“Yes, but to Mexico. He wants to take us all to Mexico and he doesn’t even know us!” Bess couldn’t believe it, not even after seeing and hearing the old Scotchman. “And if I can’t believe it,” she questioned, “how in the world will the others when they haven’t even seen him or heard him talk?”
“Don’t you worry, Bessie,” Mrs. Sherwood looked affectionately at this girl who was almost a second daughter to her. “They’ll be both seeing him and hearing him talk before long now. If I know Adair MacKenzie at all, he’ll be at work on this thing before another day is up. And if he’s one-half the man he used to be, you might just as well begin packing tonight.”
“You mean to say you are sure we will all go?” Bess was incredulous.
“Yes, you’ll go and have the grandest time you ever have had,” Mrs. Sherwood said confidently. “There never was another man like Adair MacKenzie.”
“Then I’m going?” Nan had, despite her cousin’s assurance, been somewhat doubtful. She knew that her mother had wanted her to stay at home this summer, that she had been lonesome without her daughter the summer before and was planning all sorts of little surprises for this vacation.
“Go! Of course you’re going!” Mrs. Sherwood nearly dropped her biscuit dough in her surprise at Nan’s question. “And I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if your father and I were to go at least part way with you. Adair said something about it. Aye, but he’s a thoughtful soul.”
So it came about that Rhoda Hammond, Grace and Walter Mason, Amelia “Procrastination” Boggs, and Laura Polk, all school chums of Bess and Nan, in the days that followed, received telegraphic invitations to spend the summer with Nan in Mexico.
While each of them is laying her plans, packing her clothes and wiring “Santa Claus”, as Laura Polk immediately dubbed Cousin Adair, let’s briefly review the adventures of Nan Sherwood and her friends up to this point.
Nan was born in Tillbury, a pleasant little town, some distance from any big city, and her early school days were spent with Elizabeth Harley, the only one of Nan’s many friends who has followed her through all of her adventures.
In the first book of the series, “Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp” or “The Old Lumberman’s Secret” Nan and Bess are pals at Tillbury High School. Here Nan is extremely popular with all of her classmates and excels in sports. She and Bess have grand times together, though the Sherwoods live on a reduced income while Bess, the daughter of one of Tillbury’s wealthiest families, has everything that money can buy.