Nancy Lee's lookout

Introduction

Nancy Lee was at Fair Oaks School when her readers made her acquaintance in her first story, " Nancy Lee.” It was there that she met the Terrible Twins : tall, awkward Jane and pretty little Christina. The three friends called themselves the Triangle, and in the spring term they formed the mysterious order of W. W.’s.

But " Nancy Lee's Spring Term ” at Fair Oaks School is a story in itself. For it was then that Nancy had her great adventure with Timmy Lee Marshall Raftery, that adorable infant whose arrival at Fair Oaks ushered in an era of unprecedented excitement and interest. When Timmy had to be taken home, Nancy was a proud member of his escort-party, and she had just returned from that mission when the story of her summer at Halcyon Bay opens.

Margaret Warde.

The Green Knight’s Big Day .

3*3

XIX. Illustrations

How They Had Chattered .

PAGE

. . . Frontispiece

“ I’m All Right Now ” .

. . . . 42 %

“ I’ve Been On the Lookout ”

. . . . 105 /

“ Thanks, I Was Just Going”

. . . . 201 ^

She Reached For the Ball .

. 238

“ Has a Telegram Come ? ”

. . . . 269 ^

“ My Balloons Aren’t Here ”

. 299

Chapter I

“Oh, mother dear, what do you suppose our sweet little Timmy is doing now?” demanded Nancy Lee, darting out upon the piazza of the Lee family’s summer cottage, where her mother sat sewing.

It was a perfect June afternoon, all cool greenery near the piazza, and beyond, blue shimmering sea, sparkling and dancing in the sunshine. But Nancy, all out of tune with the summer peace, swept out of the house like a wild March wind, perched uncertainly on the piazza railing for an instant, and then dropped into a wicker chair near mother’s, and leaned limply back against the scarlet cushions with an expression of petulant misery on her usually merry face. The wild March breeze seemed almost ready to blow up an April shower.

And yet there was nothing the matter with Nancy Lee, except that she had been having too 9 good a time. She had just reached home after a very exciting journey, had found more excitements awaiting her at the journey’s end, and now she was feeling the reaction that all joyous adventures are likely to bring in their wake.

“ I just can’t settle down to anything ! ” sighed poor Nancy, without waiting for mother to answer her question.

It was rather more than a week since Fair Oaks School had closed for the summer vacation, and Timmy Lee Marshall Raftery, adored young protege of Fair Oaks, had started for his Western home, under the guardianship of Lloyd Mallory, Margaret Lewis, Jeanne Durand, and Nancy Lee, with little Miss Dutton to chaperon the expedition. There was no real reason why Nancy, not being a Western girl, should have been of Timmy’s party, except one. It was she who had found the adorable Timmy and presented him to Fair Oaks School. On this account he had always seemed to belong a little more to Nancy than to any one else. This fact and the possession of an understanding and generous father had secured for Nancy the chance of helping to escort Timmy home. And now Timmy was safe in the custody of his doting parents and Nancy had likewise arrived in the midst of her family circle. Her home-coming had brought her another bit of excitement, as unio expected and delightful as her father’s permission to make the trip out to Pine Ridge, Michigan, with Timmy. And father was at the bottom of this second surprise also — he was certainly a perfectly splendid father I

He had met his daughter in Boston, listened, almost appreciatively enough to suit her, to the story of her adventures in Pine Ridge and at Camp Sixty-Nine, and when even Nancy’s supreme interest in Timmy could evolve no new details about him, and the journey was beginning to seem very hot and dusty and tedious, father suddenly began to enliven it by mysterious references to a grand surprise that awaited Nancy at the end of the trip.

Yes, mother had been surprised, and brother Dick. As for the rest of the Lee family, — William, aged eleven, and Josephine, aged thirteen, more intimately known as Bill and Joe, because they were inseparable and Josephine was a good deal of a tomboy, — they, too, had been tremendously surprised, Mr. Lee assured his excited daughter. And did they like it? Mother and Dick did ; Bill and Joe hadn’t been sure, when father, who had had to hurry right back to business, after having escorted his family to Halcyon Bay and sprung his surprise on them, had seen the volatile pair last.

ii

“ Then I suppose I shall like it,” said Nancy sagely, “ if it’s the kind of thing grown-ups like, and children can’t appreciate at first.”

