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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 45497 ***
+
+[Illustration: They had a merry time getting the Whatnot Shop ready.]
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                             NANCY BRANDON
+
+                                   By
+
+                              LILIAN GARIS
+
+                              _Author of_
+           "JOAN'S GARDEN OF ADVENTURE," "GLORIA AT BOARDING
+                  SCHOOL," "CONNIE LORING'S AMBITION,"
+                  "BARBARA HALE: A DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER,"
+                      "CLEO'S MISTY RAINBOW," ETC.
+
+                             ILLUSTRATED BY
+
+                              THELMA GOOCH
+
+
+
+
+                            GROSSET & DUNLAP
+                          PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                           _Copyright, 1924_
+                       By MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY
+                       Springfield, Massachusetts
+                         _All Rights Reserved_
+
+                PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+                         I. THE GIRL AND THE BOY
+                        II. DINNER DIFFICULTIES
+                       III. BELATED HASTE
+                        IV. NEW FRIENDS
+                         V. ORIGINAL PLANS
+                        VI. FAIR PLAY
+                       VII. THE SPECIAL SALE
+                      VIII. FISH HOOKS AND FLOATERS
+                        IX. THE BIG DAY
+                         X. STILL THEY CAME
+                        XI. THE FAILURE
+                       XII. THE VIRTUE OF RESOLVE
+                      XIII. BEHIND THE CLOUD
+                       XIV. A PLEASANT SURPRISE
+                        XV. TALKING IT OVER
+                       XVI. JUST FISHING
+                      XVII. THE CAVE-IN
+                     XVIII. INTRODUCING NERO
+                       XIX. A DISCOVERY
+                        XX. THE MIDNIGHT ALARM
+                       XXI. FOR VALUE DECEIVED
+                      XXII. TARTS AND LADY FINGERS
+                     XXIII. THE STORY TOLD
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       NANCY BRANDON: ENTHUSIAST
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+                          THE GIRL AND THE BOY
+
+
+The small kitchen was untidy. There were boxes empty and some crammed
+with loose papers, while a big clothes basket was filled--with a small
+boy, who took turns rolling it like a boat and bumping it up and down
+like a flivver. Ted Brandon was about eleven years old, full of
+boyhood's importance and bristling with boyhood's pranks.
+
+His sister Nancy, who stood placidly reviewing the confusion, was, she
+claimed, in her teens. She was also just now in her glory, for after
+many vicissitudes and uncertainties they were actually moved into the
+old Townsend place at Long Leigh.
+
+"You're perfectly silly, Ted. You know it's simply a wonderful idea,"
+she proclaimed loftily.
+
+"Do I." There was no question in the boy's tone.
+
+"Well, you ought to. But, of course, boys--"
+
+"Oh, there you go. Boys!!" No mistaking this tone.
+
+"Ted Brandon, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. To be so--so mean to
+mother."
+
+"Mean to mother! Who said anything about mother?"
+
+"This is mother's pet scheme."
+
+"Pretty queer scheme to keep us cooped up all vacation." He rocked the
+basket vigorously.
+
+"We won't have to stay in much at all. Why, just odd times, and
+besides--" Nancy paused to pat her hair. She might have patted it
+without pausing but her small brother Ted would then have been less
+impressed by her assumed dignity, "you see, Teddy, I'm working for a
+principle. I don't believe that girls should do a bit more housework
+than boys."
+
+"Oh, I know you believe that all-righty." Ted allowed himself to sigh
+but did not pause to do so. He kept right on rocking and snapping the
+blade of his pen-knife open and shut, as if the snap meant something
+either useful or amusing.
+
+"Well, I guess I know what I'm talking about," declared Nancy, "and now,
+even mother has come around to agree with me. She's going right on with
+her office work and you and I are to run this lovely little shop."
+
+"You mean _you_ are to run the shop and _I'll_ wash the dishes." Deepest
+scorn and seething irony hissed through Teddy's words. He even flipped
+the pen-knife into the sink board and nicked, but did not break, the
+apple-sauce dish.
+
+"Of course you must do your part." Nancy lifted up two dishes and set
+them down again.
+
+"And yours, if you have your say. Oh, what's the use of talkin' to
+girls?" Ted tumbled out of the basket, pushed it over until it banged
+into a soap box, then straightening up his firm young shoulders, he
+prepared to leave the scene.
+
+"There's no use talking to girls, Ted," replied his sister, "if you
+don't talk sense."
+
+"Sense!" He jammed his cap upon his head although he didn't have any
+idea of wearing it on this beautiful day. The fact was, Teddy and Nancy
+were disagreeing. But there really wasn't anything unusual about that,
+for their natures were different, they saw things differently, and if
+they had been polite enough to agree they would simply have been fooling
+each other.
+
+Nancy smiled lovingly, however, at the boy, as he banged the door. What
+a darling Ted was! So honest and so scrappy! Of all things hateful to
+Nancy Brandon a "sissy" boy, as she described a certain type, was the
+worst.
+
+"But I suppose," she ruminated serenely, "the old breakfast dishes have
+got to be done." Another lifting up and setting down of a couple of
+china pieces, but further than that Nancy made not the slightest
+headway. A small mirror hung in a small hall between the long kitchen
+and the store. Here Nancy betook herself and proceeded again to pat her
+dark hair.
+
+She was the type of girl described as willowy, because that word is
+prettier than some others that might mean tall, lanky, boneless and
+agile. Nancy had black hair that shone with crow-black luster in spite
+of its pronounced curl. Her eyes were dark, snappy and meaningful. They
+could mean love, as when Ted slammed the door, or they could mean
+danger, as when a boy kicked the black and white kitten. Then again they
+could mean devotion, as when Nancy beheld her idolized little mother who
+was a business woman as well, and in that capacity, Nancy's model.
+
+A tingle at the bell that was set for the store alarm, sent the girl
+dancing away from the looking-glass.
+
+"Funniest thing about a store," she told herself, "there's always
+someone to buy things you haven't got."
+
+The catch was on the screen door and, as Nancy approached it, she
+discerned outside, the figure of an elderly woman. It was Miss Sarah
+Townsend from whom her mother had bought the store.
+
+"Oh, good morning, Miss Townsend. I keep the door fastened when I'm
+alone, as I might be busy in the kitchen," apologized Nancy.
+
+"That's right, dear, that's right. And I wouldn't be too much alone if I
+were you," cautioned the woman who was stepping in with the air of
+proprietorship, and with her little brown dog sniffing at her heels.
+"Don't you keep your brother with you?"
+
+"Ted? Oh yes, sometimes. But he's a little boy, you know, Miss Townsend,
+and he must enjoy his vacation." Nancy was making friends with Tiny, the
+dog, but after a polite sniff or two Tiny was off frisking about
+happily, as any dog might be expected to do when returning to his
+old-time home.
+
+Miss Townsend surveyed Nancy critically.
+
+"Of course your brother is a little boy," she said, "but what about you?
+You're only a little girl."
+
+"Little! Why I'm much stronger than Ted, and years older," declared
+Nancy, pulling herself up to her fullest height.
+
+The woman smiled tolerantly. She wore glasses so securely fixed before
+her deep-set eyes that they seemed like a very feature of her face. She
+was a capable looking, elderly woman, and rather comely, but she was, as
+Nancy had quickly observed, "hopelessly old-fashioned."
+
+"We haven't anything fixed up yet," said Nancy apologetically. "You see,
+mother goes to business and that leaves the store and the house to me."
+
+"Yes. She explained in taking our place that she was doing it to give
+you a chance to try business. But for a girl so young--Come back here,
+Tiny," she ordered the sniffing, snuffing, frisky little dog.
+
+"If I'm going to be a business woman I've got to start in," interrupted
+Nancy. "They say it's never too early to start at _housework_."
+
+"But that's different. Every girl has to know how to keep house,"
+insisted Miss Townsend. She was busy straightening a box of spools that
+lay upon the little counter, but from her automatic actions it was
+perfectly evident that Miss Townsend didn't know she was doing anything.
+
+"I can't see why," retorted Nancy. "Just look at mother. What would she
+have done with us if she hadn't understood business?"
+
+Miss Townsend sighed. "Being a widow, my dear--"
+
+"But I may be a widow too," breezed Nancy. "In fact I'm sure to, for
+everyone says I'm so much like mother. Do let me fix that box of spools,
+Miss Townsend. Someone came in for linen thread last night and Teddy
+looked for it. I'm sure he gave them a ball of cord, for all the cord
+was scattered around too." She put the cover on the thread box. "Boys
+are rather poor at business, I think, especially boys of Teddy's age,"
+orated the important Nancy.
+
+Miss Townsend agreed without saying so. She was looking over the little
+place in a fidgety, nervous way. Nancy quickly decided this was due to
+regret that she had given the place up, and therefore sought to make her
+feel at ease.
+
+The little brown dog had curled himself up in front of the fireplace on
+a piece of rug, evidently his own personal property. The fireplace was
+closed up and the stove set back against it, out of the way for summer,
+and handy-by for winter.
+
+Nancy smiled at the woman who was moving about in a sort of aimless
+restlessness.
+
+"It must seem natural to you to be around here," Nancy ventured.
+
+"Yes, after thirty years--"
+
+"Thirty years!" repeated Nancy, incredulously. "Did you and your brother
+live here all that time?"
+
+"Yes." A prolonged sigh brought Miss Townsend down on the old hickory
+chair that stood by the door, just out of the way of possible customers.
+
+"Brother Elmer and I kept on here after mother died. In fact, so far as
+I was concerned, we might have gone on until we died, but there was a
+little trouble--"
+
+"Just like me and my brother, I suppose," intervened Nancy, kindly. "We
+love each other to death, and yet we are always scrapping."
+
+"In children's way, but that's different, very different," insisted Miss
+Townsend. "With me and Elmer," she sighed again, "it became a very, very
+serious matter."
+
+"Oh," faltered Nancy. Things were becoming uncomfortable. That kitchen
+work would be growing more formidable, and Nancy had really wanted to
+settle the store. She would love to do that, to put all the little
+things in their places, or in new places, as she would surely find a new
+method for their arrangement. She hurried over to the corner shelves.
+
+"I hope no one comes in until I get the place fixed up," she remarked.
+"Mother doesn't intend to buy much new stock until she sees how we get
+along."
+
+"That's wise," remarked Miss Townsend. "I suppose I know every stick in
+the place," she looked about critically, "and yet I could be just as
+interested. I wonder if you wouldn't like me to help you fix things up?
+I'd just love to do it."
+
+Now this was exactly what Nancy did not want. In fact, she was wishing
+earnestly that the prim Miss Townsend would take herself off and leave
+her to do as she pleased.
+
+"That's kind of you, I'm sure," she said, "but the idea was that I
+should be manager from the start," Nancy laughed lightly to justify this
+claim, "and I'm sure mother would be better pleased if I put the shop in
+order. You can come in and see me again when I'm all fixed up," (this
+gentle hint was tactful, thought Nancy) "and then you can tell me what
+you think of me as the manager of the Whatnot Shop."
+
+Miss Townsend was actually poking in the corner near the hearth shelf
+where matches, in a tin container, were kept. She heard Nancy but did
+not heed her.
+
+"Looking for something?" the girl asked a little sharply.
+
+"Looking?" Yes, that is--"Tiny keep down there," she ordered. "I can't
+see what has got into that dog of late. It was one of the things that
+Elmer and I were constantly fussing over. Tiny won't let any one touch
+things near this chimney without barking his head off. Now just watch."
+
+As she went to the shelf back of the stove the dog sprang alongside of
+her. He barked in the happy fashion that goes with rapid tail wagging,
+and Nancy quickly decided that the dog knew a secret of the old chimney.
+
+[Illustration: Miss Townsend pretended to take things out of the stove.]
+
+Again Miss Townsend pretended to take things out of the stove, and Tiny
+all but jumped into the low, broad door.
+
+"Now, isn't that--uncanny?" asked the woman, plainly bewildered.
+
+"Oh, no, I don't think so," said Nancy. "All dogs have queer little
+tricks like that."
+
+"Do they? I'm glad to hear you say so," sighed Miss Townsend, once more
+picking up a small box of notions. "You must excuse me, my dear. You see
+the habit of a life time--"
+
+"Oh, that's all right, Miss Townsend, I didn't mean to hurry you," spoke
+up Nancy. "But the morning goes so quickly, and mother may come home to
+lunch." This possibility brought real anxiety to Nancy. If she had only
+slicked up the kitchen instead of arguing with Teddy. After all the
+plagued old housework did take some time, she secretly admitted.
+
+But Miss Townsend laid down the unfinished roll of lace edging, although
+she had most carefully rolled all but a very small end, walked over to
+Nancy, who was just attempting to dust out a tray, and in the most
+tragic voice said:
+
+"Nancy, I think you really have a lot of sense."
+
+Nancy chuckled. "I hope so, Miss Townsend."
+
+"I mean to say, that I think you can be trusted."
+
+"Well," stammered Nancy, forcing back another chuckle, "I hope so, to
+that too, Miss Townsend." She was surprised at the woman's manner and
+puzzled to understand its meaning. The dog was again snoozing on the
+rug.
+
+"Let's sit down," suggested Miss Townsend.
+
+"Oh, all right," faltered Nancy, in despair now of ever catching up on
+the delayed work.
+
+"You see, it's this way," began the woman, making room for herself in
+the big chair that was serving as storage quarters for Teddy's
+miscellany. "Some people are very proud--"
+
+Nancy was simply choking with impatience.
+
+"I mean to say, they are so proud they won't or can't ever give in to
+each other."
+
+"Stubborn," suggested Nancy. "I'm that way sometimes."
+
+"And brother and sister," sighed Miss Townsend. "I never could believe
+that Elmer, my own brother, could, be so--unreasonable."
+
+"Why, what's the matter?" Nancy spoke up. "You seem so unhappy."
+
+"Unhappy is no name for it, I'm wretched." The distress shown on Miss
+Townsend's face was now unmistakable. Nancy forgot even the unwashed
+breakfast dishes.
+
+"Can I help you?" she asked kindly.
+
+"Yes, you can. What I want is to come in here sometimes--"
+
+"Why, if you're lonely for your old place," interrupted Nancy.
+
+"It isn't that. In fact I just can't explain," said Miss Townsend,
+picking up her hand bag, nervously. "But I'm no silly woman. We've
+agreed to sell this place to your mother and I'm the last person in the
+world to make a nuisance of myself."
+
+"You needn't worry about that," again Nancy intervened, sympathetically.
+
+"You are a kind girl, Nancy Brandon, and I guess your mother has made no
+mistake in buying the Whatnot Shop for you. You'll be sure to make
+friends, and that's what counts next to bargains, in business," declared
+the woman, who had risen from the big chair and was staring at Nancy in
+the oddest way.
+
+"If I had a chance--" again the woman paused and bit her thin lip. She
+seemed to dread what she evidently must say.
+
+"I'll be busy here tomorrow," suggested Nancy briskly, "and then perhaps
+you would like to help me. But I really would like to get the rough dirt
+out first. Then we can put things to rights."
+
+"The fact is," continued Miss Townsend, without appearing to hear
+Nancy's suggestion, "I have a suspicion."
+
+"A suspicion? About this--store?"
+
+"Yes, and about my brother. He's an old man and we've never had any real
+trouble before, but I'm sorry to say, I can't believe he's telling me
+the truth about an important matter. That is, it's a very important
+matter to me."
+
+"Oh," said Nancy lamely. She was beginning to have doubts of Miss
+Townsend's mental balance.
+
+"No, Elmer is a good man. He's been a good brother, but there are some
+things--" (a long, low, breathful sigh,) "some things we have individual
+opinions about. And, well, so you won't think me queer if I ask you to
+let me tidy the shop?"
+
+"Why--no, of course not, Miss Townsend."
+
+"Thank you, thank you, Nancy Brandon," emotion was choking her words.
+She was really going now and Tiny with her. "And perhaps it would be
+just as well not to say anything about it if my brother should drop in,"
+concluded the strange woman.
+
+"Oh, do you suppose he will?" asked bewildered Nancy. "I mean, will he
+drop in?"
+
+"He's apt to. Elmer is a creature of habit and he's been around here a
+long time, you know." The dark eyes were glistening behind the gold
+framed glasses. Miss Townsend was still preparing to depart.
+
+Nancy opened the screen door and out darted Tiny.
+
+"Good-bye, my dear, for the present," murmured Miss Townsend, "and I
+hope you and your mother and your brother will--be happy--here," she
+choked on the words and Nancy had an impression of impending tears. "We
+wouldn't have sold out, we _shouldn't_ have sold out, but for Elmer
+Townsend's foolishness."
+
+Back went the proud head until the lace collar on Sarah Townsend's neck
+was jerked out of place, a rare thing indeed to happen to that prim
+lady.
+
+"Good-bye," said Nancy gently, "and come again, Miss Townsend."
+
+"Yes, yes, dear, I shall."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+
+                          DINNER DIFFICULTIES
+
+
+Nancy jerked her cretonne apron first one way and then the other. Then
+she kicked out a few steps, still pondering. When Nancy was thinking
+seriously she had to be acting. This brought her to the conclusion that
+she should hurry out to the porch and look after Miss Townsend, but she
+had decided upon that move too late, for the lady in the voile dress was
+just turning the corner into Bender Street.
+
+Nancy's face was a bed of smiles. They were tucked away in the corners
+of her mouth, they blinked out through her eyes and were having lots of
+fun teasing her two deep cheek dimples. She was literally all smiles.
+
+"What a lark! Won't Ted howl? The dog and the--the chimney secret," she
+chuckled. "And dogs know. You can't fool them." She came back into the
+store and gazed ruefully at the squatty stove that mutely stood guard.
+
+"I don't suppose mother will want that left there all summer," Nancy
+further considered. "It might just as well be put out in the shed, and
+the store would look lots better."
+
+She could not help thinking of Miss Townsend's strange visit. The lady
+was unmistakably worried, and her worry surely had to do with the
+Whatnot Shop.
+
+"But I do hope we don't run into any old spooky stories about this
+place," Nancy pondered, "for mother hates that sort of thing and so do
+I--if they're the foolish, silly kind," she admitted, still staring at
+the questionable fireplace.
+
+"What-ever can Miss Townsend want to be around here for? No hidden
+treasures surely, or she would say so and start in to dig them up,"
+decided the practical Nancy. The clock struck one!
+
+"One o'clock!" she said this aloud. "Of course it isn't," laughed the
+girl. "That clock has been going since the moving and it hasn't unpacked
+its strike carefully. But, just the same, it must be eleven o'clock, and
+as for the morning's work! However shall I catch up?"
+
+One hour later Ted was in looking for lunch. He had been out "exploring"
+and had, he explained, met some fine fellows who were "brigand scouts."
+
+"I'm goin' to join," he declared. "They're goin' to let me in and I'm
+goin' to bring a lot of my things over to the den."
+
+"Den?" questioned Nancy. "Where's that?"
+
+"Secret," answered Ted. "An' anyhow, it isn't for girls." This was said
+in a pay-you-back manner that Nancy quickly challenged.
+
+"Oh, all right. Very well. Just as you say, keep it secret if you like,"
+she taunted, "but I've got a real one." The potatoes were burning but
+neither of the children seemed to care.
+
+Ted looked closely at his sister and was convinced. She really was
+serious. Then too, everything was on end, no dinner ready, nothing done,
+the place all boxes, just as they were when he left. Something must have
+been going on all morning, reasoned Ted.
+
+"Good thing mother didn't come home, Sis," he remarked amicably. "Say,
+how about--chow?"
+
+"Chow?"
+
+"Yes. Don't you know that means food in the military, and I'm as starved
+as a bear."
+
+"Well, why don't you get something to eat? I understood we were to camp,
+share and share alike," Nancy reminded him, giving the simmering
+potatoes a shake that sent the little pot-cover flying to the floor.
+
+"That was your idea. But mother said you had to be sure we ate our
+meals," contended Ted. "I'll get the meat. It's meat balls, isn't it?"
+
+"It will be, I suppose, when _I_ make them," said Nancy, deliberately
+shoving everything from one end of the table with a sweep that rattled
+together dishes, glasses and various other breakable articles.
+
+There was no doubt about it, Nancy Brandon did hate housework. Every
+thing she did was done with that degree of scorn absolutely fatal to the
+result. Perhaps this was just why her mother was allowing her to try out
+the pet summer scheme.
+
+"I'd go mad if I had to stick in a kitchen," Nancy declared
+theatrically. "I'm so glad we've got the store."
+
+"But we can't eat the store," replied Ted. "Here's the meat. Do get it
+going, Sis. I've got to get back to the fellows."
+
+"Ted Brandon! You've got to help _me_ this afternoon. Do you think, for
+one instant, I'm going to do everything?"
+
+"'Course not, I'll do my share," promised the unsuspecting boy. "But
+just today we've got something big on. Here's the meat."
+
+"Big or little you have just got to help me, Ted. Look at this place! It
+seems to me things walk out of the boxes and heap themselves up all
+over. Now, we didn't take those pans out, did we?"
+
+"I don't know, don't think so. But here's a good one. It's the meat
+kind, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes. Give it here." Nancy took from his hand a perfectly flat iron
+griddle. "I'll fix up the cakes if you make place on the table. We'll
+eat out here."
+
+"All right." Ted flew to the task. "But you know, Sis, mother said we
+might eat in that sun porch. It's a dandy place to read. Look at the
+windows."
+
+Nancy had flattened the chopped meat into four balls and was pressing
+them on the griddle.
+
+"There. What did you do with the potatoes?"
+
+"Nothing. I didn't take them."
+
+"But we had potatoes--" She lighted the gas under the meat.
+
+"Sure. I smelled them burning."
+
+"Well, hunt around and see if you can smell them now," ordered Ted's
+sister. "I can't eat meat without potatoes."
+
+Ted dropped his two plates and actually went sniffing about in search of
+the lost food. Meanwhile Nancy was standing at the stove, a magazine in
+one hand and the griddle handle in the other. Her eyes, however, were
+not upon the griddle.
+
+Presently the meat was sizzling and its odor cheered Ted considerably.
+
+"Don't let's mind the potatoes," he suggested. "I can't find them."
+
+"Can't find them? And I peeled three! We've _got_ to find them."
+
+"Then you look and I'll stir the meat."
+
+"It doesn't have to be stirred." But Nancy stood over the stove just the
+same.
+
+"Then what are you watching it for?"
+
+"So it won't burn, like the potatoes."
+
+"Maybe they all burned up." Ted didn't care much for potatoes.
+
+"Oh, don't be silly. Where's the pan?"
+
+"Which pan?"
+
+"Oh, Ted Brandon! The potato pan, of course!"
+
+"Oh, Nancy Brandon! What potato pan, of course! Has it got a name on
+it?"
+
+Nancy dropped her magazine on a littered chair, in sheer disgust. She
+realized the meat was cooking; (it splattered and spluttered merrily on
+the shallow griddle,) and she too was hungry. Ted might be satisfied to
+eat just bread and meat, but she simply had to have freshly cooked
+potatoes. Wasn't housework awful? Especially cooking?
+
+There was a jangle of the store bell, actually some one coming at that
+critical moment.
+
+"Oh, dear!" groaned Nancy. "What a nuisance! I suppose I'll have to
+go--"
+
+"But the meat?" Ted was getting desperate.
+
+"It's almost ready." Nancy wiped her hands on the dish towel and hurried
+to the store.
+
+"A man!" she announced, as she went to open the screen door.
+
+Ted left his post and cautiously stole after her. A customer was a real
+novelty and Ted didn't want to miss the excitement. A pleasant voice
+filled in the moment. A gentleman was talking to Nancy.
+
+"I'm glad to find some one in," he was saying. "Since my friend, Elmer
+Townsend, left here I've been rather--that is, I've missed the little
+place," explained the man. Ted could see that he was very tall and
+looked, he thought, like a school teacher, having no hat on and not much
+hair either.
+
+"We've just been unpacking," Nancy replied. She was conscious of the
+confusion in the store as well as she had been of things upset in the
+kitchen.
+
+"Oh, yes," drawled the man, stepping behind the counter. "It will take
+you some time to go over everything. But you see, Mr. Townsend and I are
+great friends, and I know where most of the things are kept. You don't
+mind if I take a look for a ball of twine?"
+
+"No, certainly not," agreed Nancy.
+
+"I can get you that," spoke up Ted. "I had it out last night," and he
+jumped behind the counter to the littered cord and twine box.
+
+Nancy pulled herself up to that famous height of hers. She
+smelled--something burning!
+
+"Ted!" she screamed. "It's a-fire! The kitchen! I see the blaze!"
+
+"The meat!" yelled Ted, springing over the low counter and following his
+sister toward the smoke filling place.
+
+"Oh-h-h-!" Nancy continued to yell. "What shall we do!"
+
+"Don't get excited," ordered the stranger. "And don't go near that
+blazing pan. Let me go in there," and he brushed Nancy aside making his
+way into the untidy place, which now seemed, to the frightened girl, all
+in flames.
+
+"The meat--gosh!" moaned poor Ted, for the stranger had opened the back
+door, and having grabbed the flaming pan with that same towel Nancy had
+tossed on the chair, he was now tossing the blazing pan as far out from
+the house as his best fling permitted.
+
+"There!" he exclaimed, brushing one hand with the other. "I guess we're
+safe now."
+
+"Oh, thank you, Mister, Mister--" Nancy waited for him to supply the
+name, but he only smiled broadly.
+
+"Just call me Sam," he said pleasantly.
+
+"Sam?" echoed Ted.
+
+"Yes, sonny. Isn't that all right?" asked the stranger.
+
+They were within the cluttered kitchen now and, as is usually the case
+with girls of Nancy's temperament, she was much distressed at the looks
+of the place. In fact, she was making frantic but futile efforts to
+right things.
+
+"What's the matter with Sam?" again asked the man, curiously.
+
+"Oh, nothing," replied Ted. "Only it isn't your name."
+
+"No? How do you know?" persisted the stranger, quizzically.
+
+"You don't look like a Sam," said Ted, kicking one heel against the
+other to hide his embarrassment. He hadn't intended saying all that.
+
+The man laughed heartily, and for the moment Nancy forgot the upset
+kitchen. But the dinner!
+
+"I hope your dinner isn't gone," remarked the stranger who wanted to be
+called Sam.
+
+"Oh, no," replied Nancy laconically, avoiding Ted's discouraged look.
+"That was only some--some meat we were cooking."
+
+"Can't keep house and 'tend store without spoiling something. But I feel
+it was somewhat my fault. Suppose we lock up and trot down to the corner
+for a dish of ice cream?" he suggested. "It's just warm enough today for
+cream; don't you think so?"
+
+"Oh, let's!" chirped Ted. A hungry boy is ever an object of pity.
+
+"You go," suggested Nancy, "but I think I had better stay here."
+
+"Oh, no. You've got to come along. Let me see. If you call me Uncle Sam
+what shall I call you?"
+
+"I'm Nancy Brandon and this is my brother Ted," replied Nancy. "But I'd
+like much better to call you by your real name."
+
+"Real name," and he laughed again. "I see we are going to be critical
+friends. Now then, since you insist Sam won't do suppose we make it
+Sanders. Mr. Sanders. How does that name suit?" and he clapped Ted's
+shoulders jovially.
+
+"Then Mr. Sanders, you and Ted go along and get your cream. I really
+must attend to things here," insisted Nancy. "We are all so upset and
+mother will expect us to have things in some sort of order."
+
+"Oh, Sis, come along" begged Ted. "I'll help you when we get back. It
+won't take a minute."
+
+Hunger is a poor argument against food, and presently the back door was
+locked, the front door was locked, and the two Brandons with the man who
+called himself Mr. Sanders, because they refused to call him Uncle Sam,
+were making tracks for the ice cream store.
+
+Burnt potatoes, burnt meat with ice cream for dessert, thought Nancy.
+But she was still convinced that business was more important than
+housekeeping.
+
+"Glad we didn't burn up," remarked Ted, as he trotted along beside Mr.
+Sanders.
+
+"Never want to throw water on burning grease," they were advised. "And
+always keep a thing at full arm's length, if you must pick it up. Of
+course, if you turned out the gas and pushed the pan well in on the
+stove it would eventually burn out, but think of the smoke!"
+
+"You bet!" declared Ted, as they reached the little country ice cream
+parlor. Two girls, whom Nancy had seen several times since she came to
+Long Leigh, were just leaving the place and she thought they looked at
+her very curiously as they passed out. Then, she distinctly heard one of
+them say:
+
+"Fancy! With him!"
