are
always talking about a strawberry festival that she
and Linda Riggs engineered last June. And now
they are planning to have another big spread soon
in some room on their corridor.”</p>
<p>“Well,” observed Nan, “we won’t be invited to
it.”</p>
<p>“No. And they won’t be invited to ours,” cried
Bess, promptly.</p>
<p>“If we have a spread,” agreed Nan.</p>
<p>“It’s just the thing,” Bess pursued, very enthusiastic.
“Eating promotes fellowship——”</p>
<p>“And indigestion,” laughed Nan. “Especially
such a combination as Laura had in her room the<span class="pagenum">[134]</span>
other night—sour pickles, ice-cream cones, and
salted peanuts.”</p>
<p>“Whew! that was fierce!” acknowledged Bess.
“I didn’t eat much; but I felt squirmy, just the
same, after it. But if we give the girls the big
eats, let’s have something nice, but digestible.”</p>
<p>“Let’s!” agreed Nan. “Of course, it’s against
the rules——”</p>
<p>“Oh, dear, now! don’t begin that,” begged Bess.</p>
<p>“We—ell——”</p>
<p>“They all do it. If Dr. Beulah wasn’t so awfully
strict about our having what she calls a ‘plain,
wholesome supper,’ and refusing to let us add
sweets, and the like, to the supper bill-of-fare,
I’m sure the girls wouldn’t be dying for these
spreads.”</p>
<p>“If the girls had what they wanted at supper,
Dr. Prescott would have to charge about twice what
she does now for tuition and board at Lakeview
Hall.”</p>
<p>“Never mind that,” said Bess, briskly. “The
question is: Shall we have the spread?”</p>
<p>“If you like,” agreed Nan.</p>
<p>So it was decided. With twenty-five dollars they
could have a bountiful feast.</p>
<p>“A dollar a plate will give us a delightful supper,
with salad, and ices, and all,” said Bess, who
knew more about such things than Nan, for her
mother entertained a great deal in Tillbury.<span class="pagenum">[135]</span></p>
<p>“But how’ll we ever get such things up to our
room?” gasped Nan.</p>
<p>That puzzled Bess.</p>
<p>“And twenty-five girls would just about swamp
us,” Nan added.</p>
<p>“Oh, dear!”</p>
<p>“Hire a hall?” suggested Nan, roguishly.</p>
<p>“Now, don’t, Nan Sherwood! You’re dreadful!”
cried Bess, almost in tears as she saw her castle in
the air dissolving.</p>
<p>“Wait!” commanded Nan, good-naturedly patting
her chum on the shoulder. “All is not yet lost!
Up and at ’em, guards! Never say die!”</p>
<p>“I’d just set my heart on the biggest kind of a
spread,” mourned Bess. “I wanted anything Cora,
and Linda, and Mabel, and that set did, to look
like a punctured jitney.”</p>
<p>“Oh, Bess! what language!”</p>
<p>“We—ell.”</p>
<p>“Now let me think,” said Nan, seriously.</p>
<p>“Think what?”</p>
<p>“Thoughts, of course, goosey!” laughed Nan.
“Wait! First we must plan to have the spread in
a sufficiently roomy place.”</p>
<p>“But it’s got to be in the Hall,” cried Bess.</p>
<p>“Or near it,” suggested Nan.</p>
<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
<p>“Listen!” commanded Nan, dramatically. “I
have thought of just the place. We can get the<span class="pagenum">[136]</span>
goodies brought around from the caterer in Freeling,
in a boat, and nobody’ll be the wiser.”</p>
<p>“But where—what?” demanded Bess.</p>
<p>So Nan told her.</p>
<hr class="l1" />
<p><span class="pagenum">[137]</span></p>
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