“ You’ve grown up amazingly since I saw you last spring,” teased father.

“ Well, I truly have,” Nancy defended herself earnestly. “ It may not show much outside, but I feel as old and responsible as anything. I’m going to do so many useful things to help this summer 1 ”

“ The surprise will like to hear that,” said father solemnly.

“The surprise — will — like Oh, father, it’s

not any kind of governess, is it? ”

Father shook his head. “ But it will appreciate small attentions from useful young persons like yourself. It’s not quite finished, you see. That is, it hasn’t fully adapted itself to our family ways.”

Nancy meditated. “ Are you talking fair, father? One minute the surprise sounds like a person, and then like a thing, and then like a new pet that has to be trained not to claw the furniture, like the Spoiled Kitten, or chew up mother’s best shoes, like Dick’s collie. Did Josephine take good care of the Spoiled Kitten on the train, father ? He hates to travel so. Why, here we are ! ”

It was quite dark by the time they got to the 12 end of the long trolley ride that supplemented the train trip. Nancy thought it rather silly of father to take a carriage, when the house was just a step off, up Rocky Neck Hill and down Willow Lane. But when their driver kept straight on, past Willow Lane, past the Inn, and on along Lighthouse Road, Nancy was first bewildered, and then, in a flash, she understood.

“You’ve bought us ‘The Crags/ father ! That’s the grand surprise ! ”

“ Good guess ! ” chuckled Mr. Lee. “ Your mother was at least twice as long making out what was up.”

“ Oh, I wanted that place so ! ” sighed Nancy blissfully. “ It’s such a nice, squatty, friendly house. Ours was so dreadfully plain and tall and thin. And the grounds are so big and so fascinating ! ”

“ You’ve never half seen them, Miss Cock-sure,” laughed her father. “ You were always wishing last summer that Miss Willis would let you wander around by yourself when you went to call on her, instead of giving you high tea on the piazza, and then sending you off for a ride in her launch.”

Nancy laughed. “ And she never once forgot to tell her captain to bring us back to the Inn dock, so we shouldn’t have the long walk home. I was always hoping she wouldn’t mention it, and then I could have been brought back to her dock and wandered a little speck, maybe, on the way up to the house to thank her for the sail. No, I haven’t really explored at all. But all the same, I know that ‘ The Crags ’ is perfectly, perfectly fascinating.”

“ How so ? ” demanded father.

“ Because it’s big enough and tangly enough to make you long to explore it ! ” returned Nancy promptly. “ And it’s right on the water, with its very own rocks ”

“ And its very own mosquitoes ! ” scoffed father.

Nancy reached over and squeezed his hand lovingly. “ You’re an old dear, father. First, to let me go home with Timmy, and then, this ! Of course the new house is for all of us, but I was the one that wanted it most, and I’ll try to pay up by ”

A war-whoop from the roadside interrupted Nancy’s grateful little speech, and William and Josephine leaped disconcertingly out of the shadows.

“ Hello, Nancy ! ” shrieked William.

“ Does she know about the surprise, father ? ” demanded Josephine.

“ Did you remember to bring us the fish-lines ? ” chanted the two in noisy unison.

“ Climb in, you rogues,” laughed father. “ You ought to be in bed. Anybody that’s going deep sea fishing with me before breakfast ”

“ Ob, joyous, joyous I ” sang Bill and Joe.

“ Here they are at last I ” Mother and Dick were down by the gate to meet the travelers — that fascinating rustic gate with red roses growing over it. It was too dark to see the roses, but Nancy reached up to feel them with one arm, while she hugged mother with the other.

“ Oh, I can’t wait to see how it looks, now that it’s ours I ” she cried, dancing down the dark, little woodsy path, with the house lights gleaming a welcome at the other end.

Beyond the piazza it was all velvety black, except where some yacht’s lamps twinkled green and gold and scarlet, or the stars shone softly high above them. But Nancy could feel the rocks and the pretty stone boat-house and the rippling waters of Halcyon Bay as surely as, a minute before, she had felt the red roses.