+
+And Nancy knew she had made some sort of mistake in accepting the
+well-intentioned invitation.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+                             BELATED HASTE
+
+
+Instinctively Nancy sought a sheltered corner of the ice cream room. She
+was greatly embarrassed to have come along the road with a stranger whom
+she knew nothing about, and now she was determined to leave him alone
+with Teddy. There must be something odd about him, to have drawn that
+remark from the girls. Nancy looked at him critically from her place
+below the decorated looking glass, and decided he did appear queer to
+her.
+
+"But I'm just starved," she told herself, "and I've got to have
+something to eat." The girl in the gingham dress, with a great wide
+muslin apron, took an order for cake and cream and a glass of milk.
+Fortunately, Nancy had her purse along with her. That much, at least,
+she had already learned about being a business woman.
+
+Teddy was chatting gaily with the man down near the door. They seemed to
+be having a great time over their stories, and Nancy rightly suspected
+the stories concerned Ted's favorite sport, camping.
+
+She ate her lunch rather solemnly. Everything seemed to be going wrong,
+but the escape from fire, with the frying meat on a shallow griddle, was
+surely something to be thankful for.
+
+Oh, well! Only half a day had been lost, and she really couldn't have
+done more when Miss Townsend took all that precious time with her
+lamentations.
+
+Miss Townsend! Nancy sipped the last of her milk as she reflected on the
+little dog's interest in the old fireplace. Of course, Miss Townsend
+would come again, and Tiny would always be along with her. And Nancy
+hadn't yet told Ted about that experience.
+
+"Just buying a country store didn't seem to mean buying a lot of freaks
+along with the bargain," Nancy speculated. "And now here's Mr. Baldy who
+wants to be called after Uncle Sam, going right in back of my counter
+and helping himself--"
+
+"Ready, Sis!" called out Teddy, as he waited for Mr. Sanders to pay his
+bill.
+
+"You go along, Ted," called back Nancy. "I've got to stop some place,
+but I'll be there in time to open the door for you."
+
+Ted never questioned one of those queer decisions of Nancy's. He knew
+how useless such a thing would be; so off he went with the man in the
+short sleeved shirt, while Nancy tarried long enough to give them a fair
+start.
+
+Then, easily finding a way through the fields, she raced off herself,
+although getting through thick hedges and climbing an occasional rail
+fence, proved rather tantalizing.
+
+In front of the store she found Mr. Sanders just leaving Ted. They were
+both talking and laughing as if the acquaintance had proved highly
+satisfactory, but it irritated Nancy.
+
+"Now, I suppose, _he'll_ come snooping around," she grumbled. "Well,
+there's one thing certain, I'm not going to keep an old-fashioned
+country store. No hanging around my cracker barrels," she told herself,
+although there was not, and likely never would be a cracker barrel in
+the Whatnot Shop.
+
+Once more left to themselves, the burnt dinner was not referred to, as
+Ted helped at last to clear up the disordered kitchen. Not even the lost
+potatoes came in for mention as brother and sister "made things fly," as
+most belated workers find themselves obliged to do.
+
+"Here, Ted, get the broom."
+
+Ted grabbed the broom.
+
+"No, let me sweep. You empty those baskets of excelsior."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Yes. Can we burn it?"
+
+"No, never. No more fire for us," groaned Nancy. "Just dump the stuff
+some where."
+
+"But we can't, Sis," objected Ted. "Mother 'specially said nothing could
+be dumped around."
+
+"Well, do anything you like with it, but just get it out of the way,"
+and Nancy's excited broom made jabs and stabs at corners without quite
+reaching them.
+
+Ted was much more methodical. He really would do things right, if only
+Nancy would give him a chance. Just now he was carefully packing the
+excelsior in a big clothes basket.
+
+"You know, Nan," he remarked, "Mr. Sanders is awfully funny."
+
+"How funny?" asked Nancy crisply.
+
+"Oh, he knows an awful lot."
+
+"He ought to, he's bald headed," answered Nancy, implying there-by that
+Mr. Sanders was an old man and ought to be wise.
+
+"Is he?" asked Ted innocently.
+
+"For lands sake! Ted Brandon!" exclaimed Nancy. "Can't you think what
+you're saying? Is he what?"
+
+The thread of the argument thus entirely lost, Ted just crammed away at
+the excelsior.
+
+"I'm just dying to get at the store," said Nancy next. "I want to fix
+that all up so that mother will buy more things to put in stock."
+
+"She's going to bring home fishing rods. I'm goin' to have a corner for
+sport stuff, you know," Ted reminded the whirl-wind Nancy.
+
+"Oh, yes, of course, that's all right. But we'll have to see which
+corner we can spare best. The store isn't any too big, is it?"
+
+"Big enough," agreed the affable boy. "And I'll bet, Nan, we'll have
+heaps of sport around here this summer. There's fine fellows over by the
+big hill. That's more of a summer place than this is, I guess."
+
+"Where does your friend Uncle Sam live?"
+
+"You mean Mr. Sanders. Why, he didn't say, but he went up the hill
+toward that old stone place."
+
+"Yes. I wouldn't wonder but he would live in an old stone place," echoed
+Nancy sarcastically.
+
+"Why, don't you like him?"
+
+"Like him?"
+
+"I mean--do you hate him?" laughed Ted. His basket was filled and he was
+gathering up the loose ends of the splintered fibers upon a tin cover.
+
+"I don't like him and I don't hate him, but I do hope he won't come
+snooping around _my_ store," returned Nancy.
+
+Teddy stopped short with a frying pan raised in mid air. He swung it at
+an imaginary ball, then put it down in the still packed peach basket.
+
+"Now, Nan," he protested, "don't you go kickin' up any fuss about Mr.
+Sanders. He always came around here; he's a great friend of the
+Townsends."
+
+"Ted Brandon!" Nancy flirted the dust brush at the gas stove, "do you
+think I am going to take all that with this store? Did we buy all the
+Townsends' old--old cronies along with the Whatnot Shop?"
+
+"There's someone," Ted interrupted, as the store bell jangled timidly.
+
+"Oh, you go please, Ted," begged Nancy, who had glimpsed girls' skirts
+without. "I'm too untidy to tend store this afternoon."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+
+                              NEW FRIENDS
+
+
+Nancy never looked as untidy as she really felt. In fact, she always
+looked "interesting and human," as her friends might say, but she was
+sensitive about the disorder she pretended to despise. Now, here were
+those two girls! She simply could not go in the store as she looked.
+
+"You're all right," Ted insisted, as they both listened to the jangling
+bell. "You look good in that yellow dress."
+
+"Good?" she took time to correct. "You mean--something else. And it
+isn't yellow," she countered. "But please, Ted, you go. There's a dear.
+I'll do something for you--"
+
+Ted started off dutifully. "But I won't know," he argued.
+
+"Run along, like a dear," whispered Nancy, for persons were now within
+the store, she could easily hear them talking and could even see their
+reflections in the little hall mirror.
+
+Ted went. He was such a good-natured boy, and Nancy was glad to notice
+once more "so good-looking."
+
+After exchanging a few questions and answers with the girls in the
+store, Ted was presently back again in the kitchen.
+
+"Blue silk!" he sort of hissed at Nancy. "They want--_blue silk_."
+
+"We haven't any. Tell them we're out of it."
+
+Ted went forth with a protest.
+
+A few seconds later he again confronted Nancy.
+
+"Blue _twist_ then. What ever on earth is blue _twist?_"
+
+"We haven't any!" Nancy told him sharply. "We're all out of sewing
+stuff, except black and white."
+
+"Oh, you come on. They're just laughin' at me. It's your store. You go
+ahead and 'tend it." Ted was on a strike now. He wasn't going to be that
+kind of store keeper. Twist and silk!
+
+"But I'm so dirty," complained Nancy, brushing at her skirt and then
+patting her disordered hair. She had been rushing around at a mad rate
+since noon hour and naturally felt untidy.
+
+"Well, any how, go tell them," suggested Ted. "They're just girls like
+you. You needn't worry about your looks." His eyes paid Nancy a decided
+compliment with the careless speech. Evidently she was not the only one
+who found good looks in the family.
+
+Out in the store the girls were waiting, and when she finally walked up
+to them, Nancy was instantly at ease.
+
+"Oh, hello!" greeted the stouter one. She was genuinely pleasant and
+Nancy at once liked her. "You're the girl we've been trying to meet.
+This is Vera Johns and I'm Ruth Ashley. We live over on North Road and
+we've been wanting to meet you."
+
+"I'm Nancy Brandon," replied Nancy pleasantly, "and I'm glad to meet
+you, too. I was wondering if I would get acquainted away out here. Won't
+you sit down? Here's a bench," brushing aside the papers. "It takes so
+long to get things straightened out."
+
+The girls murmured their understanding of the moving problem, and after
+Teddy had called out from the back door, that he was going "over to see
+the fellows," all three girls settled down to chat.
+
+"Is it really your own store?" asked Ruth. She had reddish-brown hair,
+gray eyes and the brightest smile.
+
+"Yes," replied Nancy. "Just a little summer experiment. You see, I
+perfectly despise housework and mother believes I should learn something
+practical. I just begged for a little country store. I've always been so
+interested reading about them."
+
+"How quaint!" murmured Vera Johns. Her tone of voice seemed so affected
+that Nancy glanced quickly at her. Was she fooling? Could any girl mean
+so senseless a remark as "How quaint!" to Nancy's telling of her
+practical experiment?
+
+"Do you mean," murmured Nancy, "why, just--how quaint?"
+
+"Yes, isn't it?" Vera again sort of lisped. At this Nancy was convinced.
+Vera was that sort of girl. She would be apt to say any silly little
+thing that had the fewest words in it. Just jerky little exclamations,
+such as Nancy's mother had taught her to avoid as affectations.
+
+Vera's hair was of a toneless blonde hue, cut "classic" and plastered
+down like that of an Egyptian slave. Her eyes, Nancy noticed were a
+faded blue, and her form--Nancy hoped that she, being tall herself, did
+not sag at all corners, as did Vera Johns.
+
+"I think it's a wonderful idea," chimed in Ruth, "to have a chance
+really to try out business. Just as you say, Nancy, we learn to wash
+doll dishes as soon as we can reach a kitchen chair. Then why shouldn't
+we learn to make and count pennies as early as we possibly can?"
+
+"Do you hate housework too, Ruth?" Nancy asked, hoping for the joy of
+finding a mutual understanding. "Are you also anxious to try business?"
+
+"I hate housework, abhor it," admitted Ruth, dimpling prettily, "but
+mother says we just have to get used to it, so we won't know we're doing
+it. You would be surprised, Nancy, how easy it is to wash dishes and
+dream of babbling brooks."
+
+"Really!" That was Vera again. "I adore dishes, but I won't dream of
+bobbling brooks, ever."
+
+"Bobbling," repeated Ruth. "That's good, Vera. I suppose they bobble
+more than they babble. But I guess you're not much of a dreamer, Vera,"
+she finished, in a doubtful compliment.
+
+Nancy was amused. Ruth was going to be "good fun" and Vera was already
+proving a pretty good joke. Their acquaintance was surely promising, and
+Nancy responded fittingly.
+
+She had time to notice in detail each of these new friends. Ruth was
+dimply and just fat enough to be happily plump. She also was
+correspondingly sunny in her disposition. She wore her hair twisted into
+three or four "Spring Maids" and it gave her the effect of short, curled
+hair. Her summer dress was a simple blue ratine, and Nancy admired it
+frankly.
+
+Vera was affected in manner, in style, in dress and every way. Her hair
+was so arranged Nancy couldn't be sure just how it was done, but it
+looked like a model in a hairdresser's window. Also, she wore, bound
+around it a Roman ribbon, with a wonderful assortment of rainbow colors.
+Her costume was sport, with a very fancy jacket and a light silk and
+wool plaid skirt. That she had plenty of money was rather too obviously
+apparent, and Nancy wondered just how she and Ruth were connected.
+
+They were inspecting the newly acquired little store.
+
+"And you are the manager, the proprietor--"
+
+"The clerk and the cashier," Nancy interrupted Ruth. "I've always loved
+to play store, so now, mother says, she hopes I'll be satisfied. But
+this is a very old-timey place. I don't see how the Townsends ever made
+it pay."
+
+"Miss Townsend is a queer old lady," replied Ruth. "I guess of late
+years they didn't have to worry about making things pay in the store."
+
+"Why Ruthie!" exclaimed Vera. "Don't you know every body says they went
+bankrupt?"
+
+"Oh, that," laughed Ruth. "I guess Mr. Townsend lent out his money and
+couldn't get it back handy."
+
+"But he and his sister had a perfectly desperate fight over it,"
+insisted Vera, eyes wide with curious interest.
+
+"Desperate," repeated Ruth, as if trying to give Nancy a cue to Vera's
+queer vocabulary. "I can imagine their sort of desperate fight. Sister
+Sarah would say to Brother Elmer: 'Elmer dear, you really can't mean a
+thing like that,'" imitated Ruth, "and Brother Elmer would clasp and
+unclasp his thin hands as he replied: 'I'm sorry, Sister Sarah, but it
+looks that way.'"
+
+Ruth and Nancy laughed merrily as the little sketch ended.
+
+"That's about how desperate those two would fight," Ruth declared.
+
+"Then why did they sell out?" demanded Vera. "Every body knows they lost
+everything."
+
+"We haven't actually bought the place," Nancy explained, "just have an
+option on it. You see, we had to go to the country every summer, and
+mother thought this might suit us. It is so convenient for her to
+commute, and Ted and I can't get into a lot of mischief in a place like
+this. So it seems, at least," she hastened to add.
+
+"Well, if you let your brother go around with that queer old fellow we
+saw him with today, he may get into mischief," intimated Vera,
+mysteriously, with a wag of her bobbed head.
+
+"Mr. Sanders? What's the matter with Mr. Sanders?" demanded Nancy,
+rather sharply.
+
+"Oh talk, talk, and gossip," Ruth interposed. "Just because he sees fit
+to keep his business to himself--"
+
+"You know perfectly well, Ruth, that is more than gossip," insisted
+Vera.
+
+"What is? What's the mystery?" again demanded Nancy, dropping her box of
+lead pencils rather suddenly.
+
+"Well," drawled Vera, getting up with a tantalizing deliberateness, "if
+you were to see a person in front of you one minute and have him vanish
+the next--"
+
+A peal of laughter from Nancy broke in rudely upon Vera's recitation.
+
+"All right," Vera added, in a hurt tone. "Don't believe me if you don't
+want to, but just wait and see."
+
+"Disappearing Dick?" chanted Nancy gaily. "Do you mean to say he's one
+of those so-called miracle men?"
+
+"Oh, no, nothing of the sort," protested Ruth. "But there is
+something--different about him. A lot of people say he does disappear,
+but of course, there's nothing uncanny about it. It's probably just
+clever," Ruth tried to explain.
+
+"Rather," drawled Vera.
+
+And Nancy could not suppress an impolite but insistent chuckle.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+                             ORIGINAL PLANS
+
+
+During the next half hour the girls busied themselves playing store.
+Ruth was almost as keenly interested in the little place as was Nancy,
+herself, but it was noticeable that Vera was more curious. She poked
+into the farthest corners, even opening obscure little cubby-holes that
+Nancy had not yet discovered. All the while they talked about the
+Townsends and the mysterious Mr. Sanders, declaring that something
+around the Whatnot Shop held the clue to the Townsend disagreement, and
+Mr. Sanders' mysterious power of disappearing.
+
+"I think it's the funniest thing," ruminated Nancy, clapping the wrong
+cover on the white thread box, "here we came away out here to be
+peaceful, quiet and studious. Mother looked for a place just to keep Ted
+and me busy, and then we run into a regular hornet's nest of rumors."
+
+"Don't you know," replied Ruth, "that still waters run deepest?"
+
+"But I didn't know we had to take on a whole Mother Goose set of fairy
+tales with a little two cent shoe-string shop," protested Nancy. "Of
+course it will serve me right if I get into an awful squall. My
+rebellion against the long-loved house-work idea, is sure to get me into
+some trouble, isn't it?"
+
+"Who doesn't rebel secretly?" admitted Ruth. "Isn't it fairer to up and
+say so than to be always hoping the dishpan will spring a leak, and
+dish-towels will blow away?" Ruth was making rapid strides in gaining
+Nancy's affection. She was so unaffected, so frank, and so sensible.
+
+Vera wasn't saying much but she was poking a lot. Just now she was
+fussing with some discarded and disabled toys. She held up a helpless
+windmill.
+
+"Imagine!" she said, simply.
+
+"Well, what of it?" asked Ruth. "It was pretty--once!"
+
+"Pretty! As if anyone around here would ever buy a thing like that."
+
+"Let me see it," Nancy said. "I'm sure Ted would love 'a thing like
+that.' He'd spend days tinkering with it." Nancy took the red and blue
+tin toy and inspected it critically. As she wound a tiny key a little
+bell tinkled.
+
+"Lovel-lee!" cried Ruth. "That's a merry wind. Or is it a tinkle-ly
+wind? Anyway it's cute. Save it for the small brother, Nancy. And I
+think he's awfully cute. Here's something else for his camp," she
+offered, handing Nancy over a red, white and blue popgun.
+
+"Great!" declared Nancy. "Ted has been too busy to rummage yet, but he's
+sure to be thrilled when he does go at it. Yes, I think Ted is cute, and
+I hope the disappearing man won't cast a spell on him," she finished,
+laughing at the idea, and meanwhile inspecting the toy windmill.
+
+"You can joke," warned Vera, "but my grandmother insists that what
+everyone says must be true, and everyone says Baldy Sanders is
+freakish."
+
+"Baldy," repeated Nancy gaily. "I noticed that. But he has enough of
+eyes to make up for the lost hair. I never saw such merry twinkling
+eyes."
+
+"Really!" Vera commented. "I never notice men's eyes."
+
+"Just their bald heads," teased Ruth. "Now Vera, if Mr. Sanders is a
+professor, as some folks claim, and if he ever gets our class in
+chemistry, I'm afraid you would just have to notice his merry, twinkling
+eyes. Anyhow," and Ruth cocked up a faded little blue muslin pussy cat,
+"he's merry, and that is in his favor. What are you doing with that
+windmill, Nancy?"
+
+"Inspecting it. It's a queer kind of windmill. Look at the cross pieces
+on top and this tin cup."
+
+All three girls gave their attention to the queer toy. It was, as Nancy
+had said, different from the usual model. It had cross pieces on top
+instead of on the side, and one piece was capped off with a metal cup.
+
+"I'll save it for Ted," Nancy concluded. "But I hope it isn't dangerous.
+It takes boys to find out the worst of everything. Just before we moved,
+most of our furniture is in storage you know," she put in to explain the
+scarcity of things at the country place, "Ted went up to the attic and
+found an old wooden gun. It would shoot peas, and what those boys didn't
+shoot peas at wasn't worth mentioning. I'll put the freak windmill away
+for him, though. It looks quite harmless."
+
+"Oh, I think it's just joyous to have a shop," exclaimed Ruth, "and if
+you'll let me, Nancy, I'll come in and 'tend sometimes."
+
+"I'd love to have you," replied Nancy earnestly. "I did expect my chum,
+Bonny Davis, to visit me, but she's gone down to the shore first.
+Bonny's lots of fun. I'm sure you'd like her if she does come," declared
+Nancy, loyally.
+
+"I like her name," Ruth answered. "What is it? Bonita?"
+
+"No, it's really Charlotte, but she's so black we've always called her
+Bonny from ebony, you know. Now Vera, what have you discovered?" broke
+off Nancy, looking over to the comer in which Vera was plainly
+interested. "Anything spooky?"
+
+"Not spooky," replied Vera, "but I never saw such odd looking fishing
+things. No wonder the Townsends went bankrupt. Here are boxes and boxes
+of wires and weights, and I don't know what all. Oh, I'll tell you!" she
+exclaimed, in a rare burst of enthusiasm. "Let's have a fishing sale?"
+
+"And sell fish!" teased Ruth.
+
+"No," objected Nancy, taking Vera's part. "I think a special sale of
+fishing and sport supplies would be great. Let's see what we've got
+toward it."
+
+"It would draw the boys and that's something," joked Ruth. "But I'll
+tell you what, Nancy, you had better be careful what you try to sell to
+the young fishermen around here. They're pretty particular and rather
+good at the sport. I like to fish myself."
+
+"Oh, I'd love to," declared Nancy. "Where do you go?"
+
+"Dyke's pond and sometimes the old mill creek," replied Ruth. "But we
+only get sunnies there. There's perch in the pond, though."
+
+This led to discussing the fishing prospects in brooks, ponds and other
+waterways around Long Leigh, until it was being promptly decided that
+Ruth and Vera should very soon introduce Nancy to the sport. The idea of
+having a sale of the outfit at the shop was also entered upon
+enthusiastically, until the afternoon was melting into shadows before
+the girls realized it.
+
+"But what ever you do," Ruth cautioned Nancy, "don't let any one induce
+you to take the Whatnot out of the window. That's the sign of this old
+shop that's known for miles and miles."
+
+"I think a cute little windmill would be lots nicer," suggested Vera.
+"That Whatnot is--atrocious."
+
+"Windmill!" repeated Ruth. "But we don't sell windmills."
+
+"Certainly not. Neither do we sell Whatnots," contended Vera.
+
+"But we sell the things that are on the Whatnot," argued Ruth. "And
+besides Whatnot stands for _What Not!_"
+
+It was amusing Nancy to listen to their assumed partnership. They were
+both talking about "_our_ shop" and insisting upon what "_we_ sell."
+This established at once a comradeship among all three, and Nancy was
+convinced that her own desire to go into business was not, after all,
+very queer. Other girls, no doubt, shared it as well, but the difference
+was--Nancy's mother. She was the "angel of the enterprise," as Nancy had
+declared more than once.
+
+"And I'll tell you," confided Vera, quite surprisingly, "if you'll let
+me, I'll help you with your housework. I don't mind it a bit, and you
+hate it so."
+
+"Oh, that's just lovely of you, Vera," Nancy replied, while a sense of
+fear seized her, "but I really must do some of it, you know. Even a good
+store keeper should know how to cook a little," she pretended, vowing
+that her house would be in some kind of order before Vera ever even got
+a peek into the living rooms.
+
+When they were finally gone Nancy stood alone in the little store, too
+excited to decide at once which way to turn. She liked the girls,
+especially Ruth, and even Vera had her interesting features. At least
+she said odd things in an odd way, and her drawl was "delicious," Nancy
+admitted. Of course she was gossipy. There was all that nonsense about
+Mr. Sanders. As if any human being could really disappear. Ted would
+just howl at the idea, Nancy knew, and if the man were really a
+professor of some sort, that ought to make him interesting, she
+reflected. At any rate, he was, the girls had said, a friend of the
+Townsends, and Nancy would make it her business to ask Miss Townsend
+about him the very next time she came into the store.
+
+Her mind busy with such reflections, Nancy hooked the screen door, (the
+shop was not yet supposed to be open for business) and turned toward the
+upset kitchen.
+
+"I've just got to do something with it," she promised, "before mother
+comes. I wish Ted would hurry along home. Of course, he's a boy and boys
+don't have to worry about kitchens."
+
+Nevertheless, as Nancy dashed around she did make a real effort to
+adjust the disordered room, for her pride was now prompting her.
+Whatever would Vera Johns say to such a looking place? And was all this
+fair to a mother so thoughtful and so good-natured as was Nancy's?
+
+"I begin right here at this door," she decided, feeling she had to begin
+at a definite spot, "and I just straighten out every single thing from
+here to the back door."
+
+Peach baskets idling with the odds and ends of packing, Ted's red
+sweater, Nancy's blue one, Nancy's straw hat that she felt she must have
+within reach and which therefore had been "parked" on the floor, safe,
+however, under a big chair, and a paste-board box of books that she also
+didn't want to lose track of, the portable phonograph cover, the
+phonograph itself was reposing safely on the corner of the sink where
+Ted had been trying a new record; all these and as many more
+miscellaneous articles Nancy was briefly encountering in her general
+clearing up plan "from one door to the other."
+
+But she forged on, the old broom doing heroic duty as a plough cutting
+through the débris. Finally, having gotten most of the stuff into a
+corner, she undertook to scatter it in a way peculiar to one with
+business, rather than domestic, instincts.
+
+"I'll need the baskets, all of them, when I'm settling the store," she
+promptly decided, "and I'll get Ted to put the box of books in there
+too, so I can read while I'm waiting. Then the phonograph--That can go
+in there just as well, it may draw customers." At this Nancy laughed,
+but she picked up the little black box, it had been her birthday
+present, and put it right on the small table under the old mantle in the
+store. A phonograph in the store seemed attractive.
+
+"I guess we'll find the store handy for lots of things," Nancy was
+thinking, for the difference in the size of their old home, and the
+limits of this new one, was not easy to adjust.
+
+With a sort of flourish of the broom at the papers and bits of excelsior
+that were still an eyesore about, Nancy at length managed to "make a
+path," as she expressed it, through the kitchen.
+
+"And I'll gather some flowers to greet mother with," she insisted.
+"There's no reason why we shouldn't make a pretty room of a kitchen like
+this, with one, two, three, good sized windows," she counted.
+
+But the glorious bunch of early roses must have felt rather out of
+place, trying to conserve their wondrous perfume from contamination with
+the remains of a smudgy odor from burnt potatoes--which by-the-way, had
+not yet come to light, not to say anything of the real fire smell of
+burnt meat, that ran over from a pan-cake griddle into a seething gas
+flame.
+
+"Oh, those flowers!" exhaled the triumphant Nancy, pushing the dishpan
+away so as not to bend the longest stalk, which was brushed against it.
+"Won't mother just love it here?"
+
+After all, is not the soul of the poet more valuable than the skill of a
+prospective housewife?
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+
+                               FAIR PLAY
+
+
+Mrs. Brandon was such a mother as one might readily imagine would be the
+parent of Nancy and Ted. In the first place she was young, so young as
+to be mistaken often for Nancy's big sister. Then she was lively, a real
+chum with her two children, but more important than these qualities,
+perhaps, was her sense of tolerance.
+
+Fair play, she called it, believing that the children would more surely
+and more correctly learn from experience than from continuous preaching.
+Perhaps this was due to her own experience. She had been a girl much
+like Nancy. She had not inherited the so-called domestic instinct; no
+more did Nancy. To that cause was ascribed Nancy's unusual disposition
+toward business and her dislike for all kitchens.
+
+"Those roses!" she breathed deeply over the scented mass Nancy had
+gathered. "Aren't they just um-um? Wonderful?"
+
+"I knew you would like them, mother," responded Nancy happily. "I'm
+sorry we couldn't get things slicked up better today, but we were so
+constantly interrupted."
+
+"You will be, Nan dear. It is always just like that when business runs
+into housework."
+
+"Oh, but say, Mother," interrupted Ted. "It's just great here. There's
+the best lot of boys. And we've got a camp, a regular brigand camp--"
+
+"Look out for mischief, Teddy boy," replied his mother fondly. "I want
+you both to have a fine time, but a little mischief goes a long ways
+toward spoiling things, you know," she warned, earnestly.
+
+"Oh, I know. I'll be careful. We won't have any real guns nor knives,
+nor swords--"
+
+"Ted Brandon! I should hope not!" cried Nancy. "Real guns and swords and
+knives, indeed! If you go out playing with that sort of ruffian--"
+
+"But they aren't. We don't have them. No real firearms at-all,"
+protested Ted. "And the boys are nice fellows."
+
+"But just imagine what I would do if you came in hurt. And mother away
+and everything," reasoned Nancy foolishly, as if she enjoyed the
+sensation. "It is not like it was when Anna was with us. Mother," Nancy
+asked, "don't you really think we should have someone in Anna's place?"
+
+"No, girlie, I don't," promptly replied the mother, who was just taking
+from the gas oven a deliciously broiled steak. "While we had Anna you
+never had a chance to find out all the simple things that you didn't
+know. Anna was an ideal maid, but maids are not educators and none of us
+can learn without being given a chance. Ted, please get the ice water.
+And I would try, Nancy, to have every meal, no matter how simple it is,
+served either on the side porch or in the dining room," counselled Mrs.
+Brandon. "Nothing so demoralizes us as upset kitchen meals."
+
+"Yes, mother, I know that," admitted Nancy, who, with her mother nearby
+for inspection, was daintily arranging the salad. "As a matter of fact,
+I lose things in the kitchen. Imagine losing the potatoes, pan and all!"
+
+A hearty laugh followed the recalling of Nancy's and Ted's dinner
+disaster. But even to that accident Mrs. Brandon insisted that her
+daughter was one of the girls who must learn by experience, so there
+were no long arguments given to point out her weakness.
