You must not look for our return, my
dear Nancy, too soon. Momsey's health is so much improved by the
sea voyage and the wonderfully invigorating air here, that I
should be loath to bring her home at once, even if the matter of
the legacy were settled. By the way, the sum she will finally
receive from Mr. Hugh Blake's estate will be quite as much as the
first letter from the lawyer led us to expect. Some of your
dearest wishes, my dear, may be realized in time."
"Oh! I can go to Lakeview Hall with Bess, after all!" cried Nan,
aloud, at this point.
Indeed, that possibility quite filled the girl's mind for a
while. Nothing else in Papa Sherwood's letter, aside from the
good news of Momsey's improved health, so pleased her as this
thought. She hastened to write a long letter to Bess Harley, with
Lakeview Hall as the text.
Summer seemed to stride out of the forest now, full panoplied.
After the frost and snow of her early days at Pine Camp, Nan had
not expected such heat. The pools beside the road steamed. The
forest was atune from daybreak to midnight with winged denizens,
for insect and bird life seemed unquenchable in the Big Woods.
Especially was this true of the tamarack swamp. It was
dreadfully hot at noontide on the corduroy road which passed Toby
Vanderwiller's little farm; but often Nan Sherwood went that way
in the afternoon.
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