“ Oh, you can see the lighthouse lamp, Dick I You can, you can ! ” she cried delightedly, leaning out over the piazza railing. “ Do you remember how we discussed it last summer, and you said one couldn’t?”

“ I was right, too, till father had the foliage pruned up a bit,” explained Dick loftily. Dick had lived at “ The Crags ” for more than a week, and could affect the superiority of an old inhabitant. “ Don’t you ‘ oh ’ and ‘ ah ’ too much to-night,” he advised his excited sister. “ Save some thunder till you see how father’s had the boat fixed up, and you’ve played tennis on our own court.”

“ Oh, is there really a tennis-court ? ” gasped Nancy. “ Where? I never saw it.”

“ Off down there.” Dick waved vaguely into the soft darkness. “ You can’t get as much as a sight of it from the house or the road. It’s a dandy court too, or will be after we’ve played on it a bit. Now aren’t you sorry you wasted a week chasing home with that kid you call Timmy ? ”

“ Certainly not,” declared Nancy vehemently. “ But now I’m here I simply can’t wait for it to be morning.”

“ Guess you’ll just about have to, all the same,” adjured Dick, resuming his superior air. “ Besides, this new house is fine, but otherwise nothing’s doing here at Halcyon. None of our special crowd has come yet — most of ’em seem not to be coming at all this year. Two stunning girls live next door, and that tall boy who was at the Inn last August — the fellow who did the diving stunts. I haven’t talked to ’em yet. Mother says she’ll call soon, because it’s their first summer at Halcyon and our third.”

11 Oh, yes,” said Nancy absently. “ I’m glad there are boys and girls next door, Dick, but I haven’t seen my room. I can’t be interested yet a while in anything as far away as next door.”

No one can half see a new house by lamp-light. In the morning Nancy felt impelled to make the whole tour of inspection over again, beginning with her own little room, which she loved at once, because the bay glistened outside of one window and a giant cedar-tree shaded the other. As Nancy was dressing, a little brown bird hopped from the tree to her window-sill and chirped good-morning.

“ Just like Camp Sixty-Nine,” smiled Nancy, and realized that she had actually been awake half an hour without once thinking of Timmy.

Josephine’s room fronted the road. “ Mother offered me a new one up on the third floor,” explained the little sister importantly, “ but I’d rather see who goes by. And I think, Nancy, that I could crawl across that piazza roof and shin down the post, if ever I should happen to want to get outdoors in a rush.”

“ You’d better not try it,” warned Nancy severely. “ It’s much too dangerous.”

“ Um ! ” sniffed Josephine, “ I’ll bet I wouldn’t fall. Good-bye ! Father’s trilling for us to go out in the boat.”

Nancy inspected the pretty guest-room, which she hoped would hold several Fair Oaks girls before the summer was over, and then climbed up to the third floor, where Dick and William had their quarters under the eaves. You could see the lighthouse splendidly from up there, and there were cupboards in the niches below the dormer windows that Nancy coveted. But the cedar-tree didn’t grow up to the third story, and when you weren’t thinking, you bumped your head against the sloping ceilings.

“ I should probably bump mine pretty often,” sighed Nancy, after one such experience, and ran down to say good-morning to mother. Mother’s room had four windows, with a porch, shaded by the other side of Nancy’s cedar-tree, opening out from one long one.

“ That’s to be my private rest-room,” explained Mrs. Lee, “ where I can go when I want to be absolutely undisturbed. I’m glad you’ve come, little daughter, to help me take charge here. I’ve had rather a hard winter with Josephine’s measles and Billy’s teeth and Dick’s dog. But if you can be hands and feet and brains for me for a few weeks, I shall be quite ready to take hold again in time to start you off* for another year at school.”

“ I will, mother. I’ll help you a lot,” promised Nancy enthusiastically. “ But before I can be 18 brains for anybody, even myself, I’ve simply got to look around at everything here and make myself understand that it’s all ours. So far I feel — mixed.”