+
+"But Anna is coming back, isn't she?" Ted pleaded. A boy wants to be
+sure of his meals in spite of all the educational processes necessary
+for training obdurate sisters.
+
+"Yes, dear. I expect she will be back to us in the autumn, and I'm sure
+she will be benefited by her vacation," said Mrs. Brandon. "Anna does
+not really have to work now. The salary and light expenses of maids soon
+place them in a position to retire, you know," she pointed out
+practically.
+
+"And besides," chimed in Nancy, "it's lots of fun to live all alone for
+the summer, at least. Why, if Anna were here she would be forever poking
+in and out of the store, and really mother," Nancy's voice fell to a
+very serious tone, "when I get things going, I intend to make _you_ take
+a vacation. I'm going to make that store _pay_."
+
+"That's lovely, girlie," replied the mother, "and I'm sure you and Ted
+are going to be wonderful little helpers. Now, come eat dinner. You must
+be ravenous. Here, Nancy, carry along the beans with the butter. Make
+each hand do its share to help out each foot, you know," she teased.
+
+"But I'm starved," declared Ted, making a rather risky dive for the
+three dinner plates and hurrying into the little dining room with them.
+"That ice cream was good while we were eating it, but it doesn't last
+long, does it, Nan?"
+
+This brought up the story of Mr. Sanders' treat, and as her children
+related it, each outdoing the other in vivid description and volumes of
+parentheses, Mrs. Brandon listened with but few interruptions. When the
+story was told, however, she gave her version of the gossip concerning
+the stranger.
+
+"He is really a professor, I'm sure," she stated, "for Miss Townsend
+told me that much. Of course professors can be as queer as other
+folks--"
+
+"Queer?" interrupted Ted, holding his plate out for another new potato.
+
+"Yes, they are often odd," admitted his mother, smiling at the boy's
+joke. "But then, too, we expect to depend upon their intelligence for
+reasonable explanations."
+
+"Mother, anyone would know you were a librarian, the way you talk," said
+Nancy. "I suppose we act booky too, only we can't realize it ourselves.
+Ted, your knife is playing toboggan--"
+
+"I'm too starved to notice," said Ted. "Hope you won't lose the potatoes
+and burn the meat again, Sis," he added, "I can't stand starvation."
+
+"I didn't do it, _we_ did it," insisted Nancy. "I'm sure we were both
+getting dinner--"
+
+"But about Miss Townsend, dear," her mother forestalled their argument.
+"Did she say she regretted agreeing to sell?"
+
+"No, mother; that's the queer part of it all," Nancy replied. They were
+now settled at their meal and could chat happily. "She acted so
+mysterious about everything. And you should see her little dog, Tiny,
+sniff around! Honestly, I thought he'd sniff his little stumpy nose off
+at the fireplace. By the way, mother, can't we have the old stove moved
+out into the back storeroom? We don't want it standing around all summer
+waiting for a blizzard next Christmas, do we?"
+
+"No. But I'm afraid we will have to put off that sort of work until my
+vacation, Nancy. You must remember, dear, we have only agreed to let you
+run the little store practically as it is, to sell out Miss Townsend's
+stuff and to give you some experience."
+
+"Oh, yes. I know," said Nancy a little ruefully. "But mother--" she
+hesitated. Then began again, "Mother, I simply can't have the girls come
+in and have things so upset, and I won't, positively won't have Miss
+Townsend fussing around--"
+
+"You can't be rude to her, Nan," the mother said rather decidedly. "And,
+after all, there is nothing here she doesn't know about."
+
+"Well, there seems to be," sighed Nancy, "or else what did she start
+right in to search for? And the very first time she met me, too."
+
+"Perhaps her brother lost some papers, or something like that,"
+suggested Mrs. Brandon. "I _do_ know he is a little odd in his manner."
+
+"But if it were only that she wouldn't need to act so mysteriously about
+it, would she, mother?"
+
+"And the dog," put in Ted. "He couldn't know about papers, could he?
+Dogs are awfully wise, I know that much, and I'm going to get one--"
+
+Paying no attention to Ted's last sentence, Nancy continued to deplore
+Miss Townsend's threat of more visits to her shop.
+
+"And the girls, that is Vera, said that she and her brother had a
+quarrel about the place before they left," Nancy continued. "Vera is
+talkative, but I could see myself that Miss Townsend was awfully unhappy
+about something."
+
+"Yes," snapped Ted, again allowing his fork to rest in the prohibited
+sliding position from his plate, "and she's the one who talks about Mr.
+Sanders, too. That girl Veera--"
+
+"Vera, Ted. Just like very," said Nancy critically.
+
+"Yeah," groaned Ted. "Just like scary, too. That's what she is, scary.
+And the fellows say Mr. Sanders is a first-rate scout, a real scout.
+They say he's even a scoutmaster--"
+
+"Did they say anything about his habit of disappearing?" asked Nancy,
+quizzically.
+
+"Now, Nan. You know very well that isn't so. It couldn't be. How could
+any one dis-sa-peer?" inquired Ted, emphatically.
+
+"That wasn't the question, brother," insisted Nancy. "I just asked you
+if the boys spoke of his reputation as Disappearing Dick?"
+
+This was too much for Ted, and again his mother was forced to intervene.
+
+"Anyway," the boy managed to interject, "if they did say something about
+it they didn't say he was a spook, like your old Very-scary girl told
+it."
+
+"Ted Brandon! Nothing about spooks! We never even mentioned them, that I
+remember. But they said that Mr. Sanders lived somewhere around here but
+no one knew where, that he went right up the hill to the stone house and
+never went in the house nor in the barn nor anyplace but just
+disappeared," rattled off Nancy.
+
+"Why daughter!" protested Mrs. Brandon, "how perfectly absurd. I'm
+surprised that you should listen to such truck."
+
+"But of course I don't believe it, Mother, it's just funny, that's all,"
+explained Nancy, who had begun to carry the dishes to the kitchen quite
+as if she just loved to do it.
+
+According to their new schedule, both Ted and Nancy were expected to do
+their part in the clearing of the table, and washing the dishes, and as
+this was a beautiful summer evening, the children "fell to" very
+promptly.
+
+"It's too lovely to stay inside," remarked Nancy. "You'll come out with
+us, won't you Mother? There's heaps of things you haven't yet had a
+chance to see around here," she pleaded.
+
+"But we really must get things in order," declared the mother. "You and
+Ted hurry along with your work--Ted will dry and you wash tonight,
+Nancy, and meanwhile I'll sort of dig in--"
+
+"Mother! You can't. You have just got to have your evenings free,"
+protested Nancy. "You need lots of fresh air out here--"
+
+"I know, dear, but after all we are just ordinary mortals and we must
+live as such. That means--civilization, around here," laughed Mrs.
+Brandon, who was already "digging in."
+
+"I'll put these pans away first." She paused. "Whatever is this? I do
+declare, children, here are your lost potatoes, packed away in among the
+empty pans. Now, who could have done that?"
+
+"Ted did," replied Nancy. "He was sorting the tins. But Mother," she
+said, in a grieved tone, "I know I did waste a lot of time today."
+
+Nancy was carrying out a tray but she had stopped abruptly. No
+punishment could be greater to her than the loss of a summer evening out
+of doors, except it was her mother's loss of that self-same evening.
+
+"I'm so sorry," she sighed. "I know I did idle my time today, Mother
+dear, but I can't bear to have you--pay for it."
+
+"Nonsense, dear, I don't mind. Really the exercise will do me good,"
+insisted Mrs. Brandon. "Just attend to the dishes and you won't know
+these quarters presently. I'm glad we found the potatoes," she said, but
+Nancy was now too serious to joke.
+
+A call from the side porch checked their argument. It was Ruth calling
+to Nancy.
+
+"Come along!" she shrilled through the screen door. "There's going to be
+a band concert--"
+
+"Oh, I can't, Ruth," Nancy called back. "I must do--"
+
+"You _must_ go, dear," interrupted her mother.
+
+At this Ruth came in to wait. Ted was already off--he did not need to be
+coaxed to give up his task, and when dishes were not being washed surely
+they could not be dried.
+
+But Nancy felt guilty. In fact the band concert, novelty though it was,
+with firemen and a baseball team making up the "scrambled" programme,
+was not loud enough to still the voice of regret.
+
+"I can't bear to think of mother doing, now on this beautiful evening,
+what I should have done today," she confided to Ruth, as they waited
+between numbers.
+
+"I'll help you tomorrow," offered Ruth kindly. "And I won't bring Vera.
+She's rather critical--"
+
+"I'll be up at daybreak," resolved Nancy, really determined now to get
+the little country home in order.
+
+A band concert in Long Leigh was plainly an important event, and the
+numbers of persons crowding about the band-stand on the village green
+attested hearty appreciation for the musical efforts. The firemen,
+however, seemed to draw out the heaviest applause, but that was because
+old Jake Jacobs, the best piccolo player around, had been training them.
+Still, there was Pete Van Riper, the drummer on the baseball side of the
+platform. He certainly could drum, and the small boys around kept
+calling to him in baseball parlance such encouragements as "Make it a
+homer, Pete! Hug the mat! Hit her hard!" and such outfield coaching.
+
+Ruth had met a number of her friends and some she introduced to Nancy,
+but the concert was spoiled for Nancy. She could see and actually feel
+her mother working in that little country place to which she had come,
+just to give Ted and Nancy a happy vacation.
+
+When her worry was becoming so keen that she felt she must ask Ruth to
+go home with her, there pushed into the crowd an old man in a
+broad-brimmed straw hat, although the sun was well out of all mischief.
+
+"Look!" whispered Ruth. "There's Mr. Townsend! And that's Mr.
+Sanders--with him!"
+
+Just then the two men stepped over to the little mound where the girls
+were. They did not see the girls, but Mr. Sanders drew Mr. Townsend to a
+sudden stop in a space directly in front of Nancy and Ruth.
+
+"I tell you, Sanders," Mr. Townsend said, in a voice not at all suitable
+for his surroundings, "the whole town is talkin'. They say all kinds of
+things and you had better out with the whole thing."
+
+Mr. Sanders laughed as if he enjoyed the joke.
+
+"Keep cool, keep cool, friend," he said.
+
+But Mr. Townsend was by no means keeping cool, and he said so, sharply.
+
+"And I've left my home, got my sister on her ear, made a poor man's name
+for myself--"
+
+Mr. Sanders grasped his arm with a sudden movement, perfectly evident to
+the astounded girls.
+
+"When you are tired of your bargain, Elmer Townsend," he said, "just let
+me know."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+                            THE SPECIAL SALE
+
+
+They had worked like slaves, according to Nancy, while Ted insisted he
+was too tired even to eat.
+
+"But it's going to be a grand success," promised Ruth. "I can hardly
+wait until morning for the doors to open."
+
+"Sale now going on!" chanted Isabel, a friend of Ruth's, who had come in
+to help. "Ladies and gentlemen! Step this way for your fish lines!" she
+called out, testing the possibilities of the next day's special sale.
+"Here's where you get your fish-hooks that never slip, and your tackle
+that always tacks, and as for sinkers--"
+
+"You'll sink, first shot," Ruth interrupted, from her perch on the
+stepladder, where she was waving a Japanese lantern as if that flimsy
+article had anything to do with fishing tackle.
+
+"Oh say! Look here! Who took my best reel?" cried Ted. "I want that for
+myself. It was in a dollar box--"
+
+"Then it's got to be sold," called back Nancy. She was sitting on the
+counter counting fish lines, a dozen to each box.
+
+"Sold nothing!" retorted Ted. "I'd like to know why I can't have the
+best--"
+
+"You can, Teddy dear," Ruth told him. "You have been a perfect lamb to
+help us all afternoon, and I never did see two legs do more trotting
+than yours have done since Nancy locked the front doors and put us all
+to work like prisoners. You may certainly have the reel, and there's a
+wonderful pole back of the empty cigar boxes--there on that first shelf.
+See it? It's in a gray case--"
+
+"Ruth Ashley! Whose store is this?" Nancy pretended to be very severe
+but her jolly little laugh filtered through the words in giggles and
+titters. "If you are going to give things away, why not start in with
+the perishables? There's a basket of apples, Ted himself bought out of
+the general fund, and unless they can be sold as bait, I don't see what
+we're going to do with them." She had counted out all the fish lines and
+was resting against the old-time candy glass case, now neatly filled
+with post cards and stationery supplies.
+
+They had had a merry time getting the Whatnot Shop ready for the first
+special sale, and girl-like, had expended a lot of energy upon pretty
+effects in the arrangements of articles. Mrs. Brandon "chipped in" as
+Ted expressed it, and Nancy was able to supplement her stock
+considerably. She had also made a very attractive poster for the big
+front window, in fact, it was so attractive that Ruth put another sign
+right alongside of it which stated:
+
+                    This poster, handmade, for sale
+                              Price $2.00
+
+"We always sell our charity posters," she insisted, "and they are never
+as pretty as this. Just look at that fish. What is he, Nancy? A cat-fish
+or a pickerel?"
+
+"I'm totally ignorant of the varieties," replied Nancy grandly. "But I
+like the flecks on his back so I made him up flecked."
+
+"The fellows will be here awfully early," Ted warned the girls, "so you
+better be ready to sell, quick as the door's opened."
+
+"We'll be here," sang out Ruth. "And Ted, be sure to tell them this is a
+strictly cash sale. No charging and no refunds. If you buy a fish pole
+and find it's a curtain rod you've got to go fishing with the curtain
+rod. Nancy, here's those fancy little colored bags to fool the poor fish
+with. Where do you want them put? Some place very safe, for they're
+easily broken, you know," Ruth cautioned.
+
+"Right here in the show case," Nancy directed. "They're too cute to be
+stuck away on a shelf. Ted, you better run off and have some fun. I
+don't want mother to think we've been stunting your growth. You know how
+particular she is about exercise."
+
+"Exercise!" repeated Isabel. "As if the poor child hasn't been
+stretching every muscle to its utmost all afternoon. Take my advice,
+Ted, and lie down. I'll make an ice bag out of an old bathing cap--"
+
+But Ted was not waiting to hear Isabel's kind, if foolish, offer. His
+merry shout as he rounded the corner, however, spoke decidedly against
+ice bags as well as couches.
+
+"Let's quit," suggested Nancy. "Honestly girls, I thought housework was
+tedious, but I can't see much difference. I believe I'll be winding fish
+lines all night, I've got them tangled in my brain."
+
+"Then you're the one for the ice bags," pronounced Isabel. "I love to
+make them and I love to put them on pretty heads. Here Ruth, let's put
+her on the couch. I think she looks a bit feverish."
+
+Kicking and protesting Nancy was forced to get down from "her perch,"
+and stretch out on the little leather couch in a favorite corner of the
+sun porch. Then, while Ruth literally held her there, Isabel cracked
+ice, put it in a green rubber bathing cap, that leaked like a sieve,
+tied it up most imperfectly, and presently clapped it on Nancy's head.
+
+"Oh, please! It's leaking! I'm all wet. Isabel, you're freezing my--my
+thinker!" yelled Nancy, as she struggled to free herself from her
+playful companions.
+
+"That's the idea," replied Isabel. "We've got to freeze your thinker to
+make you forget your fish lines. Here now, dearie," she mocked "lie
+perfectly still--"
+
+"You're spoiling my pretty new gown," yelled Nancy, referring to the
+oldest and most faded gown she could find that morning, in preparation
+for the extra work.
+
+But Isabel held the bag in the general direction of Nancy's forehead,
+while little icy cold streams tinkled down her neck and into her ears.
+Ruth served as body guard, and almost kept Nancy on the couch, her feet,
+arms, and other "loose ends" hanging over untidily.
+
+The store bell was jerked suddenly and violently.
+
+"Oh me, oh my!" groaned Nancy, jumping up so as to smash the ice bag to
+the floor, cut its string loose and send the remaining chunks of ice
+flying. "I can't go. Ruth, will you--"
+
+"Love to," chanted Ruth, starting off promptly.
+
+"Look at the puddle," bewailed Isabel, but Nancy interrupted her.
+
+"No one, simply no one can come in to-day. Do run out, Belle and
+restrain Ruth. Just listen to her sweetest tones--"
+
+Isabel went. She liked to "'tend store" and each possible customer
+represented to her, as well as to Ruth, a possible adventure.
+
+"No, I'm not the proprietor," Nancy heard Ruth saying.
+
+"No, she really can't see you," was Isabel's contribution.
+
+A man's voice, full, rich, persuasive, was speaking in so low a tone
+that his words did not convey meaning to the listening Nancy.
+
+She listened! She crept nearer, and finally realizing that both Ruth and
+Isabel were not being able to dismiss the stranger, she attempted to
+right her rumpled self, to pat the unruly hair into place, and not
+knowing that her forehead looked like a beefsteak from the ice freeze,
+she sauntered out into the store.
+
+"This is Miss Brandon," announced Ruth as she entered. "She is the
+proprietor."
+
+Nancy found herself in the presence of a very important looking young
+man. His Panama hat was on the counter, his suitcase was on the floor,
+and he stood in the most attentive, courteous attitude, bowing as if she
+were meeting him in a reception room.
+
+"I've heard of your store, Miss Brandon," he said. "In fact, its fame
+has travelled far and wide, and I'm here representing a Boston firm of
+sporting goods. I would like you to see--"
+
+"Really," faltered Nancy, "this is only sort of a play store. We are
+doing it for a vacation experience."
+
+"Exactly the thing," insisted the young man, who was not polite to the
+point of affectation but simply polite as a gentleman. "I know this
+territory pretty well, and you will possibly be surprised at the class
+of customers who will, doubtless, seek you out. The motor people come
+along here from Gretna Lake. There's good fishing on that lake, and
+fishing supplies have a way of giving out suddenly when the
+inexperienced handle them. If you will let me--" he was tackling the
+suitcase.
+
+"But you see," protested Nancy, much embarrassed, "I really have no
+authority to--buy. Mother is not here--"
+
+"You assume no obligation," insisted the man. "As this is your store we
+are glad, in fact anxious, to leave you a sample line. If you sell them
+you make a very fair commission, if you do not I pick them up and try
+something else on my next trip."
+
+He opened the case, and presently was displaying a bewildering line of
+such fishing tackle and general sport supplies as Nancy had never
+dreamed of. Ruth and Isabel were fascinated. They suggested, in spite of
+their better judgment, that Nancy stock up with the pretty little trout
+flies, the feathery kind tied to fish hooks. Then Ruth thought they
+ought to have at least one box of the dry flies, the sort that floats
+without the hook, and before they knew it the salesman had deposited
+upon the counter, goods worth so much money, that Nancy could only gasp
+at the transaction.
+
+"But I haven't any place--"
+
+"This little case, if I may suggest," said the salesman, "is admirably
+suited. You could move your cards to the far end, couldn't you?"
+
+"Oh, yes," chimed in Ruth, "and Nancy, just see the lovely window card!"
+She was holding up a big folder that had been neatly packed in, folded
+in sections, within the suitcase. "Why, it will be wonderful to have
+such goods, and I'm sure the summer folks from Breakneck Hill will just
+buy us out as soon as they hear we have such splendid stuff."
+
+"I think you are right," replied the salesman. "But as you seem
+doubtful, Miss Brandon, I'll return later and talk with your mother, if
+you wish."
+
+Nancy considered quickly. Her mother should not be annoyed with such
+details; also, the special sale was to be a matter left entirely with
+the girls and Ted. He was claiming and entitled to a share in certain
+articles. So she answered:
+
+"I don't think that will be necessary. Mother won't object, I guess, if
+I don't have to sign anything--"
+
+"Nothing whatever," she was assured.
+
+"But how did you find out about us?" asked Isabel. "This is such a tiny
+store and it is on the back road, really."
+
+"The tiny store on the back road with the quaint name Whatnot Shop is
+more attractive than a big public place," replied the salesman. He had
+handed Nancy his card and she saw that his name was W. S. Webster. "As a
+matter of fact, one of our firm was passing here in his car, and he left
+me the memorandum. But I've heard of the special sale of fishing tackle
+out on the Long Leigh road from perhaps a half dozen persons."
+
+The girls gasped, simultaneously. They were overwhelmed. If their fame
+had thus travelled afar, what would the day of the sale bring them?
+
+"Very well," stammered Nancy, trying once again to keep her wet dress
+out from her neck while she worried over the effect of that besprinkled
+garment. "I'll be glad to do what I can with the goods, but really, I
+had no idea of going in for such, such important articles."
+
+"If you will let me say so," remarked Mr. Webster in a gentlemanly way,
+"I think you girls have the right idea. So many putter around with art
+stuff these days, that they don't realize the big chances they are
+missing in business. Some of America's brainiest women are heads of our
+wholesale firms, and they make more money than movie queens," he
+finished pleasantly.
+
+When he was finally gone and the door well bolted this time, the three
+girls joined hands and danced around like a kindergarten class.
+
+"Me for the movie queen!" sang out Isabel. "You, Nance and Ruthie, can
+sell fish hooks. Just watch this pose and see if I couldn't pass in a
+beauty contest--"
+
+There was a racket, a very noisy one, at the side door.
+
+"It's Ted!" exclaimed Nancy, apprehensively.
+
+"And he's got a crowd with him."
+
+"They can't come in," Nancy declared. "We are not going to show goods or
+take any advance orders."
+
+"Oh me, oh my!" cried Ruth. "No wonder the fine looking drummer said
+that the brainiest girls in America were in business."
+
+"He didn't," contradicted Nancy. "He said women."
+
+"Very well, Nancy. Just you wait. Go sit down on a big stump in the
+woods and wait. By and by you'll be a woman."
+
+Then, in spite of all their eloquence, in marched Ted heading a parade
+of the "fellers." And what could Nancy do but show them the
+arrangements.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+
+                        FISH HOOKS AND FLOATERS
+
+
+"Mother! Are you awake?"
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+"There's someone knocking--"
+
+"I'm getting up."
+
+The knocking continued.
+
+"Hey there, Nan!" called out Ted. "Get up and answer that noise. See
+what your old sale did! Wake us all up--"
+
+"Ted, hush! Be quiet, Mother's going down--"
+
+"You ought to go. It's your bargain day."
+
+As usual Ted was charging Nancy with delinquency. He wasn't really
+quarreling, but just talking, as Nancy defined it. Mrs. Brandon had been
+dressing when the early knock first sounded, so that she was able to get
+down stairs almost directly afterward.
+
+A dread, a sort of feeling that something might happen in regard to that
+expensive outlay of goods left by the travelling salesman, seized Nancy.
+She crept to the top of the stairs to listen, but all she could hear was
+a man's voice; his words were lost behind the closed doors.
+
+She ventured down to the second landing. Her mother was chatting
+pleasantly with whoever the early visitor might be, and at the sound
+Nancy's spirits rose.
+
+"He's no collector," she decided, turning quickly back to her room and
+starting at once to dress. She must be ready early. All signs pointed to
+an early patronage, and although Ted had declared he would be up at
+daybreak, it was all right, Nancy concluded, for him to sleep until
+seven o'clock.
+
+Her mother was calling in a subdued voice.
+
+"Nancy, I'll get breakfast now, as I hear you stirring," she said. "I
+want to leave things ready for your lunch today, so I came down early."
+
+"All right, Mother," Nancy replied over the balustrade. "I'll be down
+soon. Who called?"
+
+"Is Ted awake?" Mrs. Brandon was still restraining her voice.
+
+"He was, but he isn't," half whispered Nancy. "Wait, I'll run down and
+help, then come up and dress later--"
+
+Curiosity was too much for Nancy's patience, so she merely tucked her
+hair tidily into a cap, and in slippers and robe joined her mother who
+was preparing breakfast.
+
+"Who was it?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+"Why, your famous Mr. Sanders," replied Mrs. Brandon, indifferently. "He
+wanted a little model of some sort, a windmill, it looked like. I
+happened to spy it--"
+
+"The funny little windmill!" Nancy exclaimed. "Why, we were wondering
+what that was. Did he say it was a model?"
+
+"Not exactly, but I judged it was. At any rate, dear, you mustn't always
+be looking for mystery in Mr. Sanders' doings. I would call him a very
+pleasant gentleman. Here, dear, stir this cereal. I want you and Ted to
+make sure you get enough proper food."
+
+Nancy stirred the meal, which was receiving a preliminary start before
+being put over the hot water in the double-cooker.
+
+"But you see, Mum," she remarked very quietly, "he is queer. Whatever
+could he want a thing like that for? And why did he come for it so
+early?" Nancy asked.
+
+"He wanted it because it has something to do with his line, is the way
+he expressed it, and he came early because he has been away and just
+heard of your sale. If he waited later, he explained, the little
+windmill might have been swept away in the tumult," Mrs. Brandon
+replied. This seemed to satisfy Nancy's inquiries, but secretly Mrs.
+Brandon herself was just a little puzzled about Mr. Sanders. For
+instance, it had been very clear to her that he just laughed off, rather
+than explained, the purpose of the possible model. Something "in his
+line," which he had forgotten to take away when the Townsends moved,
+seemed vague, to say the least.
+
+Nancy was now eating her breakfast with her mother. She confessed to
+having waked more than once during the night, in anticipation of the big
+day.
+
+"And I'm going to send you a little surprise treat for lunch," her
+mother confided. "I want you and the girls to enjoy yourselves in spite
+of your self-imposed business tasks, so I'm sending out some--ice
+cream!"
+
+"Oh, Mumsey--love!" exclaimed Nancy, jumping up and in giving her mother
+a bear hug almost spilling the last spoonful of grape fruit. "Aren't you
+too ducky! We'll have a regular party, and I'll ask--How many have you
+ordered for?" she demanded abruptly.
+
+"Two quart bricks. That's counted twelve servings," replied her mother.
+"Of course, one brick is for Ted, and you must help him a little."
+
+"Of course, Mumsey-love," promised Nancy. "We'll get every body out and
+close up shop from one until two, and have a regular party!"
+
+From that time until Nancy was almost, but not quite, ready "for the
+fray," as she expressed it, she kept herself in a flutter of excitement.
+Her mother went into town as usual on the seven forty-five trolley, and
+even then there was a waiting list at the front door of the shop,
+children peering in the two broad windows which looked out onto the
+old-fashioned long porch.
+
+"Come on, Ted, hurry-up," begged Nancy as her brother tarried over his
+breakfast. "The girls won't be here until eight, and you've got to go
+outside and try to keep those boys quiet. They'll be coming through the
+window if you don't."
+
+"Oh, that's Buster, making all that racket," declared Ted, getting
+another look at the paper which he was not supposed to read at the
+table. "I'll go out and talk to them, in a minute," he promised
+laconically.
+
+"Please do, then," begged his sister. "You take it as easy as if we
+didn't have a big responsibility."
+
+"What responsibility?" he asked, actually deciding to move his plump
+little self from the table. "I can't see what you're all so excited
+about."
+
+"Of course you can't. But I'll tell you. Everybody, for miles and miles,
+knows about this sale, and we've got to get busy." Nancy was peering
+anxiously out of the side window. "I do hope," she said again, "that the
+girls will get here soon."
+
+"Is that Very-scary girl coming?" asked Ted. He was trying to set his
+blouse straight around his sun-burned neck.
+
+"You mean Vera. She's gone away for a while--"
+
+"I hope she stays away," snapped Ted. "I can't seem to like her--"
+
+"I'm sure that's too bad," mocked Nancy. "She would feel dreadfully bad
+to hear that."
+
+"Oh, don't be funny. Listen! They're hammering on the door. You had
+better open it or they'll break the glass," cautioned the boy.
+
+"Dear me, Ted," exclaimed the excited Nancy, "I can't go; perhaps you
+had better open it. Why didn't you fix up a little," she argued, looking
+critically at the usual vacation boy. "You might at least have put on a
+white blouse."
+
+"To sell fish hooks?" roared Ted. "That's a grand idea. Why, Nan, the
+fellows would think I was giving a party--"
+
+The noise at the front of the store was now becoming so insistent that
+both brother and sister found it imperative to respond.
+
+"Come on," said Nancy, sighing rather miserably. "We may as well face
+it. But don't let them back of the rope. We can't wait on more than a
+few at a time."
+
+At that Nancy and Ted entered the store.
+
+"Look--at--them!" gasped Ted.
+
+Faces were pressed against the windows, the door, against every inch of
+outside space that could command a view of inside the store, and they
+looked so funny, the flat noses, the white spots on cheeks, the opened
+mouths, humping against the glass!
+
+"Hello! Hello!" shouted Ted as Nancy fumbled with the door lock. "What
+do you think this is? A circus?"
