Those who have read “Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch or The Old Mexican’s Treasure” will remember Mrs. Hammond too and remember well her first meeting with the girls.
“I’ll never forget it,” Nan had told her own mother again and again. “As we rode up to the veranda of the low-roofed ranch house Mr. and Mrs. Hammond stood there on the porch waiting for us. She was a tall lovely person. I liked her the moment I saw her. As I came up the steps behind her friend, Mrs. Janeway, she took hold of me and asked ‘Who is this?’
“Before I had a chance to answer she ran her fingers lightly over my face, even feeling my ears and the way my hair fluffed over my forehead and the way my eyebrows were. Then, without any hesitation and before I had said anything at all, she said, ‘Why, this is Nan Sherwood that I have heard so much about.’
“When I asked her how she knew, she laughed the prettiest laugh I’ve ever heard, outside of yours, and said that she knew because Rhoda had written home about me and because she was a witch. She knew the others by touch too. Oh, she was such a nice person and so good to us all the while we were there!
“She never once said a thing about her blindness. She seemed to take it for granted and never excused herself on account of it.
“I only hope that, if ever anything terrible happens to me, I will remember her and be as sweet and uncomplaining about it as she is.”
The other girls had felt the same as Nan. All had left Rose Ranch with a very warm feeling for Mrs. Hammond and they were all better girls for having met her.
In the days that followed their return to school that year they sent her a gift along with their bread-and-butter notes. Ever after that, boxes Rhoda received from her Western home always contained some sort of goodies specially marked for Rhoda’s Lakeview Hall friends. So Mrs. Hammond had become a well-beloved friend to them all.
Now, when the telegram came telling of her serious illness, they all felt personally concerned.
“Oh, Nan,” Laura came into the room where Nan was helping Rhoda dress and comforting her as much as possible, “I can’t find your cousin anyplace. He seems to have gone out on business and he didn’t leave word with anyone as to where he was going.”