Mother laughed. “Of course you do. Look around all you like, and don’t hurry. Besides, I didn’t mean that I want you to give me all your time. Dick needs a jolly companion as much as I need a helper. He’s wandered around quite forlornly, waiting for you to come and make friends with the young people next door. He quite depends on you to begin acquaintances for him, you know, Nancy.”

“Does he?” Nancy was secretly delighted to find that the debonair Dick depended on her for anything. “ Well, I’ll try. But first I must see the tennis-court and the boat-house and everything else that belongs to us.”

“ Breakfast,” suggested mother, but Nancy was half-way down-stairs.

The land belonging to “The Crags” was just a three-acre square of unspoiled moorland, rocky, bushy, wooded in spots, highest by the road and sloping gradually down to the rocks and the water. Nancy easily discovered the wide path that led to the boat-house, the last bit being an easy flight of stone stairs cut down through the cliff. A narrower path branching to the left went to the tennis-court, cleverly hidden in greenery, with high side-nets to keep the balls within bounds. A little door in the wire netting let the players in and out of the enclosure, and there was a comfortable green bench for spectators or tired players. A tennis-court of one’s own seemed to Nancy the absolute height of luxury. She did wish that Dick would come back from fishing and play on it with her. Meanwhile, she explored the rocks for good seats, — it would be splendid to watch the sunset from one’s very own rocks, — returned to admire the tennis-court again, followed an overgrown by-path from there to the side fence, and stared over at the house next door without catching even a glimpse of the two handsome girls and the diving boy, lost the path on the way back, and discovered a patch of dainty cranberry vines, which seemed somehow as splendid to own as rocks.

“ I’d better see how far we go on the other side,” considered Nancy, spying a second uncertain little trail that branched to the right from the boat-house path. “ I’m glad there’s a vacant lot on that side of us. I don’t want too many neighbors.”

This little path rambled and twisted, finally reaching the northwest corner of “ The Crags ” enclosure.

“Why, there are roses here, too!” exclaimed Nancy delightedly, catching a glint of scarlet 20 along the side fence. “ Oh, and white iris I Mother never told me ! Oh, and ”

With one of her impulsive little dashes, Nancy ran forward and up three steps into the quaintest, dearest little summer-house imaginable. The stone steps were half hidden by the bay and sweet fern bushes that grew close around them. The posts that supported the roof were all but two of them live tree trunks, the rustic railing between the posts was twined with clematis vines or masked in shrubbery, and the arched roof was so cunningly hidden under the canopy of green boughs that branched from the side pillars that you couldn’t see it at all until you actually stood beneath it.

“ What an adorable summer-house ! ” cried Nancy. “ Just like a ”

There facing her against a pillar was fastened a sign in raised gray letters stuck on a mossy plank : “The Birdcage.”

“ Why, it’s exactly like a birdcage ! ” cried Nancy delightedly. “ Even Jane Learned couldn’t have found a better name for it.”

A curving seat was built between two of the pillars. Between two others stood a small table, with a chest underneath it — a fascinating little chest made of white birch slabs. And it must hold something valuable, for it was securely padlocked.

There were also two armchairs, in rustic style like all the rest of the furnishings. Nancy tried them both, and decided that, with cushions to pad the rather ridgy effect of the slab seats, they would be the height of comfort. One even had an adjustable back, like father’s Morris chair.

The little house was perched just above the rocky beach, in the very corner of the Lees’ land. Beyond, the ground fell sharply away on two sides, giving the Birdcage the effect of being hung very high up among the trees. Nancy drew an armchair close to the railing on the ocean side, and lay back in it to get the effect. In a minute voices just below her made her jump. Leaning cautiously forward, she could see two girls, one of whom she had met at the Inn last summer, clambering over the rocks beyond the fence. The vacant lot had very nice rocks along its water-front. Nancy had often climbed about on them before she had rocks of her own.

Cautiously Nancy moved back from the railing. “ I’d rather keep the Birdcage a secret,” she thought. “ I never noticed it from down there, but perhaps you can see it, if you know where to look. I’ll investigate, but not now, because that girl might ask me what I was looking for. To think that nobody told me about our Birdcage ! ”

Back to tl*B house sped Nancy.