+
+Then, as Nancy opened the door, there was the unavoidable falling in!
+
+"Please!" she begged. But the boys seemed actually massed as for some
+game.
+
+"Hey there!" urged Ted. "Whoever doesn't behave can't get waited on
+a-tall!"
+
+But his words had no effect upon the eager urchins.
+
+"I want that rod over there!" shouted Rory Jennings. He was tall, big
+and noisy.
+
+"That's mine--that beaut in the window," insisted another. Ted called
+him Shedder, or something that sounded like that.
+
+"Hey, please, missus please," begged a lad so freckled Nancy couldn't
+see anything else but freckles. "Please missus," he entreated, "couldn't
+you just hand me over that crab net? That's all I want."
+
+"Hey there! Stop crowdin'," ordered a boy who was using all his strength
+to make matters worse. "She can't wait on us if you don't give her a
+chanst."
+
+There were easily twenty-five or thirty youngsters in the crowd, and
+Nancy felt quite helpless to supply all their wants at once. The fact
+that goods were offered at the very lowest figure possible, that a
+twenty-five cent ball of fish line was marked ten cents, of course,
+accounted for the rush. Many boys could get hold of a dime, but a
+quarter was not so easy to pick up, it seemed.
+
+Then, too, the advertising, one boy telling the other, had done much to
+make the sale known; hence the early morning rush.
+
+"Now don't muss everything up!" ordered Ted, for a group of boys had
+laid hold of the fish-hook box, and it was impossible for Nancy to get
+it back.
+
+"You must not take things away from the counter," she protested, for at
+that moment the box of sinkers was being carted off to the door, by Jud
+Morgan and Than Beach. They said they only wanted to pick out a couple
+where there was more room, but it was plainly a risky way to make their
+selection.
+
+"Dear me!" sighed Nancy to Ted. "Please look out and see if the girls
+are coming. These boys will have everything upset--"
+
+But the girls were coming, in fact they were just then elbowing their
+way in from the front door.
+
+"Hello--hello--hello!" called out Ruth joyfully. "Isn't this grand!
+Going to buy us out first thing--"
+
+"Oh, land sakes!" wailed Nancy. "I've been in here fifteen minutes and I
+haven't sold a stick. We should have charged admission."
+
+Isabel looked on rather importantly. Evidently she knew or thought she
+knew how to handle a crowd of boys.
+
+"You've got to get in line!" she announced.
+
+A laugh, a whole series of laughs was her answer.
+
+"Do you hear me?" she insisted, raising her voice to suit the occasion.
+
+"Sure, we hear you. Want us to clap?" answered impudent Sammy Larkins.
+
+"Now see here," Ruth attempted to order. "If you boys really want to buy
+anything you have got to stand back and take turns--"
+
+No sooner had that order been given than everybody made a dash for the
+first place in line, and the tumult that followed all but drove Nancy
+under the counter.
+
+"Say, look here! Want us to put you all out?" demanded Ted, in unassumed
+indignation.
+
+"Try it!" tempted Buster, pretending to roll up sleeves he didn't have.
+
+"But don't you want to see the things?" cried out Ruth in desperation,
+for those boys were tumbling around the floor and actually fighting, at
+least they made that kind of noise, it seemed to the girls.
+
+"Su-ure!" came a chorus.
+
+Then Nancy had an inspiration. She got up on the high stool that stood
+by what used to be Miss Townsend's desk and she immediately commanded
+attention.
+
+"I'll tell you," she began, "if you all sit down on the floor just where
+you are, the window sills or any place, I'll tell you about some of the
+most interesting things we've got here. They are not for sale, but they
+belonged to a sea captain--"
+
+The magic word had the desired effect. At the word "sea captain" that
+crowd of boys, dropped "in their traces," and it was then Nancy's duty
+to unfold to them some wondrous tale.
+
+For boys like a story--when it's about a sea captain even if they are
+out to buy bargain fishing tackle.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+
+                              THE BIG DAY
+
+
+As Ted said afterwards: "It was some story!"
+
+Nancy stood there on the stool, dangling an old rusty knife which she
+had just spied among the box of unclassified articles, and she told
+those boys a yarn, a regular old salt-yarn, which she frankly admitted
+was pure fiction.
+
+But how they listened! As Ruth expressed it: "How _hard_ they listened!"
+
+No more jostling, nor pushing nor underhand squabbling. Every boy among
+them wanted to hear all that story, and consequently he was taking no
+chances on missing any of it.
+
+"And when the old sea captain looked into the poor half-frozen face of
+that baby he had picked up, lashed to an icy--an icy plank," Nancy
+trilled, becoming so interested in her subject she almost forgot the
+make up of it, "then he remembered," she went on, "the big Newfoundland
+dog, Jack, who had fallen back into the sea exhausted from his long
+swim."
+
+She stopped. The boys said "Gosh," and "Gee Whiz." Buster said "Jingo!"
+and there were probably many other subdued and impulsive exclamations of
+the crisp boyish variety.
+
+One little fellow who was sniffing audibly, piped up a question over
+Than's shoulder.
+
+"Say miss," he said. "Say Miss--Nancy," he corrected himself, "could a
+feller buy that there knife?"
+
+"Why," flushed Nancy, "the knife hasn't anything to do with the story--"
+
+"Naw!" came a chorus. "'Course not!"
+
+"It was a corkin' good story," applauded Nort Duncan, clapping grimy
+hands.
+
+"But you said the ole captain cut the ropes with a rusty knife--" the
+little fellow insisted.
+
+"Now look here, boys," called out Ruth suddenly. "You are all settled
+down, nice, quiet and orderly. Suppose we begin to see what you want to
+buy. There are three of us to serve you, and if we divide you up in
+three groups, I'm sure we can give every single one of you the biggest
+bargain you ever got in fishing tackle."
+
+After that, something like order prevailed, for most boys are not devoid
+of a sense of honor, not by any means, and surely after Nancy's story
+they owed her attention and politeness.
+
+Ted helped. He was able to hand out the poles and took pride in doing
+so. They were, most of them, nice shiny, new bamboo canes, and it didn't
+matter how long it took him to please a customer. In one hour, however,
+he had sold ten at fifty cents, five at seventy-five cents and two at a
+dollar each. Ted was delighted, and secretly agreed with Nancy that
+"business was the thing."
+
+Meanwhile the girls were busy, and happy. Ruth had taken charge of the
+sinkers and hooks. Isabel was having a fine time with the crab nets and
+fancy reels, the nickel kind with the stem winders, while Nancy acted as
+general supervisor and director of the entire stock.
+
+Things were going merrily and few disagreements marred the proceedings
+(not to count the scooping up of fellows' caps in trying out crab nets,
+or the occasional protest from someone who would resent being poked with
+new fish poles), when there appeared at the door a very pleasant
+looking, in fact a very "good-looking" young girl.
+
+"That's Sanders' girl," said a boy into Nancy's ear. "You know the
+feller that--disappears," he hurried to explain.
+
+Nancy had neither time nor opportunity to ask questions so she turned to
+meet the very blue eyes of the young girl in question.
+
+"Don't let me interrupt you," said the stranger. "I can wait," and she
+stepped aside to let Tom Preston get change from a precious one dollar
+bill.
+
+Nancy noticed that the young lady had all the known signs of college
+life. She wore a worsted tam o' shanter (in summer), she also wore a
+sweater to match, with a tan golf skirt and--heavy stockings, ending in
+good, strong, walking Oxfords. If these signs were not collegian,
+thought Nancy, then the girl must be an actress which she obviously was
+not.
+
+But she had so much personality, that was it, Nancy promptly decided
+while still counting out change for eager boys. Also, Nancy reasoned,
+she had such pronounced individuality, that one did not observe
+separately her brown hair, her blue eyes and her lustrous, fine healthy
+skin. She just looked perfect, at least to Nancy, who always loved the
+athletic type.
+
+"Sanders' girl!" Nancy was thinking. She didn't know he had a daughter,
+but the girl looked like him, especially around her firm, determined
+mouth.
+
+Ruth left her boys and was now offering to wait on Miss Sanders.
+
+"I'm Sibyl Sanders, you know," she told Ruth, "and I just dropped in to
+see if I couldn't pick up something for dad."
+
+"We're having quite a sale," replied Ruth pleasantly. "When things thin
+out a little I should like to introduce you to Nancy Brandon. This is
+her idea of a vacation," Ruth added quizzically.
+
+"Isn't it splendid?" replied Sibyl, brightening with enthusiasm. "I just
+ran up to Long Leigh to see dad. He insists upon spending a lot of time
+up here," she continued, "and I feel I must look after him a little. I
+wonder if you have any pieces of wire or light springs, around? He has
+use for that sort of material."
+
+"Wire, springs!" Nancy heard the request and a joke, that the
+disappearing man might slide away on wires and springs, flashed
+humorously through her mind. But again she found no chance even to
+whisper the joke to Isabel, for there were still boys demanding change.
+
+In the course of an hour, however, the youngsters were all "cleared
+out." Their wants had been supplied, and the girls, with Sibyl, were
+chatting away about the first results of the sale.
+
+"If they don't go trying things out and then want us to change them,"
+worried Nancy. "I told them positively we would exchange just absolutely
+not--a--thing," she declared, most emphatically.
+
+"Let's see how much we took in," suggested Isabel. "I had no idea that a
+lot of small money could be so fascinating."
+
+"Indeed it is," Sibyl rejoined. "I've had experience at college sales,
+and it always seemed to me the peanut money was the most interesting to
+handle."
+
+This brought on some talk of her college, for just as Nancy had guessed,
+she was a college girl. Finally, when the receipts were all counted and
+it was found that the boys, they who came in the first squad, had
+actually bought seventeen dollars worth of goods.
+
+"It doesn't seem possible!" Ruth exclaimed, "and just look at the
+bushels of pennies!"
+
+"And we had better prepare for the next arrivals," suggested Isabel.
+"The lake folks will be along presently on their morning drives."
+
+"And the early golfers returning from the links," added Ruth. "Guess we
+better tidy things up a little. Those boys certainly can upset a place."
+
+Isabel had found a roll of picture wire and three small screen door
+springs. These Sibyl bought without giving the slightest hint of the
+possible use her father was apt to put them to. Neither Isabel nor Ruth,
+however, paid as much attention to the odd purchase as did Nancy.
+
+"I do wonder," Nancy remarked as Isabel tied up the goods for Sibyl,
+"what has become of Miss Townsend?"
+
+"Oh, haven't you heard?" exclaimed Sibyl. "She's been quite ill."
+
+"No, I hadn't," said Nancy, considerately. "I'm so sorry. What has been
+the trouble?"
+
+"Worry, chiefly, I guess," and a sort of sigh seemed to accompany
+Sibyl's words. "It was too bad she had such a dispute with her brother,"
+she continued, "and yet, they really didn't seem to dispute, just to
+disagree, but they have both such old-fashioned, gentle natures that
+they consider it disgraceful to dissent from the views of loved ones.
+Oh, well!" this time the sigh was unmistakable, "I suppose even the most
+gentle can hardly expect to go through life without differences. I only
+hope they do not hold my daddy in any way responsible," she said
+seriously.
+
+"Why, how could they?" faltered Nancy, in honest bewilderment.
+
+"Oh, of course they couldn't," replied Sibyl hastily, as if regretting
+her remark. "But you see, daddy and the old gentleman have been such
+close friends that Miss Townsend might fancy daddy influenced her
+brother. But I must be running along," she added a little hurriedly.
+"I'm so glad to have met you, Nancy, and I hope your sale will be a
+tremendous success."
+
+"It surely will be," chimed in Ruth, while Isabel and Nancy joined in
+the good-byes.
+
+"Hasn't she wonderful eyes!" was Nancy's first remark following Sibyl's
+departure.
+
+"I got the surprise of my life," declared Ruth, "when I saw Sibyl
+Sanders saunter in. There, that sounds like a new song, doesn't it? But
+you know, girls, she is almost as mysterious as her dad, the way she
+comes and goes--"
+
+"But doesn't anyone up and ask them where they live?" asked Nancy in
+evident astonishment.
+
+"Never get a chance," chimed in Isabel. "If we were to go out now and
+follow her up the hill, I'll venture to say we would get a good sample
+of the disappearing stunt--"
+
+"But we haven't time, dears," chirped Nancy. "Look! Here come three
+autos. Now, ladies, step lively," and the way they stepped was lively
+enough to be called trotting.
+
+"Yes, sure enough," Ruth agreed, "they _are_ coming here, and they're
+here!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+                            STILL THEY CAME
+
+
+Before the girls could pull their faces straight a young man dashed up
+the steps and was in the store.
+
+"Well, this is great!" he declared heartily. "I see by your window card
+you carry Mackinaw's goods and I haven't been able to get them nearer
+than the city." He was addressing all three who stood together back of
+the counter like a trio in a comedy. The young man looked critically at
+the show goods in the show counter--the supply left by the travelling
+salesman.
+
+"Here they are, sure enough!" he exclaimed. "Just give me a half dozen
+of those plugs, and of those dry flies, and a dozen of those bobbers--"
+
+Nancy set out the boxes and the customer helped himself. He knew exactly
+what he wanted, and the girls marvelled at his quick selection of the
+fancy colored artificial minnows, the little feather flies, used to
+decoy the poor fish, and the bobbers, of which article Nancy had as
+pretty a selection as might have been in a really large shop.
+
+"You don't know what an accommodation this is," went on the young man,
+putting down a twenty dollar bill to pay for his purchases. "No, don't
+bother to put paper on the boxes," he objected, as all three attempted
+to wrap the goods. "I'll put them right in the car. You see, I'm at the
+fishing club over on the lake, and when we want supplies there we _want_
+them instantly," he concluded.
+
+And he was gone before the surprised clerks had time to realize that the
+sale had almost cleared out all the fancy tackle, and there were coming
+in at the door two elderly gentlemen, who looked exactly as if they
+would want fancy flies.
+
+One of the gentlemen poked his head in the door so comically, the girls
+all giggled.
+
+"Well!" he exclaimed. "So it _is_ a shop. Thought it might be a Sunday
+School fair and I'd get roped in," he chuckled, stepping inside
+cautiously. "Sorry, but I didn't come to buy. Can you direct me to
+Professor Sanders' office?" he asked, while politely removing his hat.
+
+"His office? Why, he hasn't any office that I know of," faltered Nancy,
+surprised at the question.
+
+"He has messages sent to the ticket office at the station," volunteered
+Ruth.
+
+"Oh, I see," replied the man, seeming to "see" more than the girls did.
+"Then, we'll go over to the station--"
+
+So saying the man backed out of the door smiling pleasantly as he
+departed.
+
+"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Nancy. "Our Disappearing Dick is going to
+have callers. I wonder if he'll perform for them?"
+
+"Those are important looking men," Isabel commented. "Did you see their
+car?"
+
+"Wasn't it fancy?" agreed Ruth. "Perhaps Sibyl will get a ride home."
+
+"I don't think you folks can be very good detectives around here," Nancy
+criticized, "or you would have found out what so many people mean by
+saying that Mr. Sanders disappears."
+
+"Now, listen," quoth Ruth, in a most confidential tone, "I don't call
+myself sensational, and in fact, people at Long Leigh generally have the
+name of minding their own business; but there is something mighty queer
+about Mr. Sanders." She paused while Nancy waited for further
+explanation. "He does _not_ live in the old gray house, for father's men
+went through the entire place the other day, he's in real-estate you
+know," she explained, "and there wasn't a thing to show that the old
+house had been opened since they inspected it last."
+
+"Couldn't he camp in the barn or somewhere outside the house?" queried
+Nancy.
+
+"No; the barn was locked up tight as tuppence," insisted Ruth. "But he
+seems to hang out somewhere on that hill, just the same," she added.
+
+"I know!" exclaimed Nancy. "He goes up in a tree with the wires and
+springs," and she sprang up and down without either. "Some day I'm going
+up there and I bet _I'll_ solve the mystery," she promised gaily.
+
+"Let us know when you're going, Nan," suggested Ruth. "We wouldn't want
+to have you swallowed up by--the fairies."
+
+"Say," whispered Isabel, her eyes set in what looked like alarm, "do you
+know, I saw a little woman come up and down our side steps a half dozen
+times this morning--"
+
+"Oh!" and Nancy laughed merrily. "That would be little Miss Manners, the
+dressmaker who lives in the tiny bungalow under our window. You see,
+Mother wouldn't really let us keep store without some supervision. She's
+pretty particular, and declares there is no telling who might pop in--"
+
+"And hold us up for our cash box--!" Ruth added so mirthfully as to
+suggest a good time in the danger.
+
+"Well, any how," continued Nancy, "Mother insists that Miss Manners look
+in quite often to see that everything is all right. She's as quiet as a
+mouse--"
+
+"I should say she is," Isabel confirmed. "In fact, I didn't want to
+frighten you or I should have told you someone was sneaking in," she
+added, folding up a tape line as she spoke.
+
+"Oh, Miss Manners is so quaint, as Vera would say," Ruth contributed,
+"that I think she ought to be a partner, if a silent partner, in the
+Whatnot Shop."
+
+"Yes," agreed Nancy, "it does seem as if this shop should belong to
+little old people like Miss Townsend, and I guess that's why Miss
+Manners is so interested. You see, girls, I'm still a very poor
+housekeeper, and our maid, Anna, won't be back until fall. After I get
+tired playing store, I suppose," and she sighed heavily, "I'll be
+expected to start in playing house."
+
+"But if you run the shop as you have done this morning," Isabel
+interposed, "don't you suppose your mother will think you're a real
+genius at business?" she inquired.
+
+"You can't fool my mother on geniuses," replied Nancy, who like her
+companions was putting away the odds and ends of things that had been
+scattered in the morning's adventure. "Mother is an expert, and she sort
+of knows--me." This last was said in a way implying a very doubtful
+compliment for Nancy. "I've been almost a genius at art, for instance.
+When I was five years old I could draw a goose with my eyes shut."
+
+"How about it when your eyes were open?" asked Ruth, quizzically.
+
+"It was usually a little fat pig, then," Nancy admitted, amid an
+outburst of girlish laughter.
+
+"Nancy," interrupted Isabel, "here's the ice cream man."
+
+"Ours," declared Nancy. "Now we'll whistle for Ted and his boys and shut
+up shop for lunch. Isabel, will you please open the side door? We'll
+take a tray over to Miss Manners and then sit down and enjoy ourselves."
+
+"Here's Ted and his friends now," announced Ruth. "They seem to know it
+is ice cream time."
+
+"That will save trouble," Nancy remarked. And presently the big sale was
+all but forgotten in preparations for the feast of ice cream, with other
+suitable summer lunch supplies.
+
+Isabel took an attractive tray over to solicitous and attentive Miss Ada
+Manners, while Nancy and Ruth attempted to satisfy the demands of Ted
+and his ice cream loving friends. The noon day was much warmer than the
+morning had indicated, and this coupled with the sale excitement, went
+far to make the little party a tremendous success, just as Mrs. Brandon
+had planned it to be.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+
+                              THE FAILURE
+
+
+The days were slipping by, and Nancy found herself entangled in a rather
+confused vacation. True, she had already reaped real benefit from the
+big sale and from the subsequent days' sales in her shop, but was it
+really being a vacation?
+
+It must be admitted that Nancy had a tendency to stubbornness, but since
+that peculiarity very often marks the first stages of a strong
+character, her mother wisely allowed her to continue to try things out
+for herself. The Whatnot Shop was not proving in any way a
+disappointment, but it was most certainly giving Nancy work, so that she
+was not free to come and go with the other girls, in spite of Miss
+Manners frequent and generous offers to "'tend store" for her.
+
+A bright spot on her calendar not very far off, was the coming of Mrs.
+Brandon's vacation. Soon she would be at home, free to do all the
+precious things a devoted mother plans to do in the little interval of
+freedom so long looked forward to and so quickly spent.
+
+"When you are home," Nancy would continually plan, "I'm going to do
+that," referring to any one of a number of things being postponed.
+
+Today it was raining; a sudden summer shower was drenching everything as
+if rain had never had such a good time before, and a charity sale, in
+which all the girls were interested, was to be held that afternoon.
+Everyone, including Nancy, expected to attend, and she with others had
+promised to donate a cake.
+
+But how it rained! And Nancy had planned to go into town to the fancy
+bakers to get her cake. Hour after hour she hoped the rain would cease,
+until it became too late for a telephone delivery, and still Nancy could
+not go out in the downpour.
+
+"If I could only bake it," she reflected, as she once more gazed
+gloomily out of the windows at the dripping world. "It's easy enough to
+bake a cake," she told herself, "and, of course, I could follow the
+recipe in mother's cook book."
+
+Still Nancy had misgivings concerning such an experiment. A cake for a
+sale should be good, of that she was certain, and for that very reason
+she had previously decided to buy one at the French Pastry Shop.
+
+"Well," she sighed, "I may as well try it. It is sure to clear up just
+when the girls are due to call for me, and I simply couldn't go without
+a cake."
+
+First locking the store, and making up her mind that no call, however
+insistent, would tempt her to leave her task, Nancy promptly set about
+baking her cake. It was no trouble to find the cook book, Mrs. Brandon
+had found a small shelf suitable for that in the open pantry. Also, the
+required ingredients were all at hand, and the creaming of the butter
+and sugar, according to the first rule, Nancy executed with something
+like skill, for she had strong young hands and the spoon in her grasp
+quickly beat the butter and sugar together in a perfectly smooth paste.
+
+[Illustration: Nancy promptly set about baking her cake.]
+
+Then she put the flour in the sieve. In doing this she made a slight
+mistake, for no pan nor plate had been placed under the sieve and
+consequently a pretty little layer of the sifted flour showered out upon
+her table before she could get a receptacle under the utensil.
+
+"I had better measure over again," Nancy decided, feeling that the
+uncertainty of guessing at the lost flour might spoil her cake. So this
+time she put in her baking powder, salt and flour, and sifted all into a
+little pudding pan. Separating the eggs, yolks from whites, was not
+quite so easily accomplished, but even that was finally managed, and now
+Nancy knew it was time to light the gas oven.
+
+Next, three-fourths of a cup of milk was added to the creamed butter and
+sugar, the egg yolks added to that and all well beaten. Then the flour
+was carefully turned in, while beating all together Nancy felt really
+elated at the prospect in sight.
+
+"I'm sure this will be fine," she was congratulating herself, "perhaps
+even better than a store cake. And I know how to make the maple
+icing--I'm glad I have done that much before, at any rate," she admitted
+ruefully.
+
+The soft yellow mixture did indeed look promising, but now came the time
+to fold in the whites of the eggs.
+
+"Fold in," repeated Nancy, somewhat puzzled. "How shall I fold it in?"
+
+She looked at the batter and she looked at the frothy egg whites. To
+fold that in would surely mean to spoil all the nice, white, snowy mound
+of froth. Nancy hated to do it, but she finally spilled it into the bowl
+full, and started to beat it all over again. The batter seemed rather
+thin and Nancy decided to add a little more flour. Just here was where
+her inexperience threatened disaster, but the trial so fascinated the
+little cook that she did a few other things not proposed by the recipe,
+but all of which seemed reasonable to her.
+
+The oven was now sizzling hot, and Nancy quickly turned her mixture into
+two tins, which she neglected to grease, and slipped them into the oven.
+With a sense of satisfaction she turned to and really cleared up all the
+utensils--something very commendable indeed in Nancy Brandon. With
+watching the clock and getting Ted's lunch set out on the little porch
+table, while she also managed somehow to start her own personal
+preparations for the afternoon, Nancy was, as she would say, kept on the
+jump.
+
+But the cake didn't burn, and she took it from the oven on the dot of
+thirty minutes.
+
+"It will have to cool, I suppose," Nancy guessed, "and while it's
+cooling I'll make the icing. It looks pretty good but it has got a lot
+of holes in it," was her rather skeptical criticism, as she inspected
+the two layers of golden pastry. But the cake, even after a thorough
+cooling which consumed more time than could be spared, would not leave
+the tins!
+
+Nancy tried a knife--that broke a great rough corner off. Then she got
+the pancake turner and slipped it under as well as she could, but alas!
+The thing actually splashed up in a regular explosion of crumbs!
+
+"Ruined!" groaned Nancy. "I can never fix that!"
+
+Her disappointment was cruel. To see a perfectly good and such a
+fragrant cake go to pieces when finished, after all the work of getting
+it that far was nothing short of a tragedy.
+
+Tears blinded Nancy Brandon.
+
+"I might have known," she sighed, "I just couldn't have such good luck
+with cooking."
+
+The rain was almost over. Ted would soon be in, but Nancy just couldn't
+help crying. It was so hard not to succeed when she had been counting so
+especially on that afternoon's fun. Perhaps she could get Ted to go to
+town for her after all. But upon serious consideration she decided
+against that plan. She simply wouldn't go now under any circumstances.
+Her eyes were red and she wanted a good cry even more than the fun of
+the sale. In fact, she couldn't help crying and she wasn't going to try.
+
+When an hour later the girls called, Ted told them what was strictly
+true. Nancy was in bed with a sick headache and she couldn't go.
+Carrying their messages of sympathy upstairs to Nancy, along with a
+plate full of broken cake and a glass of ice cold lemonade, Ted tried to
+cheer his disconsolate sister, but even then she had not discovered that
+the whole trouble was merely her neglect of greasing those cake tins.
+The cook book didn't direct so simple a thing as that and, of course,
+poor Nancy just hadn't noticed that her mother did it. She was usually
+too concerned about the remnants of cake dough being left in the bowl,
+to observe how the batter was being put in the pans.
+
+"Does it ache hard?" asked Ted, sitting beside his sister and referring
+to her head.
+
+"Yes, it does, Ted, but this lemonade is splendid."
+
+"I can make good lemonade," Ted admitted. "And your cake is swell, only
+it sticks awful. I got it out with the pie server," he told Nancy
+simply.
+
+"Yes. I couldn't get it to come off the pan at all. Well," and Nancy
+moved to get up, "I suppose I won't feel any worse down stairs. What
+color dress did Ruth have on?"
+
+To the best of his limited ability Ted described the girls' costumes and
+then, determined to drive away Nancy's blues, he started in to recite in
+detail his great experience of that morning.
+
+"Now Nan," he began, "you can say all you like, but Mr. Sanders does
+disappear. _I saw him!_"
+
+"_You_ saw him disappear!"
+
+"Yes, sure as shootin'. We were all running down the hill, trying to get
+to the station before that big shower, when I said to Tom, 'there's Mr.
+Sanders, comin' up.' He said he saw him too, and we kept on runnin',
+when I was just goin' to shout hello, and true as I tell you, Nan, there
+wasn't any Mr. Sanders anywhere in sight!"
+
+"Ted Brandon!"
+
+"Yep, that's just what I'm telling you. We all saw him go, but no one
+saw where to."
+
+And presently even the lost pleasure and the spoiled cake were soon
+forgotten in their discussion of Ted's remarkable story.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+                         THE VIRTUE OF RESOLVE
+
+
+But something had happened to Nancy. The cake failure represented to her
+much more than a simple episode, for it had suddenly summed up all the
+awful possibilities of untrained hands. It was well enough to make
+excuses, to claim business and even artistic talent, for Nancy could
+draw and color, and was among the best in her class as an art student,
+but the fact now bore down upon her with undisguised horror! She could
+not do what other girls could do. She could not even bake a cake.
+
+"And just as mother so often told me," she reflected bitterly, "it is
+not at all a question of preference but of simple, civilized living.
+What _I_ don't do and should do someone else _must_ do, and that's
+anything but fair play on my part," Nancy sadly admitted.
+
+"Aren't you going to open the store, Nan?" Ted asked her. "There's been
+someone knocking a long time and now they're going away--"
+
+"Oh, never mind," she answered indifferently, "I'm going to get tea
+ready so mother won't have to bother. She does it like an angel when I
+plead store business, but I guess, Ted, the old store--"
+
+"Isn't all it's cracked up to be," Ted helped her out rather willingly,
+for he had not, at any time, shared her enthusiasm in the little
+business venture.
+
+Nancy sighed dramatically. She was feeling rather sorry for herself and
+that is always a symptom of wounded pride. It was the same day, in early
+evening, of the picnic and cake experience, and her crying spell still
+stirred its little moisture of hurt emotions. Ted couldn't bear to see
+his sister cry, ever, and he was now all attention and sympathetic
+interest.
+
+"I wish, Nan, you'd just sell out. The store would make a swell gym, and
+we scouts need a place just like that--"
+
+"Ted Brandon! Do you think _I_ would quit just because a thing is hard!
