Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1890-04-26
Nan.

professor nat, DdJteTeu anu uiohon
ored.
A ripple of girlish laughter foated
up from some one behind him, and
looking around angrily, the professor
caught a glimpse of a pair of dark,
roguish eyes peeping at him out Of a
pretty hood, which did not hide the
saucy face of the maiden who had
thrown the ball.
She watched the ~professor az he
climbed over the fence and regained
his disfgured tile, and tried, rather
ruefully, to smooth its battered sides
then she scampeied toward the school
house.
Joel Sherwood had just emerged
from the university at W, with
considerable honor and degree of good
opinion most men of his age entertain
for themselves. He really was entitled
to a great deal of credit for the courage
and steadfastness of purpose with which
he had toiled to make his way through
the tedious university course. He had
done it alone, and at the same time
managed to help his widowed mother
in keeping what had proved to be a
very gaunt and persistent wolf from
the door. But the world, as is its Gus
tom, had been somewhat slow in recog-
nizing his genius, so that when the
winter term of school at Weston was
offered to him, he was only too glad to
accept it, hoping that meantime some
thing better would come to him.
He picked up his hat, with some
sense of disgrace, and strobe on to the
school house.
1t was the eventful "frst day." and
it must be confessed that Joel's heart
for a minute sank very low as he saw
the roguish face disappear through the
door Of the building which was to be
his castle for the next few months. He
had a dim foreboding that trouble was
in store for him. But shortly his
courage rallied, and with lips closed a
little more firmly than usual, he
stepped to his desk.
Nan, with many a girlish giggle,
was relating her adventure to a circle
of admirers.
"The idea of a young fellow like him
bringing a tall hat down here. My
how mad he looked when the thing
went wei the fencel Well, it was
rather mean after all I'll never see
him again. | don't know who he is.
Some city chap, | s'pose, down to look
at the natives !"
Just then the door opened and the
professor walked in.
If Joel could have seen the glorious
crimson which swept Mans face, he
might have known how poorly priced
was her victory. But he was busy and
had almost forgotten the episode a
moment later.
1t was brought back again, however
when he CHANGED to glance at Nan.
Once more a flood of crimson dyed her
cheeks, but she buried her face in a
book and waited until it vanished.
That winter Joel Sherwood learned
many valuable lessons. 1t was a good
school for him. He knew more about
himself when the term was over than
he ever had before. He put away the
silk hat, and wondered why he even
should have worn it down to Weston.
By this time he did not feel himself
Sc very much superior to the people
there as he had felt. They proved to
be kind hearted and intelligent, and he
liked them better the more he knew
them.
He had found Nan a disturbing ele-
ment in his little dominion. Not that
she meant anything wrong but she
had too much mischief in her nature
not to be at the bottom of many a pro-
ject which brought the new teacher
into disrepute. She never pretended
hat she had no hand in these plots.
There was no deceit in Nan. What
ever she did was so frank that Joel's
reproof was tempered by a strange
feeling which caused him to forgive
the spirit which prompted Mans
action-a feeling he knew not how to
analyze.
Once, when she perpetrated some
especially annoying trick On him, and
he had met her out of school hours on
the way home, her pretty smiles and
look of respect had driven every spark
of anger from his heart and he broke
out
"Oh, Nan! Why will you"-
But she had pulled her hand out of
his, and fled before the words were out
Of his mouth.
And Nan-she was the same
thoughtless girl, as far as Joel could
see, as the weeks sped quickly by and
brought them nearer the end of the
term. She led the boys and girls in
every game. She could outskate them;
not a boy dared to challenge her to a
race on the ice for fear of the defeat he
knew would await him. Her happy
laugh rippled everywhere. Not a boy
but would have risked his life for her.
Not a girl but fled to her in time of
trouble, for she wa ever to them a
champion equal to every emergency.
To all she was simply "Nan"-kind,
loving, mirthful NAN"
About the time Joers school closed,
the river, which had been frozen all
winter, began to break up, and the ice
gave signs of going out. Here and
there great seams appeared, and a
warning roar sounded through the
valley.
Some of the older boys who had ex-
plored the stream higher up, very
sagely predicted that there would be
trouble before night; but this brought
to Joel's mind little fear. He thought
the stream might rise and carry away
the ice, but that would be all. He
knew nothing of the fearful gorges that
sometimes damned the river, and