“ Mother, why didn’t you tell me about the Birdcage ?” she demanded, tumbling up the piazza steps.

Just outside the living-room door the table was spread for breakfast, and mother sat there in lonely state, eating a delicious-looking melon.

“ It’s long after breakfast time,” she said, surveying her rumpled daughter rather critically. “ I sent Rosa to the boat-house to tell you that the others had eaten before they started ; but she couldn’t find you.”

“ I must have been at the tennis-court or in the Birdcage. I’m sorry I forgot breakfast,” said Nancy, slipping into her seat.

“ And what is the Birdcage ? ” asked mother.

Nancy jumped up again. “Then you haven’t seen it? Nobody’s found it but me? Oh, come and let me show you ! Oh, I’m so glad I’ve had a chance to discover one of our lovely new belongings for myself.”

“ Yes, dear. I’ll see it after breakfast.”

Nancy sank back shamefacedly into her chair. It was silly to get so excited about beautiful things. But mother hadn’t seen it, — didn’t know how pretty it was nor how wonderful white irises can be growing against a tangle of roses that clamber over a rustic fence, with a Birdcage beside them.

When Nancy mentioned the flowers, even mother got a little excited.

“ Miss Willis told me that she had started a garden, but I haven’t found anything but the beds around the house, so I’ve had more laid out up here. I prefer my flowers where I can see them all the time.”

“ Oh, mother ! ” Nancy had had an exciting idea. “ You have your own piazza, and father and Dick have the boat and the boat-house. Could I have the Birdcage for mine? I’d like to make green cushions for the seats, and have a green jar for flowers on the little table, and — oh, fix it all up just as I want to. Of course,” added Nancy hastily, “ you could all go there just the same. Only Bill and Joe mustn’t muss it all up, nor bother when the girls come to see me, and we want to sit out there and talk.”

“ I think you might have the Birdcage for your special plaything, Nancy,” promised mother, “ unless your father has designs on it, and I’m quite sure he knows nothing at all about it. I remember there was a key on the bunch Miss Willis turned over to us marked ‘ Birdcage.’ Has your fascinating little house a door?”

“ Oh, that must be the key to the birch-bark chest ! ” cried Nancy joyously. “ I’m so glad it’s not lost!” And she explained about the white 24 birch box under the table. “ We can open it when you go out with me, can’t we ? What do you suppose is inside ? ”

“ Bird-seed, perhaps,” suggested mother gaily.

But it wasn’t exactly bird-seed that they found in the chest, — though Nancy said that mother’s guess was warm, since this birdcage was for human birds, and tea is about as near as you can come to human bird-seed. There was a cannister of tea in the chest — a very festive, flower-painted cannister. There were also six gray-green cups and six saucers of Japanese china, six little wooden spoons, — stirring spoons, Nancy called them, since they were certainly too small for any other purpose, — a squatty pot, a sugar-bowl, a pitcher, and a plate, all gray-green like the cups, with a tiny wooden fork lying on the plate.

They puzzled over the fork for some time, until Mrs. Lee had an inspiration ; of course it was for the lemon.

Nancy arranged the tea-set on the table, and admired it in her usual enthusiastic fashion.

" To think how often we had tea with Miss Willis, and she never let us have it here ! ” she sighed.

“ This was her own little private nook, I fancy,” said Mrs. Lee. “ Miss Willis is a very famous artist, you know, daughter. She probably wanted to keep one place all to herself, as I’m keeping my private piazza.”

Nancy nodded. “ Yes, that’s it. It was too precious to show to anybody, except perhaps her very dearest friends. I think I should like to keep it rather secret too, mother — just for us and our best friends. Is the china surely ours ? Miss Willis didn’t forget to take it away with her ? ”

Yes, it was surely theirs, Mrs. Lee said ; the sale of “ The Crags ” had included nearly all the furnishings.

So the Birdcage tea-set was repacked in its chest and carefully locked in by Nancy, who proudly accepted the custodianship of the key from mother.