+Why, I should think you would remember how hard mother works," she
+declared, in a sudden outburst of virtue. "And the harder it is the more
+reason to--to do it," she floundered.
+
+"Oh, yeah, sure," agreed Ted amicably. "Of course that's so. Want me to
+set table?"
+
+"Thanks, Ted, I wish you would. I'm going to try a cooked custard, I
+mean a top of the stove custard. If I can cool it by putting the dishes
+flat on the ice," Nancy reasoned aloud.
+
+"But they'll melt right through, if they're hot," Ted reminded her. "I
+know my taffy pan did--"
+
+"Well, perhaps I'd better not try it then, as it's so late," Nancy
+decided, relieved to find a genuine excuse. "Suppose we have toasted
+crackers with cheese on top? Mother always likes that and _that_ can't
+go wrong."
+
+Fortified with a new determination, Nancy went at her task, and in less
+time, much less time than she usually required, succeeded in preparing
+not only an appetizing but a really tempting meal. Ted arranged the
+crisp lettuce leaves while Nancy cut the tomatoes, which she "nested" in
+the lettuce, prettily. The toasted cheese-crackers were in the oven and
+as this was not only a favorite dish with the Brandons, but is also a
+favorite with many others, it might be well to know how Nancy prepared
+it.
+
+She buttered saltines, enough to cover the bottom of a flat pan, the pan
+usually used for "Johnnie Cake," then, on top of the cracker layer, she
+showered, plentifully thick, grated cheese; another layer of crackers
+and another shower of cheese. Next, she wet the layers with just enough
+milk to moisten the crackers. The pan was then allowed to stand long
+enough for the crackers to absorb the milk, after which the preparation
+was baked in a quick oven. A delicious brown cheese-cake was the result,
+and it "didn't go wrong."
+
+"I'm glad I can do that much, at any rate," Nancy half-complained,
+half-praised. "And Ted, you have made the table look lovely. I shall be
+so sorry when the roses are gone--"
+
+"Say Sis," broke in Ted abruptly, "you know I was telling you about how
+Mr. Sanders disappeared."
+
+"Were you?" Nancy was polishing her water glasses.
+
+"Sure, I was. When you had the headache and was crying. Don't you know?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I do remember," admitted Nancy. "But it's too foolish, Ted--"
+
+"Foolish nothing! I tell you I saw him go," Ted declared in a voice that
+admitted of no argument.
+
+"How funny!" cried Nancy. "Do _you_ really believe in that stuff, Ted?"
+she asked quizzically.
+
+"Oh, say!" Ted was too disgusted to attempt explanation. That any one
+should doubt _his_ eyes was beyond his understanding.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you," Nancy condescended. "I'm going to call on Miss
+Townsend soon, that is, mother and I are, because Miss Townsend has been
+sick, you know," she elucidated. "Then, I'm just going to ask her
+straight all about that weird story."
+
+"As if she'd tell," scoffed the boy. "Why, her own dog never left her
+house since she's been sick, if you want to know. What do you make out
+of that?"
+
+"Cute doggie," replied Nancy, now shutting off the gas stove to await
+her mother's coming. "And another thing, Ted, I wish you could see how
+that dog acts around this place."
+
+"I'm just thinking that maybe Miss Townsend is acting sick just to get
+back here," hazarded Ted. "I hope mother won't give in, if she is, for I
+like it here, don't you, Nan?"
+
+"Love it! Here's mother! Quick Ted, the ice water. There, let's hide!"
+
+The joy of a thing well done was Nancy's reward for her extra efforts.
+The little meal was indeed a credit to her, and that it gave her mother
+unmistakable pleasure was Nancy's greatest satisfaction.
+
+"I am always sure that you can do it, little girl," her mother told her,
+as they all three turned in to clear away the table things, "but I also
+know you have to find things out for yourself. How did you manage it all
+so nicely?"
+
+"Well, I didn't mean to tell you," Nancy sighed, "but I might just as
+well."
+
+"Better," chimed in Ted mischievously, as he scurried around to do his
+part in the clearing up ceremony.
+
+"All right," Nancy agreed affably. "I had better tell you, Mother. You
+see, it was the day of the sale--the church sale the girls were all
+going to. And I expected to get my cake at the French Bakery."
+
+"And you couldn't on account of the rain," Mrs. Brandon helped the
+recital along.
+
+"It never stopped for one half hour," Nancy added. "So I tried, that is
+I just _tried to make_ a cake."
+
+She drew in her lips and puckered her pretty face into a wry misgiving
+expression. Nancy was looking very pretty in her rose colored linen
+dress (the one her mother had finished off with peasant embroidery), and
+her dark eyes were agleam now with enthusiasm and interest.
+
+Frankly she told her mother the story of her spoiled cake, and how they
+all three laughed when the mother explained why it had failed--just
+because Nancy didn't know enough to grease the tins!
+
+Ted, all this time, was casting suspicious glances first at Nancy then
+at his mother. He seemed to be enjoying a secret that even his glances
+were not imparting to the others.
+
+"You may run along, Ted," his mother told him, as she always excused him
+just a little earlier than she and Nancy were prepared to finish. "I
+guess you can call your part complete. Here dear. I'll put the sweeper
+away. You run, I hear some code whistling at the side window."
+
+"All right, Mother, but I can chase the sweeper in the pantry as I go,"
+Ted offered. "But I wanted to tell you." He sidled up to his mother very
+confidentially, "I think Nancy's good and sick of the store."
+
+"Why Ted!" His mother showed complete surprise at the frank declaration.
+Nancy was not within hearing so Ted ventured further.
+
+"Yep," he continued. "I'll bet she chucks it up pretty soon, and if she
+does, Mother, could we fellers have it?" he pleaded.
+
+"You boys have it?"
+
+"Yeah; for a gym. Fine and dandy. We've got a lot of things to exercise
+with--" Nancy was back from the ice box now so Ted could say no more.
+The next moment he darted off to the boys who were calling, his own
+vociferous answer shrilling the path he made as he rushed out.
+
+Nancy remained silent for some minutes and neither did her mother seem
+inclined to talk. Mrs. Brandon put the center piece on the table and
+Nancy straightened the window shades, replaced the fruit dish on the
+little table near the cool window, and suddenly remembered to wind the
+clock.
+
+"That's Ted's business, dear," her mother reminded her. "You see, even a
+boy must get some training in these little household matters. He too
+lives in a house."
+
+"Oh, yes," agreed Nancy. "And isn't it strange that I always remember
+his part while I so often forget my own?"
+
+"No, not strange," her mother said gently. "Ted's little schedule is new
+and novel to you, therefore interesting; yours is old and monotonous to
+you, therefore irksome." Mrs. Brandon managed to get her arm
+affectionately over her daughter's shoulder. "But don't be discouraged,
+dear. You may make a star housekeeper in the end," she prophesied.
+
+"Oh dear. I'm afraid not, Mother," and Nancy sighed heavily. "It seems
+to me I get tired of everything. I thought it would be wonderful to earn
+money," she faltered, "and I suppose because I always liked to play
+store I thought it would be just as much fun to have a real store. But
+Mother," and she snuggled against the sympathetic breast, "Mother, I do
+want to help you--"
+
+"And you have," brightened Mrs. Brandon. "You have no idea what miracles
+I have worked with your extra dollars, earned in that little store."
+
+"Really, Mother?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. In fact I am thinking of taking a real vacation when my
+little two weeks come around. I had expected to do some extra work--"
+
+"In your vacation?" exclaimed Nancy. She had squatted her mother down in
+the arm chair and was herself resting on the side cushion. "Indeed, I
+should say not," she scoffed, pouting prettily.
+
+"But if we buy this little summer place, dear, we must do a lot of
+certain things," explained her mother vaguely.
+
+"Then I'm not going to get tired of the store," determined Nancy,
+suddenly.
+
+"Yet Nannie, we might do very well to rent it," suggested Mrs. Brandon.
+"A business place is worth something, you know."
+
+"Rent it? To whom?"
+
+"I think it would cure Miss Townsend of her imaginary ills, to have a
+chance to come back--"
+
+"Oh, Mother, somehow I shouldn't like to have her around," faltered
+Nancy. "She's sweet and quaint and all that," conceded Nancy, "but she
+gives one the creeps. She sort of brings ghosts along with her when she
+comes here. And her dog! Why, he'd bark us all to death if we ever let
+him in to fight with the chimney place."
+
+Mrs. Brandon laughed good-naturedly. "I've felt rather against
+considering the plan myself," she admitted, "for as you say, dear, we
+would feel like intruders with Miss Townsend established in the store.
+Well, we don't have to think about it now, at any rate," she decided.
+"Come along for a walk. I'm afraid you haven't been out much today and
+that's one thing that would really worry me, dear. I don't want you to
+stay indoors to take care of the store," her mother admonished. "We
+don't pretend to carry real necessities that people might expect to buy
+from us, and such stock as we do keep can be had at our convenience, as
+well as at theirs," she finished definitely.
+
+"You are perfectly right, Mother," Nancy answered emphatically. "And
+that's one thing I don't like about business. Everybody just thinks _we_
+are their servants, and they even become rude when I tell them I haven't
+got something they happen to want."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know. But I wouldn't worry about that. It all adds to the
+value of the lesson, you know. Just be sure you are right, keep a cool
+head and a steady hand," her mother laughed, "then, let the other folks
+lose their patience if they are foolish enough to do so. But listen,"
+she paused attentively. "Here comes Miss Manners. And she seems to be in
+trouble. I'll let her in."
+
+The little lady was indeed in trouble for her face, small and somewhat
+pinched with threatening years, showed, as she entered the room, the
+unmistakable signs of weeping.
+
+"Oh dear," she sighed brokenly, as Nancy pulled out the rocker for her,
+"I don't know why I should come to you folks, for I'm sure," she gulped
+back her interrupting sobs, "you must have troubles enough of your own.
+But I just had to talk to somebody--"
+
+"Talk away," replied Nancy's mother cheerily. "You know that is the best
+way to conquer one's own troubles--to attack them with the troubles of
+someone else."
+
+"Maybe that's so," replied Miss Manners, brushing back a stray strand of
+her graying hair, "but I don't just see how that is going to help me,"
+she faltered.
+
+"Tell us yours," urged Nancy, "and then we will be better able to
+judge." Nancy sat back in her own chair, quite prepared now for a new
+chapter in the current events of Long Leigh.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+
+                            BEHIND THE CLOUD
+
+
+Poor little Miss Manners! Hers had been a brave struggle, and as Nancy
+and her mother listened to the brokenly told story, they were easily
+ready to pardon the little lady's show of emotion.
+
+"So you were worried about your rent, principally?" Mrs. Brandon
+prompted her, kindly.
+
+"Yes. You see when I had to give up teaching on account of my health, I
+naturally turned to sewing," she explained. "If I had only been a
+teacher in a public school, instead of a private school, I shouldn't
+have been left without some means," she complained, sorrowfully.
+
+Nancy was watching her in silent contemplation. What a "sweet" little
+woman she was. The type always called little and sometimes referred to
+as "sweet" because of that indefinable quality usually associated with
+flowers.
+
+"You should not have worried so," Mrs. Brandon assured her. "You have
+done a great deal for us--I never could have left the children here
+alone without feeling sure of your watchful kindness, you know."
+
+"Now Mrs. Brandon," said Miss Manners, in a rather dictatorial tone, "I
+have done nothing at all for you, and I want to assure you that Nancy
+and Ted require very--little--watching."
+
+"And I want to say," spoke up Nancy, "that Miss Manners is the very
+nicest kind of a watch--a watch-woman," she laughed. "We never hear or
+see her when, perhaps, we are noisy and--and rackety."
+
+"I was afraid," continued Miss Manners, without apparently heeding
+Nancy's intended compliment, "that you might have been alarmed about the
+silly stories current around here. I mean, that especially about Mr.
+Sanders."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Brandon encouragingly. "We have heard queer tales of
+his remarkable powers, but I can't say they have alarmed us, Miss
+Manners."
+
+"You have too much sense, I'm sure, for that," she conceded. "But when
+one comes into a strange place and hears such stories, especially, when
+they have something to do with this little place--"
+
+"What could they have to do with _this_ place?" Nancy questioned
+sharply. "Surely, he doesn't do any disappearing around here."
+
+Both the older folks laughed at that.
+
+"No, not exactly," replied Miss Manners, "but you see, they say he
+influenced old Mr. Townsend until he spent his own and his sister's
+money. But for my part," she hurried to add, "I could never believe that
+Mr. Sanders is anything but a perfectly upright gentleman, and in no way
+responsible for the sad state of the Townsends' business affairs."
+
+"Then _you_ don't believe any of the stories about him, do you?" pressed
+Nancy. "Even Ted insists he saw him--fade away."
+
+The little woman, who seemed for the moment to have forgotten her
+troubles, looked from mother to daughter. It was so easy to interpret
+her thoughts. She was measuring Nancy's courage.
+
+"Oh, you don't need to be afraid of frightening me, Miss Manners," Nancy
+assured her, "I'm only waiting for a chance to investigate the
+disappearing story. I've been so sure _I_ could solve the mystery, that
+the girls will soon be calling me a boaster if I don't start out to do
+something. What do you think, really, Miss Manners?" she pressed
+further.
+
+"Well, I hate to say so, but I can't deny there is something curious
+about Mr. Sanders. I have often watched him around this house, when he
+and Mr. Townsend were such friends, and really," she paused as if the
+admission were most distasteful to her, "I must say, the way those two
+men ran around the house--"
+
+"Ran around! Those two old men!" cried Nancy, sitting up very straight
+in sudden interest.
+
+"Yes, actually. I mean out of doors, of course," Miss Manners explained.
+"But they would first fuss around the outside chimney--you know the
+mason work runs to the ground on my side of this house, I mean the side
+next to my bungalow," she emphasized, "and there is an old-fashioned
+opening there. I suppose they used to take ashes out that way when they
+used the old grate fires."
+
+"Oh, I know!" cried Nancy excitedly. "That's why Miss Townsend's dog
+made such a fuss over the fireplace in the store!"
+
+"Yes. They always had Tiny with them and the dog seemed as--crazy as the
+men," Miss Manners remarked.
+
+"Don't you suppose they were working at something?" Mrs. Brandon
+suggested, sensibly.
+
+"I did think so, of course; but Miss Townsend seemed to fear all sorts
+of things; yet she never would put her fears into sensible words," Miss
+Manners told them curiously.
+
+"But how could that be connected with the foolish story of Mr. Sander's
+disappearing trick?" Mrs. Brandon wanted to know.
+
+"You see, it was all so unusual--I mean Mr. Sanders coming in here a
+stranger, and not living any place that folks could find out. Then, when
+he came down to Mr. Townsend here, got him all excited over some secret,
+got him to draw his money from the bank, and finally worked poor Miss
+Townsend into a state of nervous breakdown, why, naturally the people
+around suspected almost everything--even to calling him a magician,"
+Miss Manners said, with a timid little smile.
+
+"I couldn't give credence to any of it," replied Mrs. Brandon decidedly.
+"I have met Mr. Sanders and share your opinion; that he is a perfect
+gentleman."
+
+"Well, I've talked a long way from my own story haven't I?" Miss Manners
+sighed again, as she blinked against impelling thoughts. "You see, I
+have no friends at hand, and when I did so large an order of hand-made
+handkerchiefs--it took me months to do them--I depended upon that money
+for the summer. But the lady I made them for was called hurriedly
+abroad, on account of the sudden illness of her husband, and she never
+gave a thought to my precious twenty-five dollars," the little lady
+sighed ruefully.
+
+"She went away and owed you all that money!" Nancy exclaimed. "However
+could she have forgotten?"
+
+"My dear child, we are all selfish when in trouble I suppose," said Miss
+Manners charitably. "But I did fully expect to hear from her before
+this, and my next rent will be due in three days. I just came in to
+consult with you, not to borrow. I wondered if you knew of anything I
+could do--"
+
+"Certainly I do," Nancy almost shouted. "You can start a little private
+school, a class in domestic science right in my--in our store," she
+exclaimed. "I know at least a half dozen girls who will be glad to take
+a month's course, and we'll all pay you in advance. They always do in
+private schools!"
+
+The women both appeared speechless as Nancy rattled on. The idea was
+plainly fascinating. A domestic science class for the girls who hated
+housework, as Nancy did! How much better than idling an entire vacation!
+
+"Why, I just wonder--"
+
+"You needn't wonder, Mother," Nancy interrupted, "I tell you, it's just
+perfectly wonderful, the idea, I mean. I'll learn, I'll learn, I'll
+learn," she chanted, "and then maybe I'll find out a pleasant way--"
+
+"You are right, daughter," spoke up Mrs. Brandon. "When you learn to do
+things as they should be done, you will find the work interesting. I
+have been sorry, Miss Manners, that my home has had to get along without
+a great deal of my time," she turned to her visitor, "as you know I have
+had to attend business and leave things to my maid. For, after all," she
+said evenly, "only a mother can teach a daughter, and I have not been
+with Nancy long enough--"
+
+"You have too, Mumsey, and it's all my very own fault," Nancy confessed.
+"You often showed me how to do things, and you always told me I would
+have to pick things up when I threw them down, but I just didn't care. I
+didn't think it made any difference." Nancy was actually joyous in her
+confession, showing the positive relief one is apt to experience when
+the mind is suddenly freed from a heavy weight.
+
+"I really think Nancy's idea is a good one," said Mrs. Brandon. "There
+is no real reason why you should be tucked away next door to us when we
+need you in here, and we've got more room than we know what to do with."
+
+"Oh, joy!" Nancy was positively dancing now. "We can have Manny in here
+with us all the time? May I call you Manny?" she asked. "It's the cutest
+name."
+
+"That's queer," replied the little lady, a soft color showing through
+her pale skin. "My girls at Raleigh always called me--Manny--"
+
+Then the plans were unfolded, and such plans as they were!
+
+"I feel like a fairy with a magic wand" declared Nancy. "My little store
+is just like--a magic carpet or something."
+
+"But I don't want to impose--" Miss Manners began.
+
+"You're a positive blessing," Nancy insisted. "The only trouble is--we
+can't learn sleuthing in your class and I've just got to find out Mr.
+Sanders' secret before I'm many days older. I honestly think, Mother,
+the idea of that foolish story going around without anyone--running it
+down, as Ted would say, is getting on my nerves."
+
+And every one enjoyed a good laugh at the idea of Nancy Brandon having
+nerves.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+                          A PLEASANT SURPRISE
+
+
+It was all very exciting, but Nancy didn't want to think that she was
+really glad to get rid of her precious Whatnot Shop. Ted openly declared
+"he told her so," as boys will, but she politely drew his attention to
+the fact that she had fulfilled her contract, that she had earned money,
+quite a lot of money, in fact, and in now turning the shop over to Miss
+Manners she was following her mother's advice.
+
+It was a few days later than that evening when she and her mother
+offered the use of the shop to the little seamstress, and now they were
+preparing to call on Miss Townsend.
+
+"Suppose she says _she_ wants it back," faltered Nancy, just patting her
+dark hair back into the desired soft little bumps. "What would we say,
+Mother, if she just begged us to let her have it?"
+
+"Why dear, we could let her have a part of it, perhaps. She could come
+in and sell out what little stock you have, while Miss Manners is
+getting ready for her class."
+
+"Oh, but," pouted Nancy, "I would just hate to have her do that. If you
+ever saw the way she snooped around, Mother. And the way that dog
+acted!" Nancy's manner was very decidedly one of opposition to Miss
+Townsend and her dog.
+
+"Well, come along, dear," her mother urged, "we must not stay late. I
+have some notes to write up and I don't want to lose sleep over them."
+
+Whatever else bothered Nancy Brandon, an evening's walk through the
+country roads of Long Leigh, in a beautiful summer twilight with her arm
+locked tightly in her mother's, was balm enough to soothe and heal every
+slightest hurt and anxiety.
+
+"Mother-love," she actually cooed, in the softest little voice she could
+command, "I just love it tonight, don't you?"
+
+"Perfect," replied the happy mother, pressing lovingly upon the
+imprisoned arm. "And I am so glad, daughter-love, that you want to give
+up your business." There was a humorous little twist given to that last
+word, for Nancy's business was and had been something of a practical
+joke among the Brandons.
+
+"Let's walk around the old house," suggested Nancy, for they were at a
+fork in the road and needed to choose a way to Miss Townsend's. "Then,
+maybe we will discover something about Mr. Sanders' quarters."
+
+But just as they were about to turn into the lane that led past the old
+stone house, Ted hailed them from the hilltop.
+
+He wanted to know where they were going. He wanted to know if he could
+go along, and as they managed to make signs that gave at least a
+negative answer to this last request, they found themselves on the open
+road, walking directly away from the old stone house.
+
+"We won't be long, Ted," his mother assured him, as he reached them,
+"and you can, if you want to, go over to Norton Duncan's. We will give
+you a call as we come back, and then we will all go home together. The
+side door key is in the regular place though, if you would rather go
+home--"
+
+"Oh, no I wouldn't. I'll stay out 'til nine, and Nort and I'll practice
+drill," proclaimed Ted. "We're going to have a regular test drill soon,
+and he's my partner."
+
+This being a satisfactory arrangement, Ted went to Nort's while Nancy
+and her mother continued on to the little country hotel, where the
+Townsends had taken up their abode.
+
+"I do hope," murmured Nancy, "that she won't upset our plans. I just
+can't see, Mother, why you bother about her at all," she complained.
+
+"The place is ours for this summer to do as we please with it, Nancy,"
+her mother replied, "but just the same, it is a little business courtesy
+to show to Miss Townsend. We have the option on the place, and I fully
+intend to buy it, but the shop was so dear to Miss Townsend's heart,
+that I feel we ought to, at least, tell her what we plan to do for the
+month."
+
+"You're so, generous, Mother," sighed Nancy. "I wish _I_ were more like
+you."
+
+Her mother smiled and squeezed the young hand that rested so confidently
+upon her own arm.
+
+"Don't worry, dear," she answered. "You know what dear grandma always
+said when you got into little troubles?"
+
+"Yes," replied Nancy, "that my heart was in the right place if my head
+was a little shaky."
+
+"Yes, that's it. And don't we miss grandma? She might just as well come
+out here with us, but I was afraid of bringing her to the old-fashioned
+little house. Well, here we are at our hotel," Mrs. Brandon broke off,
+as they came in sight of the long white building, with its unmistakable
+hotel piazza.
+
+In the row of rockers on the porch sat a row of men on one side and
+almost a row of women, or "ladies" on the other. Country folks, with a
+few city interlopers, composed the patronage of the Waterfall House, it
+was quite evident.
+
+Nancy and her mother smiled at the faces and half-greeted them, as they
+passed into the office, and after asking for Miss Townsend's rooms,
+followed the boy along the red carpeted hall, and up a stairs carpeted
+with what once had been red. They journeyed on until they reached a
+little turn in the second hall. Before this their guide halted and
+pointed out a door that bore the number twenty-seven.
+
+Nancy's heart would have jumped a little apprehensively had it been a
+less healthy young heart, but as it was, she merely kept very close to
+her mother until the boy turned on his heel and whistled a returning
+tune.
+
+"Maybe she's sick in bed," Nancy was thinking, just as the door was
+opened in response to her mother's knock.
+
+"Why! Mrs. Brandon!" she heard a voice exclaim. "And Nancy!" as Miss
+Townsend bowed them in. "How glad I am to see you! Do come right in.
+Here, take this chair, it's so comfortable. Nancy, sit by the window,"
+she was pushing a chair over to the girl, "and you can see the people
+passing. Well, I can't tell you how glad I am to see you both."
+
+Nancy was so surprised she almost exclaimed aloud. There was the "sick"
+Miss Townsend fairly beaming, in, what surely looked like, very good
+health. The little dog was frisking around and Nancy had scarcely seated
+herself in the chair by the window when he pounced up on her lap, and
+after "kissing her" several times, finally subsided into a small, brown,
+woolly ball, cuddled into a little nest formed from the soft folds of
+Nancy's blue voile skirt.
+
+"I'm so glad to see you are better, Miss Townsend," Mrs. Brandon
+presently said. "You have been ill, we heard."
+
+"Yes indeed, but I'm better now, really a new woman, you might say," and
+Miss Townsend now seated herself comfortably on the small green sofa
+near them. "But it was just worry. Worry is a pretty bad ailment, isn't
+it?" she asked, smiling a contradiction to anything like worry affecting
+her just then.
+
+"You are real cozy here," Mrs. Brandon ventured.
+
+"Yes, it's quite pleasant, but I've just come back from a trip to the
+sea shore. I guess that is what helped me most," conceded Miss Townsend.
+
+Like Nancy, Mrs. Brandon also, was much surprised at Miss Townsend's
+exuberant spirits. It was perfectly plain that some good fortune had
+befallen the lady since she had paid that mournful visit to Nancy.
+
+"You see," she began, as if in answer to their unmasked questions, "our
+business affairs are being all straightened out and Brother Elmer is
+getting back the money he loaned. Of course I didn't understand, and it
+is one of those affairs a woman isn't supposed to understand." This was
+said in that sort of tone that conveys deep and mysterious meaning.
+
+"I'm awfully glad of that," Mrs. Brandon assured the woman in her brand
+new heliotrope one piece dress. It was quite modish, indeed, and without
+question, very becoming to Miss Townsend.
+
+"Oh, yes," went on the hostess, "I was so worried for a long time. You
+see, I really couldn't have faith in a business deal that I was not
+privileged to know the details of. I have been a business woman all my
+life," she insisted, "and I'm not afraid to tackle any business deal,"
+at this she dangled her amethyst beads self-consciously. "But Elmer and
+Mr. Sanders!" Her hands went up protestingly. "They just used every
+dollar. Well--" she broke off suddenly, "it's all right now, so why
+should I fuss about it. You didn't come to hear of my troubles, I'm
+sure."
+
+At this point Mrs. Brandon divulged the real purpose of her visit. Nancy
+was having a great time with Tiny. He was awake now and evidently eager
+to show off. He stood up and begged, jumped down and "prayed" and
+otherwise disported himself most wonderfully. The distraction afforded
+Nancy a welcome chance to sit aside and take little or no part in the
+elder's conversation, but she was, as Ted would have said, "all ears to
+it."
+
+"Why, I think that's a perfectly splendid idea," she heard Miss Townsend
+say, in reference to the plan of giving the store over to Miss Manners.
+"And I must say you are very generous, Mrs. Brandon," she complimented.
+"As a matter of fact, fancy-store business is not what it used to be.
+More folks now take to the mail order plan, especially in winter. Why,
+there were months when I didn't see the color of a 'green back' in that
+place," she admitted. "Yet, I couldn't help loving the old place. I had
+been in it so long," she concluded earnestly.
+
+"I met Mr. Sanders' daughter, Miss Townsend," Nancy spoke up, determined
+to bring up that subject, "and I think she's a perfectly splendid girl."
+
+"Isn't she though! But she couldn't help but be smart with such a
+father." This last little speech was indeed a compliment to the absent
+Mr. Sanders.
+
+"But where does he live?" demanded Nancy, without any attempt to cloak
+her question with indifference.
+
+"Live? Why, my dear child, he lives here! Just moved in, and I do
+declare, the man needs some comfort after all he's been through. If
+Elmer comes in before you go I'll have him bring Mr. Sanders in. We are
+all the best of friends now," declared the incomprehensible little woman
+on the green velour sofa.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+
+                            TALKING IT OVER
+
+
+"You haven't really sold out?" Ruth demanded incredulously.
+
+"Going, going, going, gone!" sang back Nancy. "Manny is a wonder. She
+just sells and goes on with her preparations, and girls, when my store
+is all cleaned out I wouldn't wonder but we'll have a model class room,
+instead of the Whatnot Shop." Nancy was flitting around like some full
+grown elf. The three girls, Isabel was with them, were out on the broad
+sloping grounds surrounding Ruth's home, and it was perfectly plain that
+Nancy was already enjoying her freedom from business.
+
+"I think it's splendid," Isabel joined in. "We took millinery last
+August, you know, so we don't want any more hat making. Mother is simply
+thrilled, as Vera would say, and you know, Nan, Vera is due back
+Tuesday. I guess the stores ran out of post cards and she couldn't live
+at Beverly without cards. I've got enough of mine to paper our attic
+room."
+
+"And you'd never guess," enthused Nancy, "that salesman who came in with
+the fishing tackle for our big sale, you know, is going to send Manny a
+gas range! Just think of it, a gas range for us to use, to practice
+cooking on."
+
+"For nothing?" Ruth inquired.
