Anne looked at her over her shoulder. “That isn’t the same thing, as you very well know!” she declared. “Yachting is only a game. You don’t have to be brave to do that kind of thing. Somebody else does it for you. Captain Sackett is different! He is the first real hero I ever met; but he is just a common man.”
“Mother says the biggest people in the world have seemed simple men,” said Nancy gravely. “Even Abraham Lincoln. Or even the Greatest One of all.”
CHAPTER XI
THE EAGLE’S NEST
A fortnight went by, and “the Tenderfeet,” as Dick called the newer campers, were growing used to camp ways which had seemed queer and hard to some of them at first. In all that time Anne received no letter from her father. But one day Tante did. She did not tell Anne this, but put the letter in her apron pocket and carried it to her favorite spot in the woods to read by herself.
The letter was dated from a place in Canada, and was signed by Mr. Poole. There were some mysterious words among the plain business matters mentioned in the letter. Mr. Poole was writing about the money to be paid for Anne’s summer expenses at the camp. “It is a crisis with me,” he wrote. “You’ll understand before long, I guess. I’ll be glad if you will keep Anne as long as you can; then I’ll have to do something, I don’t know what. I can’t write to her, and my wife is all bound up in our little baby, of course. You can’t expect much of her. She isn’t very strong, and of course Baby has first claim on us. That word ‘claim’ makes me sick anyway! I’ve got to harden my heart to everybody. You’ll soon know what I mean.”
“What can the man mean?” thought Tante, fingering this strange letter. “Harden his heart! I should say it must be hard as granite already! Poor little Anne. She is worrying because she does not hear from him. But letters like this don’t make one happy. We must help her to have as good a time as possible this summer.”
Tante went straight to the Fairy Ring where Anne was making up a second cot bed, her own being already properly finished. Her eyes were red. And when Tante appeared in the tent opening Anne hastily brushed a tear with her khaki sleeve. “I’m making Beverly’s bed,” she said, trying to appear careless. “She made mine yesterday, without my asking her. Beverly is very nice.”
“I hear you girls are going for a climb to-day,” said Tante smiling approval. “It’s a lovely day for it, and the Eagle’s Nest is not very far.”
“I can climb all right,” said Anne. “But I’ve got letters to write. Tante, why do you suppose I don’t hear from my father?” she cried suddenly, showing what the trouble was that made her eyes red and the tears ready to start.