Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp; Or, The Old Lumberman's Secret

“Oh, look there, Nan!” cried Bess Harley suddenly, as they turned into High Street from the avenue on which Tillbury's high school was situated.
“Look where?” queried Nan Sherwood promptly. “Up in the air, down on the ground or all around?” and she carried out her speech in action, finally spinning about on one foot in a manner to shock the more staid Elizabeth.
“Oh, Nan!”
“Oh, Bess!” mocked her friend.
She was a rosy-cheeked, brown-eyed girl, with fly-away hair, a blue tam-o'-shanter set jauntily upon it, and a strong, plump body that she had great difficulty in keeping still enough in school to satisfy her teachers.
“Do behave, Nan,” begged Bess. “We're on the public street.”
“How awful!” proclaimed Nan Sherwood, making big eyes at her chum. “Why folks know we're only high-school girls, so, of course, we're crazy! Otherwise we wouldn't BE high-school girls.”
“Nonsense!” cried Bess, interrupting. “Do be reasonable, Nan. And look yonder! What do you suppose that crowd is at the big gate of the Atwater Mills?”
Nan Sherwood's merry face instantly clouded. She was not at all a thoughtless girl, although she was of a sanguine, cheerful temperament.
The startled change in her face amazed Bess.
“Oh dear!” the latter cried. “What is it? Surely, there's nobody hurt in the mills? Your father——-”
“I'm afraid, Bess dear, that it means there are a great many hurt in the mills.”