+
+"For the advertising. It seems, a demonstrator for a special line of gas
+ranges used to go to Raleigh, that's Manny's old school, and, of course,
+when the salesman came in to sell and _we_ weren't buying," she was
+drawling her words to assume an imposing air, "of course," she
+continued, "he became deeply interested in our plans, and at once
+offered to send his friend, the lady demonstrator, out to make plans
+with Manny."
+
+"And we're to be demonstrated," chimed in Isabel, imitating Nancy's
+twang. "I choose pie. I want my picture 'took' curling the edge of a
+lemon meringue," and she executed a few very 'curly' steps to
+illustrate.
+
+There was no denying it. Nancy was happy on these the first days of her
+real vacation. It had been splendid, of course, to have twenty-five
+dollars of her very own to offer to advance Miss Manners, to clear up
+the rent worry, but the store had not been all fun, she was willing to
+admit that.
+
+"And do you know, girls," Nancy confided, "we, mother and I, had some
+doubts about the way Miss Townsend would take the news? Do sit down,
+Belle," she broke off. "How can I tell a story while you're doing
+hand-springs?"
+
+"These are flip-flaps," insisted Isabel. "Just watch this one."
+
+She was leaning with both hands on a long low bench, and the "flip"
+consisted of a violent spring of both feet from the ground. After
+bringing the feet down again with the unavoidable jerk, she performed
+the "flop" by pivoting around until she sat on the bench and stuck both
+her feet out straight in front of her.
+
+"It's very pretty," commented Nancy. "But if you want to hear my story
+you have got to flop. I insist upon a sitting audience."
+
+This demand restored comparative quiet and Nancy continued with her
+narrative.
+
+"I was telling you about Miss Townsend," she went on. "You just should
+see that lady. She's all 'set up.' We understood she was a nervous
+wreck--"
+
+"She was," interrupted Ruth, "but I heard mother say her brother's
+business affairs are being mysteriously adjusted. Maybe that's why she
+has become rejuvenated."
+
+"Yes, that's exactly it," snapped Nancy. "And how the great, grand trick
+worked is one of the stories we have missed. I never saw such a place as
+Long Leigh for floating stories that no one can explain. Miss Townsend
+talked all around her good luck, but never touched it. Of course, I
+couldn't be so rude--"
+
+"Of course _you_ couldn't," mocked Isabel.
+
+"Just the same," retorted Nancy, "I did ask right out straight, without
+hint or apology, where--Mr. Sanders lived."
+
+"And you got snubbed for your pains," flung in Ruth.
+
+"Nothing of the kind, I became informed for my pains," asserted Nancy.
+
+"Land sakes tell us!" pleaded Isabel. "First thing you know I'll hear
+our car, and miss the--mystery."
+
+"Well," began Nancy, deliberately and provokingly, "I asked her: 'Where
+does Mr. Sanders live?' And just as I was gulping hard to control my
+emoting emotions, Miss Townsend shook her necklace like a dinner bell,
+and said softly--"
+
+Nancy paused. The girls were threatening to throw her over the bench
+into the flower bed but she seemed about ready to divulge the secret, so
+presently they desisted.
+
+"Well," she said, "Miss Townsend answered, 'Mr. Sanders lives right here
+in this hotel. He moved in yesterday and the poor man needed the change
+after all he's been through.' Now girls," pouted Nancy, "did you ever
+see anything as mean as that? Just when I'm free to dig up the wild and
+woolly mystery, our hero goes and rents a room in the Waterfall House,"
+and she affected a pose intended to excite pity, but in reality causing
+mirth.
+
+"I see it all!" cried Isabel, jumping up on the bench and laying a
+sprawled hand over the heart location. "All, girls, all." Her voice was
+droning like a school boy reciting the Charge of the Light Brigade.
+"What happened was this!"
+
+"This!" interrupted Ruth, pinching Isabel's ankles until she literally
+fell from her perch.
+
+"Whow!" yelled Isabel. "Can't one elocute without being plucked by cruel
+hands? I tell you, girls, we have lost a lot of fun in not keeping up
+with our little brothers." This was said in a very different and quite
+serious tone. "If you were to ask Ted, Nancy, very confidentially, what
+is or was the secret of the hidden treasure place, I'm almost sure he
+would tell you. He _knows_!" she declared loudly, "and so does my
+brother Gerard know, but _he_ won't tell me."
+
+"Then it is or was a question of hiding a treasure," reflected Nancy.
+"I'm so sorry it is only that. I perfectly hate treasure mysteries,
+they're so horribly common. I had in mind some sort of great, grand,
+spooky, now-you-see-me and now-you-don't trick. That would have been
+heaps more fun than just the old hidden treasure business. Well, at any
+rate, _we_ seem to have missed it, for Mr. Sanders is really living at
+the hotel," she wound up finally.
+
+"Is that any reason why we shouldn't find out the secret?" demanded
+Ruth. "It seems to me we would be better able to do so, now that every
+one else has suddenly grown rich, and there's no more danger of getting
+folks into trouble by prying into their business. I just wish Sibyl
+Sanders would come up again. I fancy she would be just tickled to tell
+us the whole thing," declared Ruth.
+
+"I must trot along," Nancy suddenly announced. "And girls, please don't
+forget about the first lesson in domestic science, to be held at the
+residence of--"
+
+A loud and insistent honking of a motor horn interrupted Nancy's
+flattering announcement, and presently all three girls were scampering
+down to the roadside to pile into Gerard's Duryea car, for Isabel's
+brother was taking them for a ride into town, ostensibly to do some
+important family errands, but really to have one of those unplanned
+jolly times that go to make up the happy summer time.
+
+"I must be back by five," warned Nancy. But her companions only pushed
+her back further in the over crowded car-seat as they sailed along.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+                              JUST FISHING
+
+
+Some days later the Whatnot Shop was being dismantled, that is the
+shelves were being treated to a great clearing off, and the
+old-fashioned glass cases were being lined with white oilcloth,
+preparatory to Miss Manners' Domestic Science Class storing their
+samples of food therein.
+
+Gradually Nancy's sense of honor was coming back into its own, for not
+only her mother but also her girl friends were constantly reassuring
+her.
+
+"There's nothing small nor frivolous about changing one's mind for the
+better," they told her. "In fact," said the mother, "that one is willing
+to do so, is very often a mark of progress. If we didn't change our
+minds how could we grow wiser?"
+
+"But I thought I'd just love business," Nancy complained. "I was crazy
+to keep store and now I'm crazy to start something else."
+
+"Which is perfectly normal and entirely reasonable for any healthy young
+girl," her mother insisted. "Can you imagine girls being as staid and as
+old fashioned as their mothers?"
+
+"Moth-thur!" Nancy sort of moaned, "If ever I could be as _new_
+fashioned as my mother I shouldn't mind how old nor how young I might
+be. And you are a love not to scold me. I know you are glad to see Manny
+so happy setting-up her school, and I know you will be better satisfied
+to have her there, facing the fierce public, than allowing me to do so.
+Not that I had any trouble with the dear public," Nancy mocked. "And not
+that Brother Ted wasn't always within a few miles call if I needed him.
+But, at any rate, Mums, I did make some real money, didn't I?" she
+cooed, quite birdlike for Nancy.
+
+A clean little, yellow bankbook was offered for evidence by Mrs. Brandon
+at this question, for being a business woman, she knew the value of
+personal interest in every part of a business undertaking, and so, early
+in the experiment, she had brought Nancy into the City Bank and there
+attended to the formalities of opening her bank account.
+
+"Mother, you keep the book, please," Nancy begged just now, as Mrs.
+Brandon offered it to her. "I know I ought to be very careful and not
+forget where I put things, but somehow I do. And I would hate to lose
+that precious book," she murmured, touching her mother's cheek with her
+lips as she made the appeal.
+
+"Very well, daughter," Mrs. Brandon conceded, "but you simply must learn
+to remember, and the way to do that is think of a thing as you do it,"
+she advised.
+
+Nancy was, however, already improving in such matters. Being obliged to
+find things for herself, instead of calling out to Anna, the maid, as
+she had been in the habit of doing, was teaching a lesson that words had
+never been able to convey to her.
+
+It now lacked but three days of the opening of the class, and in these
+days Nancy and Ted were planning to have a great time fishing,
+exploring, and hunting. By "hunting" they meant looking for Indian
+relics along the river bank, for Ted insisted there really were such
+articles to be found there, if one were only patient enough in the
+search.
+
+This was the day set for fishing, and Ted was just now coming up to the
+back door with a tin can slung on a string, and that, in turn, was slung
+over his shoulder on a pole.
+
+"Got lots of them!" he called out. "Nice fat ones, too. We can catch big
+fish with such worms as these," and he set down the outfit to display
+his freshly dug bait.
+
+"Well, I'm not going to put them on the hook," protested Nancy. "I don't
+mind handling the slippery little things, but I can't murder them.
+You'll have to bait my hook, Ted, if you want me to go," she insisted.
+
+"Oh, all right," growled Ted, merely pretending to protest, but really
+just showing his boyish contempt for such girlish whims. "I'll put them
+on for you. But do hurry, Nan," he urged. "This is a dandy morning to
+fish. Hardly any sun at all."
+
+Calling good-bye to Miss Manners, who, even, this early, was at work in
+the store, Nancy was soon ready to start off with her brother on the
+fishing trip. She was clad in her oldest gingham, and wore her most
+battered big straw hat, nevertheless she looked quite picturesque, if
+not really pretty even in this rough attire; for Nancy was ever a
+striking looking girl.
+
+"Think we ought to take your old express wagon, Ted?" she asked,
+jokingly.
+
+"What for?" demanded the boy in surprise.
+
+"To carry them home in," laughed Nancy. But even then Ted didn't see the
+joke.
+
+Presently they were trudging along the heavily shaded road that wound in
+and out around Bird's Woods until it would stretch along side Oak's
+Pond, where the fishing was to be done.
+
+"It's fine to have you come, Nan," remarked the boy, wagging his bare
+head and slapping his fish bag against his bare legs. Ted was wearing
+old clothes himself, and his trousers had not been trimmed any too
+evenly, for one leg ended above the knee and the other leg ended below
+the other knee. But he looked about right as a fisher-boy, his cheeks
+well tanned, his brown eyes sparkling and his browner hair doing pretty
+much as it pleased all over his head.
+
+"I'm mighty glad to come, Ted," Nancy was saying in reply to his gentle
+little compliment. "It is great to be off all by ourselves, although, of
+course, I have good enough times with the girls," she amended, loyally.
+
+"Me too," added Ted, "I have lots of sport with the fellows but this is
+better," he concluded, as Ted would.
+
+Arrived at a spot where the pond dug into a soft green bank, rounding
+into a beautiful semi-circular basin, brother and sister there camped.
+Ted insisted that Nancy take the choicest seat, a smooth spot on the big
+tree that must have been felled years before, and which had found
+comfortable quarters on the edge of the jolly little stream. Sympathetic
+ferns stretched their soft green fronds along the sides of the naked
+wood, as if they wanted to supply the fallen tree with some of the
+verdure of which it had been cruelly bereft, and even a gay, flowering
+swamp lily, that wonderful flaming flower that holds its chalice above
+all other wood blooms, bent just a little toward the one branch of that
+tree that still clung to the parent trunk.
+
+Nancy squatted down expectantly. Ted had baited her hook and she was now
+casting out her line in the smooth, mysterious stream, clear enough on
+the surface, but darker than night beneath. She had removed her "sneaks"
+and stockings, so that she might enjoy the freedom of dipping her toes
+into the little ripples that played around the log.
+
+"I don't care whether I catch anything or not," she remarked, "it's
+lovely just to sit here and fish."
+
+"We'll catch, all right," Ted assured her. "This is a great place for
+fish--regular nest of them in under these rocks." He shifted a little on
+his perch, which was on a live tree that leaned out of the stream.
+
+Presently Nancy developed a song from the tune she had been humming:
+
+"Singing eyly-eely-ho! Eyly-eely-ho!"
+
+"Got to keep quiet when you fish," Ted interrupted her.
+
+"All right," agreed Nancy affably. "But that tune has been simmering all
+day and I just had to let it light up. Say Ted," she began all over
+again, "did you hear about your friend, Mr. Sanders, getting rich?"
+
+"Rich? I'm glad of it. He's all right," the boy declared, flipping his
+line to a new spot.
+
+"Yep-py, rich," Nancy repeated. "He's living at the hotel."
+
+"Oh, I knew that," scoffed the boy, airily.
+
+"Did you? Then why didn't you tell me?"
+
+"Secret," snapped Ted, shutting his lips with a snap that even a
+venturesome fish might have heard.
+
+"And the Townsends--they are quite prosperous too," Nancy pressed
+further.
+
+"Ye-ah." Ted was not encouraging the confidence.
+
+For a few moments neither of them spoke again. Then Nancy's line began
+to draw, to pull out into a straight line.
+
+"Easy!" whispered Ted. "You've got a bite! Don't yank it. Wait until
+he's on, good and tight!"
+
+They waited, breathless. Then Ted, the experienced, gave the signal, and
+Nancy, the amateur, drew very gently on her pole. Up, up, but still
+under water, until suddenly the water surface freed the capture, and
+something black, shiny, snaky, dangled violently from the upheld line!
+
+"Oh, Ted, quick! It's a snake! Look a snake!" cried Nancy, getting to
+her feet finally, after slipping several times on the smooth log.
+
+"Look out," yelled Ted, for the black slimy thing dangling on Nancy's
+line seemed to be making directly for her face, as it swung back and
+forth and darted violently toward the shore.
+
+"Oh-h-h-h-h!" Nancy screamed. "He's going for--" But she was taking no
+further chances, instead, she flung her pole, line and hook and catch,
+as far from her as a single fling could send it. The pole floated
+contentedly but the slimy thing was again hidden in its beloved waters,
+although it must have still been impaled upon the tortuous hook.
+
+Ted looked a moment at the lost outfit.
+
+"Nancy," he said gloomily. "You're crazy. That was a fine, fat eel, and
+they're hard to catch that way. And look at--your--pole."
+
+"I'll get it," decided the surprised girl, instantly slipping down from
+the log and leaning out over the stream.
+
+"Don't!" yelled Ted. But the warning was given too late, for as Nancy
+stepped on what seemed to be grass, she found herself thrust into the
+water, deep enough to frighten her of something worse than a snake.
+
+"Oh!" she yelled again. "I've got to swim out, I'll smother in the bog
+if--I--don't." And so saying she flung her body free from the deep
+marsh-grass, and struck out in an emergency stroke toward the open
+stream.
+
+"Go up to the cove!" Ted yelled. "Just around that pine tree! I'll meet
+you there!"
+
+The light clothing she wore was not much more cumbersome than some
+bathing suits are often found to be, so that Nancy, a capable swimmer,
+was now pulling surely toward the cove, while Ted was racing, as best he
+could in the heavy undergrowth to meet her as she would land.
+
+But just as Nancy turned in to a clear little corner to make her
+landing, she heard a muffled call.
+
+"Help! Help!" came the indistinct cry.
+
+Ted was abreast of her and he too heard the call.
+
+"It's over in the sand dunes," he yelled, as Nancy stepped ashore and
+shook some of the heavy water from her clothing. "Quick, Nancy, the
+fellows went to play Indian there!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+
+                              THE CAVE-IN
+
+
+There was no time to think of wet garments as Nancy raced after Ted
+toward the sand dunes.
+
+"Quick," he urged. "They're the little fellows, Billy and Jack, and they
+must be under the sand."
+
+Just beyond the trees and undergrowth that surrounds Oak's Pond, a
+stretch of sand hills offered the youngsters an ideal playground. A few
+scrubby pines managed to draw from the dry soil enough vitality for a
+very much impoverished growth, and it was from the direction of the
+trees that the feeble call was now heard, at protracted intervals.
+
+"There!" pointed out Ted. "There's the shack. They must be in a cave-in
+near it."
+
+His surmise proved correct, for quickly as brother and sister could
+reach the spot, they found every evidence of a cave-in and a sand
+deluge.
+
+"We're here," Ted called. "That you Billy?"
+
+"Oh, yeah," came a pitiful little squeak. "We're smoth-rin' to death.
+Quick--please--quick."
+
+"There's a board," Ted ordered, at once taking charge of the rescue.
+"You can dig with that, Nan. I'll dig with my hands."
+
+Exactly like a very eager dog that digs with all fours when he wants to
+get in or out of a pit, Ted went to work. The light sand flew in clouds
+as he pawed and kicked, so that compared with his efforts Nancy's
+board-shovelling seemed provokingly slow.
+
+"Oh, this is no good!" she finally burst out. "I can do that, too," and
+without a thought but for the rescue, Nancy dropped to the position Ted
+was working in, and was soon digging and kicking until her clouds of
+sand rivalled his.
+
+"Oh! Oh!" came repeated calls and groans. "We--can't--breathe. Move the
+board! It's pressing--"
+
+"We're coming. We're coming," Nancy called back. "Don't get frightened;
+you can't smother now."
+
+But it was not easy to reach the imprisoned youngsters, for a collapsed
+sand hill is as slippery to control as a rushing water fall. Every time
+the rescuers thought themselves within reach of a board, an avalanche of
+sand would tumble upon it and bury the end they tried to grasp.
+
+At last Nancy grabbed hold of a big stick that protruded from the hill.
+
+"Here Ted," she called. "Get this! It's under a board--"
+
+Raising the stick carefully they did, at last, lay hold of one of the
+collapsed boards, the "roof" under which the youngsters had been caught.
+
+"Care-ful," warned Ted. "Raise it! Don't pull it out!"
+
+It was heavy, for sand pressed itself into great weight, in spite of its
+infinitesimal atoms. At last the rescuers were able, with care and
+skill, to raise the board, then another, until finally the bare feet of
+two small badly frightened boys, led directly to the entire persons of
+the same little victims.
+
+"Oh my! Mercy me!" gasped Nancy. "They do look awful, Ted! Quick let's
+get them water!"
+
+"Jack is the worst," replied her brother. "Nan, see if your skirt is wet
+yet. You could squeeze a little water on his face--"
+
+The garment that had been dripping a few minutes before was still damp
+enough to permit of being "squeezed," and standing over the pale face of
+little Jack Baker, Nancy managed to extract some drops at least, to coax
+back life into the almost unconscious boy.
+
+Billy dragged himself out, although he was barely able to do so, and as
+quickly as little Jack showed signs of life, Ted and Nancy between them
+carried him down to the water's edge.
+
+They were just about to bathe his face and hands when a canoe drifted
+into sight around the cove.
+
+"Mr. Sanders!" called Ted. "There's Mr. Sanders," he repeated, and his
+voice was reaching the occupant of the canoe, for the bark was now
+headed directly for land.
+
+First aid and other common sense treatment was soon being administered
+to both Billy and Jack by Mr. Sanders, Ted and Nancy, and when the
+cave-in victims were finally entirely resuscitated, it was decided that
+Mr. Sanders should carry them up stream in his boat, and so enable them
+to easily reach their homes, at the head of the pond.
+
+"You've been having some experience this morning," the man remarked to
+Nancy as he waited for the boys to climb in the big long boat. "Can't I
+give you and Ted a lift too? There's room enough if everybody obeys
+canoe rules," he said pleasantly.
+
+"Oh, that would be fine," Ted replied, while Nancy was thinking of what
+to say. "Sis fell in the pond after her fishing tackle," Ted added.
+"That was our first adventure."
+
+"That must be what I picked up," interrupted Mr. Sanders pointing out
+Nancy's pole with the cord wound around it, lying in the bottom of the
+boat.
+
+"Yes, that's mine," admitted Nancy, "and I'm glad to get it back for it
+was a special pole--one I got for a premium from a Boston store," she
+explained.
+
+"Well, pile in," ordered Mr. Sanders, "and you little 'uns' had best not
+frighten your folks with the cave-in story," he warned. "Better to be
+careful next time," he finished laughingly.
+
+When all were securely ensconced in the long, graceful bark, Nancy was
+given the extra paddle and allowed to ply it alongside Mr. Sanders. In
+the joy of that unusual privilege, (for she was seldom allowed in a
+canoe,) the accidents were quickly lost thought of, even Jack and Billy
+venturing to trail their fingers in the stream, while Ted sitting in the
+stern took chances on throwing out his line now and then just for the
+fun of feeling it pull through the quiet waters.
+
+As they sailed along, conversation was rather scattered, consisting
+mainly of snatches of questions and answers between Nancy and Mr.
+Sanders. The two little boys had scarcely spoken since their rescue, and
+now within sight of home, they were just beginning to assume normal
+courage.
+
+Suddenly Nancy started to titter. There was no apparent cause for her
+change of mood, but the more she bit her lip, looked out toward shore,
+bent her head toward her paddle and otherwise strove to divert herself,
+the more the titter gathered and broke into a laugh, over her helpless
+features.
+
+"Funny, isn't it?" remarked Mr. Sanders drolly.
+
+"Silly, but I just can't help laughing," she admitted. "It's at the
+idea--"
+
+"I wonder if I couldn't guess," interrupted the man with the strong
+brown arms. "It's about me, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Nancy, slowly.
+
+"And about--about my supposed magic powers." He stopped and enjoyed a
+light laugh himself. "Wouldn't it be tragic if I should disappear just
+now?" he said so suddenly, that Nancy jerked her paddle out of the water
+and stared at him with a sort of guilty flush.
+
+"The idea--" she faltered.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" roared the big man swinging toward the shore where Jack
+and Billy were to land. "That's a great story, isn't it? But I'll tell
+you," he lowered his voice in a tone of confidence, "I am altogether to
+blame for that fantastic yarn, but sometimes we have to let folks guess
+even if they do make--spooks out of us." He laughed again and even the
+little boys were now being tempted to join in. "But I want to promise
+you and your brother this, Nancy," he said seriously. "You shall be
+among the first to know the answer to the riddle of my magic
+disappearance around the gray stone house."
+
+"Thank you," Nancy managed to say, as Ted caught a strong little branch
+on shore, and helped land the canoe.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                            INTRODUCING NERO
+
+
+It did not seem possible that Manny's school had been successfully
+opened two weeks ago! That the girls in her class, at first numbering
+eight now counted fourteen, each paying five dollars for the month's
+training in domestic science, with lessons three mornings a week.
+Fourteen pupils at five dollars each and every single one paid in
+advance, while Nancy was acting as class president and Ruth as class
+secretary; these were, indeed, auspicious arrangements.
+
+And besides the seventy dollars paid Miss Manners for tuition, the class
+members brought their own supplies and were privileged to take them home
+with them, in the form of various tempting dishes, "the like of which"
+as Nancy expressed it, "never had been seen in Long Leigh before nor
+since."
+
+"Maybe you don't know you're a wonder," Ruth remarked very casually to
+Nancy, while she, as secretary, was consulting with Nancy as president.
+"I can cook better _now_ than I ever expected to in my whole life. And
+as for Isabel! She's so enthusiastic, her mother says she has to
+restrain her from going into the boarding house business. You should
+just taste Belle's 'Cherry Moss.' Um-m-m! It was de-lic-ious!" and Ruth
+smacked her lips to the echo. "Her brother Tom wanted to know why we
+didn't make up a class for boys. He was in the army, you know, and so
+thinks himself very efficiently trained."
+
+"Isn't it great?" Nancy remarked, referring, of course, to the success
+of the class. "And for a laggard, an idler and one who positively hated
+the very letters that spelled cooking, I think I'm doing pretty well
+myself. I made a fudge cake yesterday and mother carried it out to set
+before the library ladies, can you imagine that? A cake that _I_ made!
+After my heartbreaking experience with the ungreased pans!"
+
+It was very early in the afternoon and Ruth, with Nancy, was putting the
+class room in order. She had remained over to lunch as she often did,
+and the two chums found pleasure in arranging the white covered tables,
+the shining pans, the numbered spoons and other utensils. It was all so
+much pleasanter than doing anything in an ordinary kitchen.
+
+The gas range, that was sent in to Miss Manners as a demonstrator's
+sample, was majestically white and really quite attractive, if such an
+article can be called attractive, and just how Nancy hovered rather
+lovingly over it, polishing with the very softest, whitest cloth the
+impeccable, enameled surface.
+
+Ruth had been finishing a little memorandum in her oilcloth covered
+book. She laid the book down now and strolled over to Nancy. In their
+white aprons and white caps, Nancy and Ruth looked too picturesque to be
+passed by without compliment.
+
+Ruth wound her arm around Nancy's shoulder. "I wonder," she said, "why
+we sometimes think that all play is more fun?"
+
+"I never did," replied Nancy, innocently. "My trouble always has been in
+finding enough different things to do." She looked rather pathetically
+into the soft gray eyes that were caressing her own darker orbs. There
+was no impulsive hugging, nor other ordinary demonstrations of
+affections dear to the average emotional girls, for Nancy was not given
+to extremes, nor was Ruth addicted to such flagrant sentiment.
+
+The two girls were especially happy just now. Nancy was accomplishing
+more, much more, than she had ever hoped to do, with her little shop
+that first brought real financial help to her mother, and was now doing
+as much for Miss Manners. Besides all this, it was giving the girls
+themselves a very useful, as well as enjoyable, summer diversion. Ruth,
+although a new friend of Nancy's, had become a very fond friend indeed,
+for the frank, original and genuine qualities of Nancy were unmistakable
+in their sincerity, and it was easy enough for any girl to love her--if
+she could but get near enough to her to know her.
+
+"And you don't think it shows a weakness to be so changeable?" Nancy
+asked Ruth. "I just can't seem to be happy unless I'm planning something
+new."
+
+"Why, that's--that's a sign of originality," replied Ruth, smoothing
+Nancy's cap on her dark hair. "Some day you'll do something wonderful--"
+
+"About the girls," Nancy interrupted. "Don't you think we were fortunate
+to get the Riker girls to join the class? They seem to represent the
+smart set at Upper Crust Hill, and they brought at least five others
+along."
+
+"Nancy, our school is the talk of Long Leigh. Lots of mothers think
+their girls should do something useful during the month of August, and
+I'd just like to see any mother find a study more useful than
+cooking--according to her ideas," said Ruth.
+
+"And Vera is going to take an extra hour for desserts," Nancy went on.
+"I can see Vera the pride of her family some day. Such home talent may
+be inherited. We haven't any of it in our family, I'm afraid," said
+Nancy, regretfully.
+
+"But you've got something more precious," Ruth assured her. "I never saw
+three folks so like one person as you three are, and yet you are all
+individually different; if you know what I mean."
+
+"I do," said Nancy. "And you're a dear, Ruth. What would I have done out
+here without you?"
+
+"Taken the stylish Vivian Riker to your heart," teased Ruth. "She's a
+beauty."
+
+There was a stir outside.
+
+"Look who's here!" interrupted Nancy, jumping up and hurrying toward the
+door. "Ted! And he's got the threatened new dog with him. Come and see!"
+
+The threatened new dog was indeed being coaxed along by Ted, but he
+didn't look exactly new. In fact, his coat was matted and shaggy, his
+tail hung down without a bit of "pep" in it, and even his long,
+long-haired ears seemed too discouraged to pick up the kindest words Ted
+was trying to pour into them.
+
+"Nero!" announced Ted simply, as Nancy opened the door and Ted tried to
+push the melancholy Nero in.
+
+"What ails him?" Nancy asked, looking the strange animal over,
+critically.
+
+"Just nothin' but lonesome," replied the small boy cryptically.
+
+"He looks pretty--blue," Ruth commented, giving the dog a friendly but
+unappreciated pat on his shaggy head.
+
+"Guess you'd be blue too, if you lived where he did," Ted told Ruth.
+"That poor dog hadn't a friend in the world until I found him. Here,
+Nero, come along and eat," ordered Ted, while Nero followed him toward
+the back door through the erstwhile Whatnot Shop and present-time
+classroom. "He's a fine dog," the little fellow continued to praise,
+"and when I get him all fixed up he'll be a beauty too," he insisted
+stoutly.
+
+"Maybe," Nancy almost giggled as she looked after Ted and his dog. "But
+when you take him to the beauty shop, Ted, you better get him a real
+Russian bob, his hair is long enough to braid," she commented gaily.
+
+"You can laugh," Ted retorted, "but he's a thoroughbred--a one-man dog.
+He won't notice you girls. Come on Nero, attaboy," chanted Ted,
+importantly.
+
+But being cooks, Nancy and Ruth could do no less than offer to provide
+Nero's meal. Each thought he would like something else best, and each
+tried the other dish, pushing it under his indifferent nose and coaxing
+him with:
+
+"Here Nero! Good! Eat! Eat-er-up!" etc.
+
+But Nero merely sniffed disdainfully, snuggled his nose deeper into his
+flattened paws, and turned two big, brown adoring eyes up at his young
+master.
