CHAPTER XXXNO LONGER A NOBODY
After Jennie Bruce’s father, on behalf of Nancy, made his first demand upon Senator Montgomery in reprisal of the latter’s diversion of Nancy’s fortune, Grace Montgomery disappeared suddenly from Pinewood Hall.
It had been so sudden that the girls—especially those who had been so friendly with her—could scarcely recover from the shock.
At first, when Nancy and Jennie had gone off at midnight, it was rumored around the school (said rumor starting from Cora Rathmore’s room) that the two chums had been expelled for holding an “orgy” after hours. And there was nobody to contradict this statement, eagerly repeated by the Montgomery clique, until Jennie came back.
She was bound not to tell Nancy’s secret, however; otherwise Grace Montgomery would have “sung small.” The latter, however, was her bold and mischievous self right up to the very day—some weeks later—when she received a long letter from her heart-broken mother.
Mrs. Montgomery had never known the truth about her sister’s child. It became known somehow that Grace’s mother begged Grace to make a friend of Nancy and try to influence her to make her lawyer’s demands less severe upon the Senator, for his fortune was toppling.
But Grace would never have done this. She had talked of, and to, Nancy Nelson too outrageously. She could not have asked a favor of the girl she so disliked—whom she doubly disliked now!
So she borrowed her fare of Madame Schakael and took the first train home; and Pinewood Hall never saw her again. Indeed, the girls she left behind scarcely heard of Grace Montgomery. She never wrote to Cora, even; and had Bob Endress not come over from Cornell for the New Year dance, Nancy and Jennie would not have heard much about her.
“They have all gone back to California,” said Bob, who did not at all understand the rights of the matter. “Somehow the Senator has lost most of his money, and they had just enough left to buy a little fruit ranch down in the state somewhere. Too bad!”
Nancy did not explain. Why should she have injured his cousin in his estimation? But she and Bob remained very good friends.
Nancy lived quite as plainly as she had before. She saw no reason for changing her mode of living because the lawyers told her there were great sums of money in store for her.
That summer, however, shedidinsist on taking the entire Bruce family to the mountains as her guests; for they had been very kind to her, and that while she was still “A Little Miss Nobody.”
Mr. Gordon had gone back to his practice ere this. He was much aged in appearance and would always walk with a limp; but his confidential clerk, a certain red-haired youth in whom Jennie Bruce would always have a particular interest, was at hand to take the burden of work from the lawyer’s shoulders when need came.
Perhaps Patrick Sarsfield O’Brien outstripped everybody else in the changes that came. In six months (during which he diligently applied himself to the night school course) he shed his slang like a mantle. Instead of cheap detective stories hidden in his desk, he had text-books.
He is, in fact, a rising young man, and will be a good lawyer some day. Mr. Gordon is very proud of him.
And so is Nancy. Scorch was her first friend, and she will never forget him or cease to be interested in his growth and welfare.
Nancy and Jennie are climbing the scholastichill together. Already the girls and teachers of the Hall are beginning to brag about Nancy Nelson. She stands at the head of her class, she is stroke of the school eight, champion on the ice, and has won a state tennis championship medal in the yearly tournament of school clubs. She is no longer “A Little Miss Nobody.”
Yet she remains the same gentle, rather timid girl she always was. She can fight for the rights of others; but she does not put forth her own claims to particular attention.
“Pshaw! You let folks walk all over you just the same as ever, Nance!” her chum, Jennie, declares. “Haven’t you any spunk?”
“I—I don’t want to fight them,” Nancy replies.
“Goodness to gracious and eight hands around!” ejaculates Jennie, with exasperation. “If it hadn’t been for Scorch and me you’d never got hold of your fortune and sent the Montgomerys back to the tall pines. You know you wouldn’t!”
But Nancy only smiles at that. She doesn’t mind having her chum take for herself a big share of the credit for this happy outcome of her affairs.
THE END
SOMETHING ABOUTAMY BELL MARLOWEAND HER BOOKS FOR GIRLS
In these days, when the printing presses are turning out so many books for girls that are good, bad and indifferent, it is refreshing to come upon the works of such a gifted authoress as Miss Amy Bell Marlowe, who is now under contract to write exclusively for Messrs. Grosset & Dunlap.