Mrs. Lee promised to write at once for cushions and samples of gray-green covering, after which there was really nothing more to do about the Birdcage. So Nancy unpacked, forcing herself to keep at the unwelcome task until all her belongings were in apple-pie order. Then, the fishingparty, arriving home in a state of ravenous anxiety for luncheon, duly wondered at and admired Nancy’s find ; and Mr. Lee laughingly assured her that in their family finding was keeping — when mother said so. In the afternoon Dick and his father went off sailing again, the younger children vanished on mysterious business of their own, 26

Mrs. Lee settled herself on the piazza with a book and some sewing, and Nancy, after her rapturous morning, was suddenly and fiercely assailed by that desolate, lost feeling that comes sometimes in the wake of raptures.

She tried to read, started to go to the post-office with the letter about the cushions, and decided that it was foolish to walk so far when the mailman would be along soon. She found the piazza sunny, the house stuffy, the Birdcage lonely. And so at last she burst out upon her mother with the question about Timmy : “ What do you suppose he’s doing now ? ” followed by her plaintive wail, “ I just can’t settle down to anything ! ”

“ You miss Timmy and all your Fair Oaks friends, don’t you ? ” mother returned sympathetically. “ Dick will be back soon, I think, for some tennis.”

“ Did I tell you about Timmy’s naming-party, mother ? ” demanded Nancy.

“ Yes, dear, you did. I’m almost afraid you’ve told me all about him. Why don’t you go down to the Inn ? The Minots have come, I think, and ”

“ Oh, Louise Minot wouldn’t care about — I mean I think I won’t to-day, mother/’

Mother smiled again with the perfect understanding she could always be relied upon for.

2 7

“ If I were you, I should write it all down in your Red Journal, Nancy, all about your wonderful baby and his trip home.”

“ Oh, I have, every night, so I wouldn’t forget anything, — not any least little thing. I promised the Learned twins ”

“ Then go and write to them,” advised Mrs. Lee briskly.

“Yes, mother. I’ll mail your letter with mine. Mine won’t be ready for the postman ; it will be most awfully long.” Complete satisfaction in her voice, Nancy was off.

“ Dear Twins :

“ Pine Ridge is the homeliest place you ever saw or dreamed of. If Timmy grows up there, he certainly won’t learn to be extravagant, because there’s nothing to spend money for. The stores are too little and funny for anything. There isn’t even a soda fountain.

“John Smith is six feet and four inches tall and has nine children and four grandchildren. One, he says, is a caution, and one he’s never seen. He lives in New York most of the time, and has interests in Pine Ridge. That means he owns a lot of timber and all the mills at Camp Sixty-Nine are his. He is the funniest, most excitable old gentleman. He liked Jeanne best, because she let 28 him talk at her in torrents, just saying * yes ’ and ‘ no ’ in her sweet little voice, instead of pouring questions at him, as Margaret and I did. He perfectly hates questions. He shakes his finger at you and says, ‘ One moment, madam, one moment I We shall come to that directly I ’ At least he said 1 madam * to Miss Dutton and Lloyd, because she only interrupted once, perhaps. To Margaret and me he said ‘ child.’

“ But he made up by loving Timmy like one of his own grandchildren, if not more so, and he saw to everything for us splendidly. He must be pretty rich, and we’re rather afraid that he’ll want to steal Timmy’s education and so on away from Fair Oaks. We didn’t dare to ask him, because he hates questions so.

“ The Rafterys are comical, too. Patrick is a little wiry, red-haired man, with freckles, a turnedup nose, and a smile that won’t come off and spills over on to everybody else. They keep him in spite of his laziness, because he makes everybody good-natured, and so things always run smoothly at Camp Sixty-Nine. He hugged Timmy till I thought the poor child would be smothered ; but he wasn’t, and he seemed to like it. Mrs. Raftery didn’t say much. I almost thought she didn’t care, until I happened to see that her eyes were full of tears. She knows all about babies.

That Mrs. Sefton had her taught at a school in St. Louis, and she took care of three Sefton children, all delicate. Of course she’s busy, because she does the cooking and housekeeping for twentyfive men ; but she is the kind that can fit things in and get a lot done in a few minutes. She seemed just like the mothers of great men that you read about — Abraham Lincoln’s, I mean particularly. Margaret noticed that, and Miss Dutton thought so too.