+
+"Pity about him!" quoth Nancy. "Maybe he wants some of Isabel's Cherry
+Moss. Just stew or beefsteak or even fried potatoes are not, it seems,
+on his diet bill."
+
+They were all out on the back porch, Ted squatted squarely beside the
+new dog, while the girls floated around Nero, like little tugs
+surrounding a big steamer.
+
+"He doesn't _have_ to eat," Ted remarked indifferently, "he had a free
+lunch on the way over."
+
+"He did!" screeched Nancy. "And you let us go to all this trouble!" She
+kicked the tin pan of water over in sheer disgust.
+
+"Well, I thought he might like something else," murmured the small boy,
+provokingly. "He only had a big soup bone and loaf of bread."
+
+Taking off their cooking-school caps and unbuttoning their aprons as
+they went, the girls wended their way back to the deserted class room.
+
+"Can anyone beat that?" remarked Nancy, inelegantly. "Ted and his dog
+and the big--soup--bone! I could put a tune to that; a sad mournful
+dirgy tune."
+
+"Wherever do you suppose he picked up the brute?" Ruth asked. "I don't
+remember having seen him around town."
+
+"Oh, trust Ted," replied Nancy. "When we first came here, mother
+answered him once, in a most casual, unthinking way: 'Yes.' It seemed
+his question was could he have a dog, and mother hadn't been paying
+strict attention. Since then he's been on a hunt for a dog. He brought
+home a poor half-dead little tatters one day, but some boy followed him
+up and claimed the beauty. I wonder if this one will be left to him? He
+seems pretty particular about his food, doesn't he?"
+
+"Yes," replied Ruth, who was just glancing out the door. Suddenly she
+exclaimed:
+
+"Here's a taxi coming, and it's the one mother always uses. I guess
+she's sending for me, I'll go out and see."
+
+Nancy looked out and saw Ruth talking earnestly to the driver. She
+seemed to be disagreeing with the message he was giving her, and she
+turned abruptly to come back to Nancy.
+
+"Imagine that!" she panted, "Mother wants me to meet a train and take an
+old lady to see the Hilton house. As if I could show a house to one of
+father's customers!" Ruth's voice betrayed actual antipathy to the very
+idea.
+
+"But why not?" queried Nancy. "If she is just an old lady--"
+
+"A rich old lady who has come a distance without notifying father's
+office, and there isn't a man within call to take her out," Ruth sighed
+miserably. The thought of showing a house seemed absolutely beyond her.
+
+"I'll go with you," Nancy offered. "Why couldn't we show a house? We
+know how to call out rooms, don't we?"
+
+Ruth jerked back her pretty head and stared at Nancy.
+
+"All right," she exclaimed, brightening perceptibly. "I'll go if you
+promise to do the talking. I'm sure you can call off rooms and do more
+than that in the business line, Nancy. Let's hurry. The train is almost
+due."
+
+So the two young "real estate ladies" were presently seated most
+circumspectly in the taxi, on the way to "meet a wealthy lady who wanted
+to look at the Hilton house."
+
+And Nancy was fairly aglow with the prospect of a new and interesting
+business adventure.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+
+                              A DISCOVERY
+
+
+"Isn't she lovely? Looks like a cameo." That was Nancy's remark to Ruth
+when Mrs. Mortimer Cullen tarried in the sun parlor of the Hilton house,
+through which the girls were conducting her.
+
+But Ruth only sighed. Her task was too obnoxious to permit of
+compliments even to the handsome, elderly woman, who indeed did look
+like an animated cameo, set in a frame of gray veils, thrown over a
+small summer hat.
+
+"Isn't the garden beautiful from this porch?" Nancy enthused, joining
+Mrs. Cullen there. "Just look at that hedge! It's literally screened in
+with fine white clematis! And look! Mrs. Cullen! Just see that bower of
+Golden Blows! Oh, I don't believe I have ever seen such a beautiful
+place," and Nancy flitted around like a big butterfly herself, her
+yellow and white tissue dress escaping in little clouds about her, as
+she raced from room to room.
+
+"My grand-daughter Naomi, is quite like you," smiled the amused lady.
+"If you see so much beauty here I am sure it would please her. And it is
+for her, principally, that I am considering coming to Long Leigh."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure she'd love it," chirped Nancy. "But do come upstairs and
+see all the wonderful bay-windows. Why, this house is made just like a
+lot of flower bowls. Every single room opens out in--Just see these
+windows."
+
+So Ruth and Mrs. Cullen followed Nancy upstairs to see the windows. From
+that point of vantage she dragged them to the alcove over the stairs and
+pointed out the "glorious garden," from that view. And she was being
+perfectly sincere in her enthusiasm. None of it was assumed, in fact,
+one would have imagined Nancy was considering buying the fine old
+homestead for her own use.
+
+They spent more than an hour looking over the place and even then Nancy
+hated to leave.
+
+"Imagine having a home like that," she tried to whisper to Ruth. "I
+think I'd be satisfied even to do housework if I could look out that
+kitchen window as I did it," she added, while Mrs. Cullen smiled her
+satisfaction into Nancy's eager face.
+
+They drove back to the train with the prospective customer, who, when
+taking her leave, glanced significantly at Nancy.
+
+"My dear," she said, "you gave me a very pleasant little visit to your
+pretty Long Leigh, and I hope if my grand-daughter, Naomi, comes
+here--ever, she will meet you." She then touched Ruth's hand gently,
+saying something about having her father's office get in touch with her.
+
+When the train had cleared the station the two girls broke into a much
+relieved giggle. Ruth declared that Nancy had won the heart of "Lady
+Cullen who is as rich as they come," she explained, inelegantly.
+
+"And I had such a good time--"
+
+"Whoa there! No, you don't, Antoinette Brandon," Ruth warned Nancy. "You
+are _not_ going in the real-estate business, so you needn't get all set
+for it. My father has a family to feed--"
+
+But the very gentleman spoken of was at that moment hurrying across the
+platform, to meet the two uproarious girls.
+
+He was most anxious to know about their mission. Mrs. Cullen, it
+appeared, was a very important personage, and he regretted genuinely the
+absence from his office of a suitable escort for the lady.
+
+"Oh, you needn't worry, Daddy," Ruth assured him, taking the city
+newspaper from one of his pockets and feeling for candy in the other.
+"Nancy took such good care of her that she almost stayed over to buy
+more houses. You'll have to look out for Nancy, Dad." Ruth continued to
+joke. "She's an expert business man, you know, and might take a notion
+to try real-estate."
+
+"The more the merrier," replied the genial gentleman, who, like Ruth,
+had great gray eyes and a clear florid complexion, "I've been wanting to
+see your mother, Nancy," he said next. "Maybe, I could suit her better
+in a house than you are being suited in the Townsend place," he
+ventured.
+
+"Oh, we love it over there," Nancy hurried to state. "And besides, Mr.
+Ashley, we're just poor folks," she added laughingly.
+
+"So are we all of us," joined in Mr. Ashley. "But I supposed, now that
+Sanders has struck his gold mine, he might want to buy the little place
+himself, sort of souvenir, you know." As they talked, they were walking
+back to the waiting taxi, in which the girls had fetched Mrs. Cullen to
+the station.
+
+"Now Daddy," objected Ruth, "we've had enough business for one
+afternoon. Nancy must get back home and I've got a music lesson, if Miss
+Dudley has waited for me, and I hope she hasn't."
+
+Nancy felt rather important stepping out of the taxi at her door, it
+seemed, somehow, much more business-like than just riding in someone's
+private car, and she dashed up the store steps, still thrilled with
+enthusiasm from her experience.
+
+Inside the door she found Ted, crouched before the fireplace urging Nero
+to "sic" something.
+
+"Get him, boy!" he was coaxing. "Go-get-him!"
+
+"Get whom?" Nancy asked, in surprise at the spectacle.
+
+"What ever is in that chimney," the boy replied. "Do you think Nero
+couldn't get it as good as that puny little dog of Miss Townsend's?"
+
+"But how do you know anything is in there?"
+
+"Heard it--it whistles. Besides you said so." Ted was not a waster of
+words.
+
+"I never said there was anything there," Nancy argued. "But what
+whistled? What did you hear?"
+
+"Just whistlin'. Sic him Nero!" and Ted tried to push the big shaggy
+head against the old-fashioned fireplace board, that was papered with a
+very brilliant and hideous set paper piece, the center representing a
+terrible time among birds that looked like freak chickens.
+
+But Nero was absolutely deaf to Ted's entreaties. No more would he "go
+for" the chimney than he went for the food offered him by the solicitous
+young domestic science students, Nancy and Ruth.
+
+"I don't think you should keep that big--untidy dog in here, Ted,"
+remonstrated Nancy, who hesitated over calling Nero "dirty" and felt
+foolish at calling him "untidy." She crossed to the corner of the store
+and raised a window. "You know," she continued, "this is a cooking
+school and everything has to be strictly sanitary."
+
+"He's strictly sanitary," Ted declared, pressing his own curly head down
+to Nero's. "I'm glad I've got him, I needed a chum around home," he
+finished, affectionately.
+
+"How about me?" teased Nancy.
+
+"Oh you!" Ted was caressing Nero, and Nero was thudding his tail in
+response.
+
+"Yes, what about me, Ted? Don't you like me any more?"
+
+"Like you! But you ought to hear folks talk. They say you'll be starting
+a--butcher shop next."
+
+Nancy drew her breath in sharply. Were they criticising her like that?
+
+"Who's talking about me?" she demanded of her brother.
+
+"Don't have to get mad," drawled Ted. "What do we care? We know, I
+guess," he placated, tactfully.
+
+"But who's talking?" she insisted.
+
+"It's all jealousy," the boy evaded. "They're disappointed because the
+Townsends and Mr. Sanders are getting along so well. First, they tried
+to make Mr. Sanders out foolish, and now they say this place is spooky.
+Guess I've been here long enough to know," he retorted, as if answering
+the unknown foes.
+
+But Nancy was stricken with that painful self-consciousness that so
+often lately had taken possession of her. The changeable girl, even her
+friends were calling her; why did she so love--to change?
+
+"Look!" whispered Ted, directing her attention to the dog.
+"He--hears--it!"
+
+Nero was now alert, head cocked to one side, ears pricked up, and every
+dog-feature of him ready to pounce.
+
+Ted and Nancy watched him, breathless.
+
+A little snapping bark, a growl, long and threatening; then a wild,
+fierce howl, and the big creature dashed against the fireboard!
+
+"There!" exclaimed Ted. "I told you so!"
+
+"What is it?" gasped Nancy.
+
+But the barking of Nero shut out even the sound of their voices, and as
+brother and sister looked on, the big dog pawed the fireboard,
+scratching away the paper, birds, flowers, impossible sky and all.
+
+Presently he turned from that attack and dashed to the back door. Ted
+and Nancy were quick to follow him.
+
+"Let him out," Nancy directed. "He may know there's someone around."
+
+Unhooking the screen door Ted let his dog out. With a bounding leap Nero
+cleared the steps and dashed around the house to the chimney corner.
+
+"Look!" screamed Nancy, "there--goes--a--man!"
+
+As she pointed to the farthest corner of the lot, where the fence was
+broken down to admit a short cut to the avenue, they saw a man, just
+stepping through the brush.
+
+"Mr. Sanders!" exclaimed Ted. "I see his bald head!"
+
+"Mr. Sanders," Nancy repeated. "What can he have been doing here?"
+
+"That's what Nero is trying to find out," replied Ted, dryly. "Let's see
+how he's making out. He's stopped barking. Maybe--he's--got--it."
+
+It took but a few moments to reach the side of the house, where the
+old-fashioned stone foundation was broken by a place, through which the
+ashes from the fireplace had once been cleaned out. Here sat Nero. He
+wagged his tail happily as Ted came up, and he now seemed perfectly
+satisfied and contented.
+
+"What is it Nero?" Nancy coaxed patting the dog in a most friendly way.
+He was evidently winning her affection as well as Ted's.
+
+But Ted knew best how to follow the animal's lead. He was down on his
+knees in front of the mossy stones and had his ear cocked to the small
+iron door.
+
+[Illustration: Ted had his ear cocked to the small iron door.]
+
+"Yep," he sort of gasped. "It's there! It's kinda-tickin'."
+
+"Let me listen," Nancy asked, dropping down beside him.
+
+For some time brother, sister and the big dog were all crouched there,
+attentive, eager and somewhat excited.
+
+"Just a little sound--like an egg-beater," Nancy suggested. "And look,
+Ted, those broken weeds! Mr. Sanders must have been in here just now."
+
+"Sure, it's his," said Ted, in a manner as matter of fact as if an
+egg-beater "whistling" in the old fireplace was the most ordinary thing
+in the world to expect being put there by Mr. Sanders.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX
+
+                           THE MIDNIGHT ALARM
+
+
+It was a very exciting story, indeed, that Ted and Nancy poured into
+their mother's ears that evening. Had she any possible objections to
+adopting Nero as the fourth member of the family, they must have been
+quickly dispelled with the graphic account of that animal's uncanny
+intelligence.
+
+"He seemed to know just where to find the outlet to the chimney," Nancy
+said, "for he ran directly to the little furnace place, and we didn't
+really know it was there ourselves."
+
+"Of course, he knew," said Ted importantly. "Dogs know lots of things
+that we don't. And he's going to sleep in the store, isn't he, Mother?"
+
+"Oh, not in the store, Ted," objected Nancy. "Do you think that would be
+just right, Manny?"
+
+"Well, a big dog like that," demurred Miss Manners, who, now being a
+real resident of the Brandon home, shared their table with them.
+
+"But he's had a swim and he's as clean as--as anything," floundered the
+boy, quite unable to summon an appropriate comparison for his great
+friend. "And Mother, he can watch the whole house for us. How do we know
+someone wouldn't try to steal--the secret of the chimney place?"
+
+"It isn't our secret," retorted Nancy, "and for my part I can't see what
+right Mr. Sanders has around our place at all."
+
+"You can depend, dear," said Mrs. Brandon gently, "that whatever he has
+put in the chimney, if anything, it is something that could in no way
+bother us. Mr. Sanders is a professor, and the old-fashioned stone oven
+may have some special interest for him."
+
+"But couldn't he ask us about it, if he wanted to--to plant a bomb
+there?" Nancy remarked, superciliously.
+
+"He's no gabber," said Ted, with more wisdom than elegance. "And anyway,
+maybe he didn't. But Mother, may I have the old steamer rug to make a
+bed for Nero? He's so big he needs a big bed."
+
+It was finally agreed that Nero should be allowed to sleep in the store
+before the fireboard, and after much work making the rug into a bed for
+him, Ted eventually got him to try it.
+
+Very slowly the big shaggy creature sprawled himself out on the soft
+wool, but he only stayed sprawled for a few moments. The next, he got
+up, took a corner of the rug between his teeth, dragged it over to the
+show gas-range and, in a dog's way, proceeded to make his own bed.
+
+Every one was watching him and every one laughed.
+
+"He can do tricks," Ted declared proudly. "I'm goin' to train him for a
+lot of things. He could almost do anything," the boy added, whereat even
+Miss Manners laughed softly.
+
+But Nero was settled at last, and so far as he was concerned, gave no
+further trouble to the Brandon family for that evening. The subject of
+the buzzing, egg-beater noise in the chimney, coupled with Mr. Sanders
+leaving the grounds so suspiciously that afternoon was, however,
+discussed most thoroughly.
+
+Even to the children Mrs. Brandon's confidence in Mr. Sanders, agreeing
+as it did with the confidence of so many other grown folks, gave cause
+for much curious speculation. Nancy pretended that she disagreed with
+this general sentiment, but that was only because she felt there was a
+certain injustice in the manner of Mr. Sanders assuming rights over
+their personal property.
+
+Ted, on the contrary, was ready to vote for Mr. Sanders at every
+opportunity, and while he didn't exactly say that Nero had at one time
+belonged to the people who had lived in the big stone house, he _did_
+say that Lou Peters, who gave him Nero, said that the Giffords, who
+belonged on the hill, used to feed Nero regularly at their back door.
+That was as near to proprietorship as Ted could bring Nero. Lou Peters
+had been keeping him among the old boxes, so he gave him to Ted. All of
+which followed a natural sequence, for Ted himself had been feeding Nero
+dog biscuits and soup bones for a long time previously.
+
+"Isn't it queer how jolly it seems to have a dog in the house," remarked
+the boy, who was curled up on the couch and hugging a big story book
+from which, tonight at least, he read very little.
+
+"It does seem as if we have pleasant company," Miss Manners conceded
+agreeably. She was, as usual, at her fancy work--some exquisitely fine
+linen drawn work, being done for a city customer.
+
+"But I thought we all agreed never again to become attached to a dog,"
+recalled the mother. She was making notes and reading a book--a
+librarian's method of reviewing.
+
+"We all felt so dreadfully when Grumpy died," Nancy recalled. She sighed
+effectively at the recollection. "Grumpy was the loveliest dog--"
+
+"So is Nero," affirmed the fickle Ted. "In some ways he's a lot smarter.
+You should have seen him do tricks for Lou Peters. He'll do them for me,
+too," professed the youngster, "as soon as we get better acquainted."
+
+"Oh, Ted," digressed Nancy. "I've been wanting to ask you. Did Billy and
+Jack make out all right at home after their cave-in scare? Their folks
+weren't angry, were they?"
+
+"Angry!" scoffed Ted. "They each got a quarter for ice cream cones;
+that's how angry their mothers were. Jack and Bill are two--pets," he
+finished, rather contemptuously. "If they hadn't been so soft they'd
+have known how to dig themselves out. Guess I'll go to bed," Ted then
+announced suddenly and surprisingly, for he usually wanted to remain up
+even longer than the others.
+
+"Now, that Nero is asleep," teased Nancy. "But never mind, Ted," she
+amended. "I'll give you credit for picking a fine dog. He's handsomer
+than a collie, and not so awkward as a St. Bernard," Nancy commented,
+rather critically.
+
+"Sure," agreed Ted. "He's a thoroughbred," and with that all-meaning
+compliment, Ted put his book upon the shelf, looked very carefully in
+the store so as not to disturb the distinguished occupant, and almost
+whispered good-night, kissing his mother fondly as he took his actual
+leave.
+
+"Ted does love that dog," Nancy remarked indulgently. "And I'm glad you
+let him keep him, Mother, for Ted likes to wander off alone and a dog is
+good company for him."
+
+"The dear little fellow!" murmured his mother. "I can hardly believe he
+is growing up and becoming able to look after himself. So often during
+the day, I stop and wonder--"
+
+"Oh, you needn't, Mums," interrupted Nancy, "for Manny barely lets him
+out of her sight without all kinds of cautions. It's lovely since Manny
+came," Nancy concluded, a little shyly.
+
+Following all this each of the three applied herself to her task, (Nancy
+was reading,) until the clock struck ten, then it appeared time to
+follow Ted's example and retire, which they did.
+
+It had to happen, it always does. The dog barked wildly in the very
+blackest part of the night, and before they realized what had disturbed
+them, the Brandon household was awake and on its feet!
+
+"What can--it--be?" breathed little Miss Manners, wrapping her neat robe
+closely around her.
+
+"Why, it's Nero," answered Ted foolishly, although he was not trying to
+be funny. "He's after someone. We're safe."
+
+But Ted's unlimited confidence in his dog's power to protect, did not
+lessen the uncanny feeling produced by the midnight howling, growling
+bark.
+
+Mrs. Brandon did what she could to assure Nancy and Miss Manners that
+dogs often bark at almost nothing, but when she heard Nero's paws
+scratching against the door that led from the hall into the little group
+of sleeping rooms, her own courage sagged somewhat.
+
+"Let him in!" ordered Ted. "Here, let me!" he corrected, going to the
+door and meeting bravely the wild greeting of Nero. "What is it, boy?"
+he asked. "What's the matter?"
+
+To which question Nero threw his two great paws against Ted's chest,
+barked not fiercely, but in that talking way dogs have, and then turned
+to race back down the stairs.
+
+"It's no one he's after," explained Ted, "or he wouldn't leave them to
+come up and tell me. He wants to show me something--"
+
+"Ted Brandon!" cried Nancy. "Don't you dare go down--"
+
+"I'll go along," volunteered Mrs. Brandon. "As Ted says, the dog would
+have stood guard if any one were trying to get in."
+
+There was no use in further arguing, for Ted was already close on Nero's
+heels, following him to the store whence he was leading. Mrs. Brandon
+may have been timid, but small Ted's confidence in his dog was very
+fortifying, and she, too, fell in with the small midnight procession.
+
+Nancy did not remain upstairs, neither did Miss Manners, for somehow it
+always does seem safer to "stick together" in that sort of trouble.
+
+No one spoke as they followed the dog. With great dignity he led them
+on, until, upon reaching the store, he made a pounce over to the corner
+near the chimney.
+
+"Oh," screamed Nancy. "It's that old chimney--"
+
+"It's something else," exclaimed Ted. "Just look here! A 'busted' water
+pipe. That's what it is! Look--at--the--flood!"
+
+They all looked, and saw, issuing from a pipe that was connected near
+the fireplace, a very positive and very menacing stream of water.
+
+"Oh, my! Our things!" groaned Nancy. "I've got to turn the water off."
+
+"But where? How?" asked Mrs. Brandon in confusion, fully realizing the
+damage water could do.
+
+"I know," replied Nancy, in her best business-like manner. "I was
+'monkeying' with it the other day. It won't take me a jiffy," and while
+the others patted the intelligent Nero for his alarm, Nancy flew to the
+kitchen, got a wrench from Ted's tool chest in the little corner closet,
+and then with one sure, swift turn, reversed the handle on the water
+pipe that led from the boiler to the pipes from the cellar.
+
+"It's off," yelled Ted. "That's all right, Nan, it's stopped."
+
+"Why, daughter," exclaimed Mrs. Brandon, still breathless, "how did you
+know how to do--that?"
+
+"Because--she's a good plumber," declared Ted. "Hurrah! Nan! Let's start
+a plumbing shop! That's something you--haven't tried yet."
+
+"Ted!" said Nancy sharply. "I don't like being made fun of. Anybody
+ought to know how to turn off a water pipe. We all know how to turn off
+the gas, don't we?"
+
+"Ted didn't mean to be rude, dear," Mrs. Brandon assured the injured
+one, "but we were so surprised."
+
+"And Nancy does seem to have such a talent for business," ventured Miss
+Manners. "I tell you, dear," and she gathered her robe around her as she
+followed the others out of the store, "it is something to be proud of.
+Any of us can be just housekeepers, but it takes a different sort of
+ability to be--the man of the house," she said, which was an unusual
+figure of speech for prim Miss Manners to make use of.
+
+"She can't be that," objected Ted.
+
+"Very well, then," said Nancy. "Let's see you mop up that floor, Ted,"
+she challenged. "That's a plumber's job, too," she pointed out. But it
+was Mrs. Brandon who found the mop and Ted who used it. Nancy felt
+perhaps, that the executive part, in turning off the water, was enough
+for her to have done.
+
+She was hurt, unwillingly, at Ted's joking remark.
+
+"A plumber shop," she reflected mentally. "Well, one could do worse, for
+plumbers are necessary and needle-work fiends aren't. Maybe I will take
+up something practical before I find what would be best for me," she
+continued to reason.
+
+But none of them knew, nor was it possible for them to guess, what Nero
+had saved in his timely midnight alarm.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI
+
+                           FOR VALUE RECEIVED
+
+
+It seemed but a very short time later that Nancy was again awakened. But
+now the sunshine was streaming into her room, and she heard Miss Manners
+talking down in the hall, in a suppressed voice.
+
+"The children are not up yet," she was saying. "But come in, Ruth. You
+see we were somewhat disturbed--"
+
+"Come on up, Ruth!" called out Nancy. "Come up and hear about our
+par-tee!"
+
+Ruth came up promptly, and the story of the broken water pipe was
+presently being told her, brokenly.
+
+"How perfectly--thrill-ing!" she commented in her well known
+characterization of the affected Vera. "But you should have had Nero
+turn off the water--"
+
+"I'll bet he could too," shouted Ted from his room. Ted never lost a
+chance to praise Nero.
+
+"But just listen to _my_ story," Ruth begged. "I've got a thrilling
+yarn, too."
+
+"Then, wait until I get propped up for it," ordered Nancy. "I can't hear
+comfortably when I'm down." She put her two pillows under her shoulders
+and assumed a most affected air of the tired society girl after her
+dance. Even a cap was improvised from a twisted stocking, a lacy robe
+was concocted from her thin, soft slip, and the luxurious effect was
+completed by Ruth piling upon the bed a bunch of mussed up store
+paper--the morning mail!
+
+"There now," said Ruth, "I hope you can hear. Although I must say you
+are not well cast. The character for you, Nan, is that of a short haired
+lady at a big desk, her eyes bulging out of goggles and her waist line
+strapped into a belt. You know--"
+
+"Yes, I know," admitted Nancy, "but I like this better--it's more
+becoming, isn't it?" Another pose and a shift of the lacy robe. Then
+Nancy appeared ready to hear Ruth's story.
+
+"You sold the place!" Ruth blurted out without a hint of its coming.
+
+"The place?"
+
+"Yes. To Lady Cullen. And she said positively over the long distance
+last night to Dad, that she never would have bought it but for you."
+
+"Of course, she would," scoffed Nancy.
+
+"Nope. Dad said that place just wouldn't sell. He and his men have shown
+it to so many. But dear Mrs. Cullen!" Ruth sighed foolishly. "She told
+Dad that the young lady was so enthusiastic over the place that she was
+positive her granddaughter, Naomi, would react in the same way. Notice
+that Nan, re-act."
+
+"Yeah," drawled Nancy. "That's what this is--I'm--re-acting," and she
+fell further back among her pillows.
+
+"But really, Nan, it is true," insisted Ruth, laying hold of one of
+Nancy's long, slender hands. "And you needn't blush about it, either. I
+think the way you blush under that olive skin of yours--" But a pillow,
+vigorously applied to Ruth's face, checked further compliments.
+
+"If you don't want to hear," Ruth presently continued.
+
+"Of course I do. I'm just as glad as glad, Ruth, that your dad has sold
+the place, but I know very well Mrs. Cullen would have bought it
+anyhow."
+
+"She wouldn't. Dad says so, she says so--I say--says--so," declared
+Ruth. "And if you don't believe it just listen to this." She changed her
+position sitting up very straight and facing Nancy very positively to
+make the statement most emphatic. "Mrs. Cullen very tactfully suggested
+that your interest and your success be--remunerated."
+
+"Ruth!"
+
+"Now, don't let me hurt your feelings, Nan, but Dad would honestly love
+to have you accept."
+
+"I won't," declared Nancy, blushing furiously now. "The idea--"
+
+"Then, he will talk to your mother about it. Do you know, little girl,
+what a lot of money a big sale like that brings to Dad's firm? And how
+much he would have to pay out in commission to the man who succeeded in
+making the sale?"
+
+"I know one thing," said Nancy, shifting herself out of the bed and
+planting two bare feet firmly upon the floor, "I'm being made a business
+woman, a store-keeper, a cooking school director, a plumber and now a
+real-estate agent. I don't mind being a few things but that's quite
+a--lot!"
+
+"You haven't said Enthusiast," Ruth reminded her, "that is what counts
+most. But Nancy, you really ought to consider," pressed Ruth. "The money
+would mean so much to your mother, and you have a perfect right to it. I
+knew the way you were tearing around that big place, that you would
+flim-flam Cullen," joked Ruth. "And Dad says, a hundred dollars isn't
+anything on a fifteen thousand dollar deal--"
+
+"Fifteen thousand!"
+
+"Yes, all of that. And here's the little one hundred check," Ruth was
+pressing a slip of paper into Nancy's unwilling hand. "Dad will be
+dreadfully disappointed if you refuse--you're not too proud, are you?"
+
+"Too proud!" and the black eyes snapped little pin points of sparks.
+"No, indeed, I mean to be a business woman, like mother, and I don't
+care how soon I start," proclaimed Nancy, firmly.
+
+"Spoken like--Nancy Brandon!" hailed Ruth, gleefully, for she had known
+all along what a task it would be to get Nancy to take the check. And
+just as she had honestly stated, the amount given Nancy was but a small
+fraction of that which a man from Mr. Ashley's office would have had to
+receive for the same service.
+
+Unbelieving, Nancy stared at the check.
+
+"One hundred dollars!" she murmured, her eyes now beaming with
+anticipation. "And mother's vacation only three days off!"
