Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp; Or, The Old Lumberman's Secret Page 5

  Chapter V. GREAT EXPECTATIONS

  Mr. Sherwood, in overalls and an old cap, had been sifting cinders outbehind the shed. They had to be careful of fuel as well as of most otherthings. Momsey would not open the long envelope until he had been calledand had come in. Nan still wore the bright colored bandana wound abouther head, turban-wise, for a dust cap. Papa Sherwood beat the ashes fromhis hands as he stood before the glowing kitchen range.

  "What is it?" he asked calmly. "A notice of a new tax assessment? Or acure-all advertisement of Somebody's Pills?"

  "It's from Cousin Adair," said Momsey, a little breathlessly. "And it'sbeen lying at our door all the time."

  "All what time?" asked Mr. Sherwood curiously.

  "All the time we have been so disappointed in our inquiries elsewhere,"said Momsey soberly.

  "Oh!" responded her husband doubtfully, and said no more.

  "It makes my knees shake," confessed Nan. "Do open it, Momsey!"

  "I, I feel that it is important, too," the little lady said.

  "Well, my dear," her husband finally advised, having waited in patience,"unless it is opened we shall never know whether your feeling isprophetic or not. 'By the itching of my thumb,' and so forth!"

  Without making any rejoinder to this, and perhaps without hearing hisgentle raillery, Mrs. Sherwood reached up to the coils of her thick hairto secure woman's never-failing implement, a hairpin.

  There were two enclosures. Both she shook into her lap. The sealed,foreign-looking letter she picked up first. It was addressed in aclerkly hand to,

  "MISTRESS JESSIE ADAIR BLAKE,

  "KINDNESS OF MESSRS. ADAIR MACKENZIE & CO.

  "MEMPHIS, TENN., U.S.A."

  "From England. No! From Scotland," murmured Nan, looking over hermother's shoulder in her eagerness. She read the neatly printed card inthe corner of the foreign envelope:

  KELLAM & BLAKE HADBORNE CHAMBERS EDINBURGH

  Mrs. Sherwood was whispering her maiden name over to herself. She lookedup suddenly at her husband with roguish eyes.

  "I'd almost forgotten there ever was such a girl as Jessie Adair Blake,"she said.

  "Oh, Momsey!" squealed Nan, with clasped hands and immense impatience."Don't, DON'T be so slow! Open it!"

  "No-o," her mother said, with pursed lips. "No, honey. The other comesfirst, I reckon."

  It was a letter typewritten upon her cousin's letter-head; but itwas not dictated by Mr. Adair MacKenzie. Instead, it was from Mr.MacKenzie's secretary, who stated that her employer had gone to Mexicoon business that might detain him for several weeks.

  "A letter addressed by you to Mr. MacKenzie arrived after his departureand is being held for him with other personal communications untilhis return; but being assured that you are the Jessie Adair Blake, nowSherwood--to whom the enclosed letter from Scotland is addressed, I takethe liberty of forwarding the same. The Scotch letter reached us afterMr. MacKenzie's departure, likewise. Will you please acknowledge thereceipt of the enclosure and oblige?"

  This much of the contents of the secretary's letter was of particularinterest to the Sherwoods. Momsey's voice shook a little as she finishedreading it. Plainly she was disappointed.

  "Cousin Adair, I am sure, would have suggested something helpful hadhe been at home," she said sadly. "It, it is a great disappointment,Robert."

  "Well, well!" replied Mr. Sherwood, perhaps not without some secretrelief. "It will all come out right. At least, your cousin hasn'trefused his assistance. We shall be established somewhere before hereturns from his Mexican trip."

  "I, I did depend so much upon Adair's good will and advice," signedMomsey.

  "But, dear me suz!" gasped Nan impatiently. "What are you folksbothering over that for? It isn't Cousin Adair that I want to knowabout. It's this letter, Momsey," and she seized the thin yet importantenvelope from Scotland and shook it before her mother's eyes.

  "Better look into it, Momsey," advised Mr. Sherwood easily, preparing toreturn to the cinder sifting. "Maybe it's from some of your relatives inthe Old Country. I see 'Blake' printed in the corner. Didn't your fatherhave an uncle or somebody, who was steward on the estate of a ScotchLaird of some renown?"

  "Heck, mon!" cried Momsey, with her usual gaiety, and throwing off thecloud of gloom that had momentarily subdued her spirit. "Ye air a wisecheil. Ma faither talked muckle o' Uncle Hughie Blake, remimberin' himfra' a wee laddie when his ain faither took him tae Scotland, and taeCastle Emberon, on a veesit."

  Nan and Papa Sherwood laughed at her when she assumed the Scotch burr ofher forebears. With precision she cut the flap of this smaller envelope.She felt no excitement now. She had regained control of herself afterthe keen disappointment arising from the first letter.

  She calmly opened the crackly sheet of legal looking paper in her lap.It was not a long letter, and it was written in a stiff, legal hand,instead of being typewritten, each character as precise as the legalmind that dictated it:

  "Mistress Jessie Adair Blake, (Known to be a married woman, but weddedname unknown to writer.)

  "Dear Madam: It is my duty to inform you that your father (the lateRandolph Hugh Blake) was made sole beneficiary of his late uncle, Mr.Hugh Blake, the Laird of Emberon's steward, by a certain testament, orwill, made many years ago. Mr. Hugh Blake has recently died a bachelor,and before his demise he added a codicil to the above testament, orwill, naming you, his great niece, his sole heir and beneficiary.

  "There are other relatives who may make some attempt to oppose yourclaim; but none of near blood. Your title to the said estate is clear;but it is quite necessary that you should appear before our Courts withproofs of identity, and so forth. On receipt from you of acknowledgmentof this letter, with copies of identification papers (your grandfather'snaturalization papers, your father's discharge from army, your own birthcertificate and marriage lines, and so forth) I will give myselfthe pleasure of forwarding any further particulars you may wish, andlikewise place at your command my own services in obtaining possessionfor you of your great uncle's estate.

  "The said estate of Mr. Hugh Blake, deceased, amounts, in real andpersonal property, including moneys in the bank, to about the sum,roughly estimated, of 10,000 pounds.

  "Respectfully, your servant,

  "Andrew Blake, Solicitor and Att'y."

  Nan had leaned over her mother's shoulder, big-eyed, scarce believingthe plainly written words she read. It was preposterous, ridiculous,fanciful, a dream from which she must awake in a moment to the fullrealization of their dreadful need of just such a godsend as this.

  It was her father's voice that roused the girl. He had not seen theletter and Momsey had read it silently to herself.

  "Look out, Nancy! What is the matter with your mother?"

  With a cry the girl caught the frail little lady in her arms as theletter slipped unheeded from her lap to the floor. Mrs. Sherwood's eyeswere closed. She had fainted.