Nan Sherwood at Lakeview Hall by Annie Roe Carr

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NAN SHERWOOD AT LAKEVIEW HALL

_THE MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED BOATHOUSE_

ANNIE ROE CARR

THE WORLD SYNDICATE PUBLISHING CO. CLEVELAND, O. NEW YORK, N.Y.

_Printed in the United States of America_ by THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO. CLEVELAND, O.

NAN SHERWOOD AT LAKEVIEW HALL

CHAPTER I

THE BRAND NEW BAG

There would have been no trouble at all, Nan was sure, had it not been for that new bag.

In the first place it was a present from her Aunt Kate Sherwood, although Nan purchased it herself. The purchasing of most of her school outfit was supervised by Mrs. Harley, at the same time that her own daughter's was bought, but a few last purchases were left to the girls and Nan and Bess certainly had a most delightful time shopping in Chicago for a week, before they started for Lakeview Hall.

Of course, Bess' mother was right at hand to advise and guide; otherwise careless Bess would have bought with prodigal hand, and cautious Nan's outfit would not have been as well selected as the girl's absent mother would have desired.

But nobody interfered with the matter of the brand new bag. Nan and her chum went to one of the smartest leather-goods shops and selected the shiny, russet-leather beauty without any adult interference save that of an obliging clerk. Mrs. Henry Sherwood had saved the money herself and insisted upon Nan's taking it and purchasing "just the handsomest traveling bag the money would buy."

"You know, honey-bird," the good woman said to her niece, the evening before Nan left Pine Camp--which was away up in the Peninsula of Michigan. "You know, honey-bird, money's been scarce with your Uncle Hen and me for some time back; but now that the trouble about the Perkins Tract is settled, and he can go to lumbering again, we'll be all right.

"I honestly do believe, Nan, that if you hadn't made such a friend of Toby Vanderwiller and of his wife and his crippled grandson, and if you and your Cousin Tom hadn't helped Tobe out of the swamp when he got mired in the big storm, that maybe the trouble about the boundary line between your uncle's timber option and Gedney Raffer's tract, wouldn't have been settled, in court or out, for a year or two.

"That being the case," Mrs. Sherwood pursued, "your Uncle Henry and I, and Tom and Rafe, would have been mighty poor for a long time to come. Now the prospect's bright before us, child, and I want you should take this I've saved from my egg and berry money, and buy you just the handsomest traveling bag you can get for it.

"I've seen 'em all pictured out in the mail-order catalogue--full of brushes, and combs, and cut-glass bottles to hold sweet scent, and tooth-powder, and all sorts of didos. That's the kind I want you to have."

"Oh! but Aunt Kate!" Nan Sherwood said doubtfully, "this is a great deal of money to spend for a hand bag."

"I wish 'twas twice as much!" declared the lumberman's wife, vigorously.

"Twice as much?" Nan gasped.

"Yes. Then the things could be gold trimmed instead of only silver. I want you to have the very nicest bag of any girl going to that big school."

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