+
+"But please, Nan," Ruth hurried to change the subject, "don't go away to
+parts unknown and leave me pining here. Of course, there are lots of
+girls--hanging around," she smiled very prettily and looked very dimply
+as she said this, "but since you came to Long Leigh, Nan, the other
+girls don't count as much as they did."
+
+"I suppose," said Nancy in her "twinkling" way, "that may be because I'm
+such a freak. I'm a lot of fun--"
+
+"Nan--cee!"
+
+"Ruth--ee!"
+
+And they finished the argument with a very pardonable show of affection,
+if it was only a sound slap on Nancy's not fully clothed shoulders and a
+pretty good whack on Ruth's plump little thigh.
+
+When Nancy was alone again, (for Ruth was to meet the girls at Isabel's
+and they were all going for a swim before their ten o'clock cooking
+lesson,) she smoothed out the little blue check lovingly. It was so
+strange to think that money was acquired through mere enthusiasm. That
+Mrs. Cullen would have decided to buy that enormous place merely upon
+Nancy's--enthusiasm. That the cooking school had been started and was
+successfully running because of her--enthusiasm!
+
+"Perhaps," she told the reflection in her glass, "it's a good thing to
+despise some kinds of work if it makes one enthusiastic for other kinds.
+But even now," she was insisting to that same mocking smile, "_I can_
+make a very good cake."
+
+To meet the girls at the lake, Nancy took a short cut up, over the hill
+that would lead her past the old stone house. She had hurried her
+breakfast and made sure that Miss Manners did not need her help to get
+ready for the class, then, gowned in the easiest thing to put on--and
+off, her lavender gingham, she raced off up the hill.
+
+But she never could hurry past the stone house; everything around it
+held fascination for Nancy, even the half-formed dread that someone or
+something would drop down from the sky, or spring up out of the earth,
+as Mr. Sanders had formerly been accused of doing. So, instead of
+crossing the fence where the old cedar tree had broken through and had
+thus made an opening, Nancy continued on up through the stone path that
+would bring her out at the apple orchard.
+
+"As if there could be anything weird in this open place," she was
+saying. "Why, the old cistern over there looks as spic-span as when
+folks used to draw water from it, and I'm sure," she was thinking, "a
+turned upside-down rain-barrel shows care and attention--no mosquitoes
+can breed in that."
+
+She stood a few moments to enjoy the soft summer scene, for it was not
+yet quite time to meet the girls, when from the direction of the
+rain-barrel she head a whine, a cat's cry, surely.
+
+"Some poor cat maybe caught in briars," Nancy decided promptly, as again
+came a piteous meaow of a kitten or a cat.
+
+Following the call Nancy hurried in its direction.
+
+"Here puss?" she called. "Kitty-kitty-kitty!"
+
+The cry stopped as her voice called to it. It was not near the rain
+barrel, Nancy now decided, but over by the cistern. Quickly she turned
+in that direction, but when within a few feet of the square little box
+that covered the artificial well, she was suddenly startled by a
+noise--a queer noise.
+
+"What's that?" was her unspoken question.
+
+She listened. It was a man's voice, singing!
+
+"Where, where--can that be!" she murmured half aloud, meanwhile
+unconsciously walking toward the cistern.
+
+Then a hammering! A buzzing!
+
+"Oh!" screamed Nancy in alarm, now realizing that she had been hearing
+something very strange indeed. "Oh, I must--get--away!" was her wild
+determination, as she turned and dashed down the hill, making her way
+this time through the opening in the fence where the cedar tree had
+fallen.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII
+
+                         TARTS AND LADY FINGERS
+
+
+No one would believe her. They all came out of the water as Nancy
+arrived at the beach, and declined positively, to go in.
+
+"I'm too--flustered," she insisted. "My head is swimming now and it
+doesn't matter about my heels."
+
+"But Nancy," protested Marion Mason, one of the Upper Crust Hill girls,
+"how could you have heard anybody or anything in that open field? No
+bushes nor trees big enough to hide behind, just there."
+
+"It was the cat," insisted Christine Berg, a friend of Marion's. "There
+are queer cats--always have been--around the old stone house. First, the
+cat meaowed, just to entice you," said Christine, wringing out the scant
+skirt of her black satin bathing suit. "And then, when she got you over
+there, she did the rest," finished the very blonde girl with the lovely
+hazel eyes.
+
+"Sort of ventriloquist," added Isabel. "Well, at any rate, Nan, you have
+had a thrill. Vera, wouldn't that constitute a thrill, don't you think?"
+
+"I'll tell you what _I_ think," chimed in Ruth. "I think we had better
+hurry to dress or we shall be late for our lesson, and mine is
+cream-puffs today. Our family can eat cream-puffs until the puff--" But
+the girls, running up to the little bath houses, deprived Ruth of her
+audience, and also of the necessity of finishing her simile.
+
+Nancy sat on the little board-walk edge of the row of houses, while the
+girls dressed. Ruth finished first and joined her there.
+
+"Really, Nan?" she quizzed, in an under tone.
+
+"Most certainly--really," replied Nancy, seriously. "Do you suppose I
+would make that up for fun?"
+
+"No, I don't. It isn't your brand of fun. But it's mighty curious. Do
+you suppose we should all go up there right now, and go over every inch
+of the place--"
+
+"Oh, no. We must go back to Manny and be good cooks," Nancy answered.
+"Besides Ruth, she has my check and I'm anxious to see if it is still
+there, not just a dream check you know," she smiled understandingly at
+Ruth.
+
+Rather towsled from their bath, and the lack of time and tools for hair
+arrangements, the party of girls presently started off to take their
+domestic science lesson. Along the way they met and hailed a number of
+friends, for at bathing hour the lake drew folks from all parts of the
+village and its suburbs, but there was no time for tarrying as Miss
+Manners insisted upon promptness, and no one willingly ever disregarded
+her rule.
+
+It was a merry little group that, all aproned and capped, listened first
+to Miss Manners explanation of rules and reasons, and then they
+themselves undertook the practical art of applying this knowledge.
+
+But Nancy could not forget her experience. It had been so weird, so
+wild, in fact, to hear those noises coming from nowhere.
+
+Ruth was beating the eggs light as air for her cherished cream puffs;
+Isabel was carefully creaming an equally dainty concoction in her
+middle-sized yellow bowl, and the other girls were being similarly and
+as practically engaged, when a shadow, a large manly shadow, darkened
+the glass that formed the upper part of the store door.
+
+"A visitor!" exclaimed Marion, smoothing her cap at the risk of spoiling
+her batter.
+
+Miss Manners stepped to the door to answer the knock.
+
+"Mr. Sanders!" the girls whispered one to another, as they saw Miss
+Manners greet the caller.
+
+"Maybe he's going to inspect--" Christine began, but was stopped by Miss
+Manners speaking.
+
+"Girls," she said, in her best teacher voice, "Mr. Sanders has called to
+see if we can fill an order for him."
+
+"An order!" chorused the surprised pupils.
+
+"Yes," spoke up the one man among them. "The fact is, young ladies, I'm
+giving a little party up at Waterfall House, and I felt convinced that
+my attractions would be greatly increased if I could procure some--some
+confections from this famous little class," he said.
+
+Miss Manners was all but protesting. That her class could be called
+"famous" seemed to her rather too extravagant a statement.
+
+"Yes, indeed," went on the caller, while it must be admitted some of the
+girls were stifling giggles. "My daughter is coming up, and she thinks
+her college excels in this sort of thing." His sweeping gesture seemed
+to include everything, even the girls. "And I would be mighty glad to
+show her what we can do in our little Long Leigh."
+
+Followed suggestions and questions, so heaped up that the mere wording
+of all the excitement amounted to little compared with its general
+effect. Finally, Mr. Sanders and Miss Manners went into a secret
+session, to outline the order, and the girls, who were supposed to go on
+with the lesson, in reality went on with the fun.
+
+"Imagine!" chuckled Eleanor Dixon, "getting an order for fancy cakes!
+I'm going to make kisses--"
+
+"Lady fingers would be more appropriate," Isabel remarked sagely,
+"although, El, I have heard Miss Manners say, your biscuits
+are--splendid."
+
+"Tarts!" whispered Christine, shaking her long handled spoon, and making
+a comical face.
+
+"Mac-a-roons!" came from Dorothy's corner.
+
+But Mr. Sanders was now preparing to leave, and Miss Manners was
+conducting him to the door, her face alight with the pleasant
+excitement. As the caller walked past Nancy he said to her in an
+undertone:
+
+"Can I speak to you, just a minute, Nancy?"
+
+Without answering Nancy followed him outside to the porch.
+
+"I'm coming up to see your mother this evening," he said, when their
+voices were beyond reach of the others. "I've been expecting to for some
+time, but now I _must_. Will you tell her, please? And be sure to be on
+hand yourself, you and Ted, for I'm about ready to disclose the long
+promised secret," he finished, his eyes twinkling merrily as he spoke.
+
+"Oh, all right, certainly," faltered Nancy, not quite sure just what she
+was saying.
+
+"Yes," continued Mr. Sanders, "the summer, is going fast and I'm glad
+things have shaped themselves before we were, any of us, forced to
+separate." He was patting his brown hands together gleefully.
+
+"Would you mind if Isabel and Ruth came over? They're my best friends
+and you can trust them," ventured Nancy, surprised at herself for doing
+so.
+
+"Certainly, by all means, have them come," replied Mr. Sanders. "I see
+you anticipate a surprise, and you are generous enough to want to share
+it with your friends. That's the spirit I like to see. Tonight it will
+be a sort of private performance," he smiled as he said this, "but
+to-morrow night at the hotel I'm going to tell all who come. That's what
+I want your cakes for," he finished, moving down the low steps. "We're
+going to have a celebration and--well, I'll see you this evening," he
+promised, hurrying off like a happy school boy.
+
+There was little work done in the cooking lesson after that. Everybody
+was so excited at the prospect of filling a real order, that the entire
+class immediately set to planning just how it was to be filled.
+
+It was Christine, however, who had what Ruth called "the inspiration."
+After the class was dismissed she got the girls together, out of Miss
+Manner's hearing, and made her suggestion.
+
+"Let's all come early," she began, "_very_ early. We'll do our very
+best, of course, we can make wonderful cakes."
+
+"_You_ can," corrected Nancy.
+
+"So can you, Nan," Christine took time to say, "I'd like to see any one
+make a better sponge cake--"
+
+"Oh, sponge cake," scoffed Nancy.
+
+"The very thing most needed to go with ice cream," Christine hurried to
+say. "But listen--"
+
+"We are," said Ruth.
+
+"We will take whatever money we get for the entire order, (we donate the
+materials, of course,) and with the money we'll buy a gift for--Manny!"
+said Christine.
+
+"Hurrah!" came a hushed hail, for there was danger of the plans being
+overheard.
+
+However, Christine's idea was enthusiastically received, and there was
+no possible doubt of the entire plan being successfully carried out.
+
+Ruth remained with Nancy and so did Isabel, so that she readily found an
+opportunity to tell them of Mr. Sander's message. They were as usual,
+putting things away, Miss Manners being obliged to leave early to give a
+private lesson to an invalid girl.
+
+"And we are actually going to hear the secret," gasped Nancy. "Girls,
+you don't know how excited I am--"
+
+"You don't know how _crazy_ I am," added Ruth.
+
+"And how _wild_ I am," put in Isabel. "Think we should have a doctor
+within call? Will it be overwhelming?" she joked.
+
+"Better have a policeman," suggested Ruth. "He may disclose some gems,
+or other valuables."
+
+"Here comes Ted," Nancy interrupted, "and I know by his walk that he's
+worried."
+
+Ted strode in, Nero close beside him, and as Nancy had intimated he did
+act worried.
+
+"What's the matter, Ted?" Ruth asked first.
+
+"Matter? I've got to hide this dog. Folks want to take him away from me.
+Say he's theirs," Ted's words fairly hissed his indignation.
+
+"Who says so?" demanded Nancy belligerently.
+
+"A man who came up to the old stone house," answered Ted. "But Nero was
+Lou Peter's dog and Lou gave him to me, and not all the money there is,
+is going to get my dog away from me."
+
+Ted's voice was not very positive, and the girls, all three, assisted
+him in coaxing Nero out to the small door under the back porch, where he
+was finally made a prisoner, with several plates of food set before him
+to lighten the misery.
+
+It surely would be disastrous for Ted to lose his dog.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+
+                             THE STORY TOLD
+
+
+The Whatnot Shop was quite powerless to prevent the invasion.
+
+"We'll push all the tables back and set the chairs around in a
+half-circle," suggested the fluttered Nancy. "Then, it will be just
+like--"
+
+"A play," finished Isabel. "Too bad we can't turn on a spot light."
+
+"I think it would be nice to let Mr. Townsend sit behind the counter on
+his old high stool," Nancy further suggested. "It might make him feel at
+home. I wonder where we put that stool."
+
+"Away back in the corner under the three-cornered shelf," Ruth informed
+her. "I rammed it in there myself."
+
+It was dragged out--the stool, and set just where it had been found when
+Nancy first took possession of the shop.
+
+"A regular par-tee!" chanted Isabel. "Glad I happened to wear a white
+dress; being a deb and all that."
+
+"You may carry the white paper fan, little deb," mocked Nancy. "We
+couldn't sell it so I'd be delighted to donate it to your coming out
+party."
+
+"Oh, it isn't mine, it's yours," chirped Isabel, "and I hope you are not
+going to wear that howling yellow gingham--"
+
+"I am. Yellow's my color," and Nancy flipped the skirt of her dress
+around gaily.
+
+They were preparing, as might easily be guessed, for the "private
+performance" promised by Mr. Sanders. Nancy had talked with him over the
+phone, after his visit to the class that morning, and arrangements were
+then made to invite the Townsends over, besides permission having been
+granted Ted to bring in his chum, Buster Clayton. Just now Ted was
+upstairs dressing; also singing and telling stories to Nero, most of
+which racket could be heard down in the store.
+
+Mrs. Brandon's cheeks became soft as damask when Nancy showed her the
+big check for one hundred dollars, which Nancy explained was in no sense
+a gift, but purely part of a business transaction between her and Mr.
+Ashley's real-estate office. The mother did not try to hide her delight,
+that Nancy should have become such "a splendid little business woman,"
+and she predicted her own retirement from the office at an early date,
+if such wonderful achievements were to be kept up.
+
+"And your bank account, my dear," she told Nancy when they were in
+confidence over the developments, "aren't you proud of it?"
+
+"A little, Mother-mine," faltered the happy girl, "but there's something
+better than that," she said shyly, for Nancy was not given to boasting.
+
+"I know," and the mother arms went around her. "Besides, you know now
+that even despised housework is not so bad when it has an interesting
+motive. That's why we mothers tolerate it; because we are working for
+our darling children."
+
+"I know, Mums, but I really only thought 'dishes' before, now I think--"
+
+"The joy of helping _us_," Mrs. Brandon supplied. "And I'm so proud of
+your cooking, and how much it has benefited Miss Manners, as well as
+your friends. Why, my dear, I would make you vain were I to tell you
+one-half of what I hear--"
+
+"Not vain, Mums. I'm not silly enough for that, for I've got to admit
+I've been rather selfish all the way through--it has been such a lot of
+fun."
+
+And Nancy meant it. She was not posing, nor was she playing at being
+humble, for her mind was of that quality that reasons and analyzes one's
+own motives as well as looking for motives in others. In that way she
+had acquired what is called "common sense," perhaps because every one
+should try, at least, to possess a measure of it.
+
+Now Mrs. Brandon, as well as Ted, was dressing. To please Nancy she had
+promised to wear her geranium georgette, a soft dress that toned so well
+with her dark hair and dark eyes, for Mrs. Brandon was still young, and
+a handsome woman.
+
+And the girls were fairly dancing around the store, arranging chairs
+brought in from the porch, dining room and even from the kitchen.
+
+"Let's make a little platform for Mr. Sanders," Ruth proposed. "This top
+step of the back stairs will do. We don't have to open that door."
+
+"And have a stand and a glass of water--" Isabel added.
+
+"And flowers," insisted Nancy. "I must have flowers, they're so silly
+for a man's speech, they'll make every body laugh."
+
+"Maybe hollyhocks would," Ruth said, "but I doubt if your audience would
+see the joke if you put a bunch of roses there."
+
+So they progressed, until very soon, too soon for the girls, the company
+began to arrive.
+
+Mr. and Miss Townsend, and little, brown, woolly Tiny came first.
+
+"I'm afraid we're early," said the lady in her best silver silk dress
+and her very pretty new black-satin-trimmed-with-silver grapes, hat. She
+carried a little flat cushion for Tiny, out of respect for the silver
+silk dress.
+
+"Mother will be down directly," Nancy greeted Miss Townsend, in her very
+best manner. "Sit over here. We've fixed this corner for you."
+
+"Oh my!" exclaimed the lady in genuine admiration. "How lovely
+everything looks! However did you paint this old wood work white?"
+
+"For our cooking class, you know," replied Nancy, gaily. "Doesn't it
+look--hygienic?"
+
+"I--should--say--so!" Miss Townsend was aghast. "And I suppose, those
+spotless tables--"
+
+"Are the old ones from around the porches and every place," Nancy
+informed her. "We just daubed the legs white and covered the tops with
+oil cloth."
+
+"And I want to see that gas range. I've heard so much about it. Oh!
+there's Miss Manners," exclaimed Miss Townsend, "she'll explain it to
+me, and you may run along, dear." This was a release, not a dismissal
+for Nancy.
+
+"She'll buy one and that will be a good big discount for Manny," Nancy
+told the girls who had heard most of the conversation.
+
+"Yes. They've bought a new house--a brand spic-span new one," Ruth
+whispered. "Father said Miss Townsend wanted the shiniest one he had for
+sale," and there was a pardonable titter in response to that.
+
+But guests were now arriving in pairs. There were Mr. and Mrs. Ashley,
+Ruth's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Duryee, Isabel's parents, besides Ted,
+Buster and Nero, the latter three being promptly assigned by Ruth to the
+corner nearest the side door.
+
+"So you can watch for prowlers," she joked. "Some other folks might
+sneak up on the porch and listen in."
+
+"I'm all but stage struck," panted Nancy, trying to force the little
+kicked-up curls around her ears back into place. "And girls, take your
+places!" she admonished. "Here comes--the--talent! Mr. Sanders and
+Sibyl!"
+
+It really was taking on the look of some sort of entertainment,--for as
+Mr. Sanders and his daughter arrived there was a general presentation
+all around by Mrs. Brandon, while the girls, feeling very much like
+ushers at a school entertainment, stood with backs to the windows, just
+as they always did at school affairs.
+
+The preliminary formalities over, Mr. Sanders was rather humorously
+conducted to the "platform." This pleased Mr. Townsend "most to death"
+and he was heard to chuckle that "the old fire-house as town-hall had
+never held a better meeting."
+
+"I'll not keep you in suspense, my friends," began Mr. Sanders, without
+so much as clearing his throat, "but I'll just introduce myself to those
+who don't happen to know me. I'm Edwin Sanders of Eastern College,
+professor of science there." There was a murmur through the room at that
+announcement.
+
+"Professor!" was the surprised word it conveyed.
+
+"And I came here to experiment," the gentleman continued in a pleasantly
+matter of fact voice. "I found this little house had a direct air shaft,
+it runs from this room at that old fireplace down to the cellar, and out
+through an old-fashioned flue-door, you know the kind."
+
+"That's a relic on this place," spoke up Mr. Elmer Townsend. "It was
+built in here by a Dutch man from Holland--"
+
+"Yes, and it's a good one," agreed Mr. Sanders. "Well, you see, my
+friends," he continued, "I had to experiment on an extremely delicate
+little instrument," he was all professor now, "so, when I found the
+exact conditions that I required here, I made an offer to the owner, Mr.
+Townsend."
+
+There was much shifting around and significant scraping of chairs at
+this point, but the speaker was in no way disturbed.
+
+"I thought it only fair to tell him how important my experiment was, and
+what it would mean if it worked out as I expected. Well, it did," he
+stated emphatically, "but not without the usual trouble that must be
+endured if we want to succeed in big things."
+
+Miss Townsend was whispering, or she thought she was, and her brother
+was trying to restrain her.
+
+"I could not tell the nature of this work because there was a new secret
+principle involved in it," Mr. Sanders said, having overheard, likely,
+what Miss Townsend was trying to tell her neighbor. "That was why Mr.
+Townsend and I had to keep our secret so close."
+
+Ted and Buster were visibly squirming in their chairs, they were so
+interested, but old Nero snoozed contentedly, not even suspecting
+apparently, the presence of another dog, Tiny, that was safely hidden in
+Miss Townsend's cushion. And as if Mr. Sanders remembered Tiny, he next
+said:
+
+"Even the little dog was so interested as we worked he would insist upon
+barking a tune for us. Sometimes we were afraid he might tell," he
+finished, quizzically.
+
+"That was it," Ted privately told Buster. "Nancy said that puny, little
+dog barked all the time he was in here."
+
+"After I got my point worked out in this air shaft," went on Mr.
+Sanders, who had actually taken a sip of water from the glass at his
+hand, "I was obliged to try it out in a very much more condensed
+atmosphere. And just there is where I was forced to excite such wild
+suspicions." He was almost laughing at the recollection.
+
+"It was funny; I'm willing to admit that myself, for like the King of
+France in the story, I marched up the hill, but unlike him, I did not
+march down again. And I'm surprised that no one seems to have guessed
+where I was hidden."
+
+There was a pause. Nancy's face was betraying her suspicions but she
+uttered no word.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Just once I was almost discovered," continued Mr. Sanders. "And that
+was the other day when my cat--cried. Just then some one was passing--"
+
+"I was," blurted out Nancy. "And I heard you singing!"
+
+Every one laughed.
+
+"Was I singing, really?" asked the professor. "Well, I might have been
+for I was surely very happy. The anemometer was working beautifully down
+there, in my--cistern!"
+
+"Cistern!" Every one seemed to cry out the word.
+
+"He was in the cistern!" Nancy gasped. "That was where I heard
+the--noises coming from!"
+
+"In the cistern!"
+
+It took some time for the older folks to realize the significance of the
+revelation, but the girls and boys seemed instantly to understand.
+
+"Yes, and you would be surprised what fine quarters I've had there. I
+have that nice, perfectly dry cistern actually furnished, even a rug on
+the floor! Chairs and a table, a looking glass--oh, you are all invited
+to inspect now," announced the professor cheerily, "for my precious
+instrument has been safely shipped to the manufacturers, and I've been
+able--"
+
+"He's paid me more than a thousand dollars," declared Mr. Townsend,
+rising from his chair and addressing the house, "and I think it's only
+fair that folks around here should know how well I've made out on my
+investment."
+
+"Yes indeed," Miss Townsend chimed in, "if any body in Long Leigh has
+heard me say I was worried about Brother Elmer's money affairs," she
+sort of hesitated before framing that term, "I just want them to know
+now that we've made more money by Mr. Sanders investment in six months,
+than we would make in six years in this little store."
+
+A burst of applause followed this. And presently every one seemed to be
+talking at once. The formality of the occasion was lost in a round of
+enthusiastic interest; the men demanding to know more about the
+invention, while the women and girls were keen to hear all about the
+cistern.
+
+Sibyl was glad to tell them about the curious little work shop under the
+ground, and she soon had a group of the young folks listening to her
+story.
+
+"I thought it was awful, at first," she explained, "but, of course, I'm
+used to father's peculiar experiments. He has invented some wonderful
+instruments," she said this in a properly restrained voice. "They are
+being used in the college observatories, where they make weather
+predictions, you know," she pointed out.
+
+"And I did notice some little pipes sticking out of the sides of that
+cistern box," Nancy now remembered. "I might have known, but I was too
+surprised to investigate," she admitted frankly.
+
+"Really girls," Sibyl went on, "Dad has that cistern furnished like a
+room. You walk down a little ladder, and sit on a regular chair--"
+
+"But isn't it dark?" Ruth wanted to know.
+
+"Oh, no. One whole side of the cover is glass, a side that is back away
+from the opening," Sibyl told them. "No one would ever notice the glass
+there. And besides that, father had cut the concrete away, over on one
+side of the bowl, and there he made a little skylight. You would never
+notice that either, as there are bushes all around it," she said.
+
+By this time Ted and Buster were demanding to be heard. They had tried
+to get a hearing with the older folks, but according to Ted "the buzzing
+there was worse than a bee fight."
+
+"And say, Nan," he called out now, "I just want to know about--about
+what Nero was after down the cellar, you know."
+
+Mr. Sanders was trying to make his way toward the girls just then, so
+Nancy delayed answering Ted.
+
+"And say, Ted," Mr. Sanders began. "About your dog. You needn't worry
+that anyone will take him from you. That man who spoke to you used to be
+care-taker at the old stone house. And he was supposed to look after
+Nero, whose real name is Jason. That's the fellow who went after the
+Golden Fleece you remember."
+
+"Jason?" repeated Ted. "Sounds like an auto fixer. I like Nero best."
+
+"All right, son," and Mr. Sanders gave Ted a friendly slap on the
+shoulders. "Nero he shall be. But as I was saying, the man who was
+expected to care for your dog hadn't done so, and he's got sort of
+worried lately and wanted to get him back."
+
+"He can't have him," Ted defended stoutly.
+
+"No, that's right; he can't. And I told him so. He knows now that the
+dog is in good hands, and that I'll answer any questions the Ellors
+family care to ask about him."
+
+Ted's face was now beaming with joy. He had been so worried about Nero
+that he simply wouldn't let the animal out of his protective sight for
+days past.
+
+"And Mr. Sanders," he insisted, "night before last Nero saved us from a
+flood. A water pipe broke right over there and Nero--made us all get
+up--"
+
+"Night before last!" exclaimed the professor.
+
+"Yes; and Nancy turned off the water--"
+
+"That was the night I had my precious little air-meter right under this
+chimney," said Mr. Sanders very slowly, "and if water had trickled
+through the floor, down onto that, it would have been ruined."
+
+"Then, just as Ted says," Nancy spoke, "Nero really did save it, for
+there was a regular flood around this hearth."
+
+"You must have seen me leaving the grounds that afternoon," Mr. Sanders
+admitted. "I was sure you did, but I wasn't ready to tell my story--just
+then. But Ted, I'll have to get you a fine collar for Nero--"
+
+The girls were begging Nancy to make an announcement.
+
+"Go on," urged Ruth. "They're all talking together and no one will
+listen unless you get up on the step."
+
+With this and considerable more urging, Nancy finally mounted the step.
+She smiled shyly at her mother as she passed along, for Mrs. Brandon,
+like the other "principals," was having a busy time of it.
+
+"I just want to say," Nancy began with a little quaver in her voice,
+"that we've prepared some little cakes and punch as samples of our
+cooking class work, and we'll be glad to have you all stay and try
+them."
+
+There was real applause at this, and mentioning the cooking class--was a
+signal for another outburst of comment from the ladies. They all
+believed in girls doing something during summer, and they did not
+believe in girls "wasting" an entire vacation.
+
+"I think we ought to give a cheer for the girls," Mr. Sanders proposed.
+"They have kept things going pretty lively around here this summer, just
+lively enough to save me from having been discovered."
+
+"And I'd like to say a word," ventured timid Miss Manners. But the girls
+would not permit her to do so, Nancy, especially being fearful that the
+little lady's gratitude, for the domestic science class and for Mrs.
+Brandon's hospitality might become embarrassing.
+
+"Any how," said Buster to Ted, "we can have our dog."
+
+"And a dandy new collar," appended Ted.
+
+Nancy was waiting a chance to finish her announcements, and in a little
+lull she again called out:
+
+"Mr. Sanders and Miss Sanders are entertaining tomorrow evening at the
+Waterfall House. Every body is invited! And you will be treated there to
+some real samples of our cakes!"
+
+"Now I call that lov-el-lee," declared Miss Townsend, shaking her new
+hat at every syllable. "And these cakes," (the girls were passing them)
+"are de-lic-ious."
+
+Nancy was very happy. She tugged at her mother's arm and cuddled her
+head against the loving shoulder, just as she had always done in her
+great moments.
+
+"Isn't it lov-ell-lee, Mums," she whispered.
+
+"A complete--success!" murmured the mother.
+
+And the next morning half, if not all, of Long Leigh trooped up the hill
+to inspect the wonderfully outfitted and "infitted" cistern, that had so
+long escaped notice, on the grounds of the old, stone house.
+
+"I was going to look down that cistern first chance I got," Nancy
+confessed. "But being successful is such a busy--business," she joked,
+"that I think it will be a delightful change to begin a real vacation
+with mother tomorrow."
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nancy Brandon, by Lilian Garis
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 45497 ***