Nan Sherwood on the Mexican Border

by Annie Roe Carr

Nan took the handkerchief away from her and wiped her own eyes, hard. Then she smiled. “Don’t mind me,” she laughed. “I’m just an old silly. Please, cousin Adair, what’s in the rest of that package.”

“Yes, what’s in it?” Even Adair MacKenzie sounded as though he had lost possession of himself for a moment. Now, he collected himself again and took the party in his hands, as he had had it before. “Too much stalling around here,” he grumbled to no one in particular, and then went on with the distribution of the mail.

The letters from home were fun to get, fun to read, and fun to share. Each one was read and re-read a dozen times by the girl that received it, and then it was passed around and enjoyed by all the others. There were letters from their mothers and fathers and letters from their friends. There was a round robin from their pals at school.

Though all of them had news, this last had the choicest bits.

“Do you know that,” it began, “Professor Krenner and Dr. Beulah Prescott are going to be married before the summer is over?”

“Nan,” Bess stopped Nan who was reading the bit aloud to the others, “is it true? Did I hear you right?”

“I guess you did,” Nan’s eyes looked merry now. She of all the girls had been the only one who knew that this announcement was coming. Beloved by Dr. Beulah and the best student and most wide-awake person that had ever come to Dr. Krenner’s attention, she had been in their confidence before school had closed.

The romance between the Principal of Lakeview and one of its most scholarly instructors had blossomed the summer the two had escorted the present group of girls on their European trip. Professor Krenner joined the party in London, just before the coronation. There he and Dr. Prescott learned of the million and one things they had in common. Nan knew of this, knew too that the wedding was to take place in the chapel at Lakeview just before school opened. Already, she had planned to attend.

Now, she went on with the reading of the round robin. “Do you know,” she continued, “that the old boathouse where we had that grand party on Bess’s twenty-five dollars, is going to be pulled down and a big new one built?

“That the dormitories are being redecorated and that corridor four where we have rooms is going to have all the walls done over and that serapes will look especially nice hanging on them?