In many ways Miss Marlowe’s books may be compared with those of Miss Alcott and Mrs. Meade, but all are thoroughly modern and wholly American in scene and action. Her plots, while never improbable, are exceedingly clever, and her girlish characters are as natural as they are interesting.
On the following pages will be found a list of Miss Marlowe’s books. Every girl in our land ought to read these fresh and wholesome tales. They are to be found at all booksellers. Each volume is handsomely illustrated and bound in cloth, stamped in colors. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York. A free catalogue of Miss Marlowe’s books may be had for the asking.
THE OLDEST OF FOUR
“I don’t see any way out!”
It was Natalie’s mother who said that, after the awful news had been received that Mr. Raymond had been lost in a shipwreck on the Atlantic. Natalie was the oldest of four children, and the family was left with but scant means for support.
“I’ve got to do something—yes, I’ve just got to!” Natalie said to herself, and what the brave girl did is well related in “The Oldest of Four; Or, Natalie’s Way Out.” In this volume we find Natalie with a strong desire to become a writer. At first she contributes to a local paper, but soon she aspires to larger things, and comes in contact with the editor of a popular magazine. This man becomes her warm friend, and not only aids her in a literary way but also helps in a hunt for the missing Mr. Raymond.
Natalie has many ups and downs, and has to face more than one bitter disappointment. But she is a plucky girl through and through.
“One of the brightest girls’ stories ever penned,” one well-known author has said of this book, and we agree with him. Natalie is a thoroughly lovable character, and one long to be remembered. Published as are all the Amy Bell Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by all booksellers. Ask your dealer to let you look the volume over.
THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM
“We’ll go to the old farm, and we’ll take boarders! We can fix the old place up and, maybe, make money!”
The father of the two girls was broken down in health and a physician had recommended that he go to the country, where he could get plenty of fresh air and sunshine. An aunt owned an abandoned farm and she said the family could live on this and use the place as they pleased. It was great sport moving and getting settled, and the boarders offered one surprise after another. There was a mystery about the old farm, and a mystery concerning one of the boarders, and how the girls got to the bottom of affairs is told in detail in the story, which is called, “The Girls of Hillcrest Farm; Or, The Secret of the Rocks.”
It was great fun to move to the farm, and once the girls had the scare of their lives. And they attended a great “vendue” too.
“I just had to write that story—I couldn’t help it,” said Miss Marlowe, when she handed in the manuscript. “I knew just such a farm when I was a little girl, and oh! what fun I had there! And there was a mystery about that place, too!”
Published, like all the Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale wherever good books are sold.
A LITTLE MISS NOBODY
“Oh, she’s only a little nobody! Don’t have anything to do with her!”
How often poor Nancy Nelson heard those words, and how they cut her to the heart. And the saying was true, shewasa nobody. She had no folks, and she did not know where she had come from. All she did know was that she was at a boarding school and that a lawyer paid her tuition bills and gave her a mite of spending money.
“I am going to find out who I am, and where I came from,” said Nancy to herself, one day, and what she did, and how it all ended, is absorbingly related in “A Little Miss Nobody; Or, With the Girls of Pinewood Hall.” Nancy made a warm friend of a poor office boy who worked for that lawyer, and this boy kept his eyes and ears open and learned many things.
The book tells much about boarding school life, of study and fun mixed, and of a great race on skates. Nancy made some friends as well as enemies, and on more than one occasion proved that she was “true blue” in the best meaning of that term.
Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York and for sale by booksellers everywhere. If you desire a catalogue of Amy Bell Marlowe books send to the publishers for it and it will come free.
THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH
Helen was very thoughtful as she rode along the trail from Sunset Ranch to the View. She had lost her father but a month before, and he had passed away with a stain on his name—a stain of many years’ standing, as the girl had just found out.
“I am going to New York and I am going to clear his name!” she resolved, and just then she saw a young man dashing along, close to the edge of a cliff. Over he went, and Helen, with no thought of the danger to herself, went to the rescue.
Then the brave Western girl found herself set down at the Grand Central Terminal in New York City. She knew not which way to go or what to do. Her relatives, who thought she was poor and ignorant, had refused to even meet her. She had to fight her way along from the start, and how she did this, and won out, is well related in “The Girl from Sunset Ranch; Or, Alone in a Great City.”
This is one of the finest of Amy Bell Marlowe’s books, with its true-to-life scenes of the plains and mountains, and of the great metropolis. Helen is a girl all readers will love from the start.
Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers everywhere.
WYN’S CAMPING DAYS
“Oh, girls, such news!” cried Wynifred Mallory to her chums, one day. “We can go camping on Lake Honotonka! Isn’t it grand!”
It certainly was, and the members of the Go-Ahead Club were delighted. Soon they set off, with their boy friends to keep them company in another camp not far away. Those boys played numerous tricks on the girls, and the girls retaliated, you may be sure. And then Wyn did a strange girl a favor, and learned how some ancient statues of rare value had been lost in the lake, and how the girl’s father was accused of stealing them.
“We must do all we can for that girl,” said Wyn. But this was not so easy, for the girl campers had many troubles of their own. They had canoe races, and one of them fell overboard and came close to drowning, and then came a big storm, and a nearby tree was struck by lightning.
“I used to love to go camping when a girl, and I love to go yet,” said Miss Marlowe, in speaking of this tale, which is called, “Wyn’s Camping Days; Or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club.” “I think all girls ought to know the pleasures of summer life under canvas.”
A book that ought to be in the hands of all girls. Issued by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers everywhere.
GIRL SCOUTS SERIESBy LILLIAN ELIZABETH ROYAuthor of the “Polly Brewster Books”Handsomely Bound. Colored Wrappers. IllustratedEach Volume Complete in Itself.
GIRL SCOUTS SERIES
By LILLIAN ELIZABETH ROYAuthor of the “Polly Brewster Books”
Handsomely Bound. Colored Wrappers. IllustratedEach Volume Complete in Itself.
Here is a series that holds the same position for girls that the Tom Slade and Roy Blakeley books hold for boys. They are delightful stories of Girl Scout camp life amid beautiful surroundings and are filled with stirring adventures.
GIRL SCOUTS AT DANDELION CAMP
This is a story which centers around the making and the enjoying of a mountain camp, spiced with the fun of a lively troop of Girl Scouts. The charm of living in the woods, of learning woodcraft of all sorts, of adventuring into the unknown, combine to make a busy and an exciting summer for the girls.
GIRL SCOUTS IN THE ADIRONDACKS
New scenery, new problems of camping, association with a neighboring camp of Boy Scouts, and a long canoe trip with them through the Fulton Chain, all in the setting of the marvelous Adirondacks, bring to the girls enlargement of horizon, new development, and new joys.
GIRL SCOUTS IN THE ROCKIES
On horseback from Denver through Estes Park as far as the Continental Divide, climbing peaks, riding wild trails, canoeing through canyons, shooting rapids, encountering a landslide, a summer blizzard, a sand storm, wild animals, and forest fires, the girls pack the days full with unforgettable experiences.
GIRL SCOUTS IN ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO
The Girl Scouts visit the mountains and deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. They travel over the old Sante Fe trail, cross the Painted Desert, and visit the Grand Canyon. Their exciting adventures form a most interesting story.
GIRL SCOUTS IN THE REDWOODS
The girls spend their summer in the Redwoods of California and incidentally find a way to induce a famous motion picture director in Hollywood to offer to produce a film that stars the Girl Scouts of America.
GROSSET & DUNLAP,Publishers, NEW YORK
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIESBy LAURA LEE HOPEAuthor of the “Bobbsey Twins,” “Bunny Brown” Series, Etc.Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers.Every Volume Complete in Itself.
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of the “Bobbsey Twins,” “Bunny Brown” Series, Etc.
Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers.Every Volume Complete in Itself.
These are the tales of the various adventures participated in by a group of bright, fun-loving, up-to-date girls who have a common bond in their fondness for outdoor life, camping, travel and adventure. They are clean and wholesome and free from sensationalism.
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALETHE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKETHE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CARTHE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMPTHE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDATHE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEWTHE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICETHE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLANDTHE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSETHE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINTTHE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGETHE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLETHE OUTDOOR GIRLS AROUND THE CAMPFIRETHE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON CAPE CODTHE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT FOAMING FALLSTHE OUTDOOR GIRLS ALONG THE COASTTHE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT SPRING HILL FARM
GROSSET & DUNLAP,Publishers, NEW YORK