Cherry Ames 21 Island Nurse
Read Cherry Ames 21 Island Nurse Online
Authors: Helen Wells
CHERRY AMES, ISLAND NURSE
TITLES BY HELEN WELLS
Cherry Ames, Student Nurse
Cherry Ames, Senior Nurse
Cherry Ames, Army Nurse
Cherry Ames, Chief Nurse
Cherry Ames, Flight Nurse
Cherry Ames, Veterans’ Nurse
Cherry Ames, Private Duty Nurse
Cherry Ames, Visiting Nurse
Cherry Ames, Cruise Nurse
Cherry Ames, Boarding School Nurse
Cherry Ames, Department Store Nurse
Cherry Ames, Camp Nurse
Cherry Ames at Hilton Hospital
Cherry Ames, Island Nurse
Cherry Ames, Rural Nurse
Cherry Ames, Staff Nurse
Cherry Ames, Companion Nurse
Cherry Ames, Jungle Nurse
Cherry Ames, The Mystery in the Doctor’s Offi ce
Cherry Ames, Ski Nurse Mystery
CHERRY AMES NURSE STORIES
CHERRY AMES
ISLAND NURSE
By
HELEN WELLS
New York
Copyright © 1960 by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.
Copyright © renewed 2008 by Harriet Schulman Forman Springer Publishing Company, LLC
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
Springer Publishing Company, LLC
11 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036-8002
Acquisitions Editor: Sally J. Barhydt Series Editor: Harriet S. Forman
Production Editor: Carol Cain
Cover design: Mimi Flow
Composition: Apex Publishing, LLC
08 09 10 11/ 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wells, Helen, 1910-Cherry Ames island nurse / by Helen Wells.
p. cm. — (Cherry Ames nurse stories) Summary: Nurse Cherry Ames uncovers a mining mystery when she travels to a remote island off the coast of Newfoundland to care for an ulcer patient.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8261-0423-6 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8261-0423-1 (alk. paper)
[1. Nurses—Fiction. 2. Islands—Fiction. 3. Mines and mineral resources—
Fiction. 4. Newfoundland and Labrador—History—20th century—Fiction. 5.
Canada—History—1945—Fiction. 6. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Title.
PZ7.W4644Cei 2007
[Fic]—dc22
2007024057
Printed in the United States of America by Bang Printing
Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
I A Call from Dr. Fortune . . . . . . . 1
II The Three from the Plane . . . . . . 11
III Sir Ian Barclay . . . . . . . . . . 19
IV Lloyd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
V Meg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
VI Balfour Island . . . . . . . . . . 57
VII Island Nurse . . . . . . . . . . . 71
VIII The Sea Cave . . . . . . . . . . . 83
IX The Man on the Hill . . . . . . . . 95
X A Meeting in St. John’s . . . . . . . 107
XI The Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
XII The Secret in the Tower . . . . . . 133
XIII The Wreck . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
XIV The Silver of the Mine . . . . . . . 173
v
This page intentionally left blank
Helen Wells, the author of the Cherry Ames stories, said, “I’ve always thought of nursing, and perhaps you have, too, as just about the most exciting, important, and rewarding profession there is. Can you think of any other skill that is
always
needed by everybody, everywhere?”
I was and still am a fan of Cherry Ames. Her courageous dedication to her patients; her exciting escapades; her thirst for knowledge; her intelligent application of her nursing skills; and the respect she achieved as a registered nurse (RN) all made it clear to me that I was going to follow in her footsteps and become a nurse—nothing else would do.
Thousands of other young readers were motivated by Cherry Ames to become RNs as well. Through her thought-provoking stories, Cherry Ames led a steady stream of students into schools of nursing across the country well into the 1960s and 1970s when the series ended.
Readers who remember enjoying these books in the past will take pleasure in reading them again vii
viii
FOREWORD
now—whether or not they chose nursing as their life’s work. Perhaps they will share them with others and even motivate a person or two to choose nursing as their career.
My nursing path has been rich and satisfying. I have delivered babies, cared for people in hospitals and in their homes, and saved lives. I have worked at the bed-side and served as an administrator, I have published journals, written articles, taught students, consulted, and given expert testimony. Never once did I regret my decision to become a nurse.
During the time I was publishing a nursing journal, I became acquainted with Robert Wells, brother of Helen Wells. In the course of conversation I learned that Ms. Wells had passed on and left the Cherry Ames copyright to Mr. Wells. Because there is a short-age of nurses here in the US today, I thought, “Why not bring Cherry back to motivate a whole new generation of young people? Why not ask Mr. Wells for the copyright to Cherry Ames?” Mr. Wells agreed, and the republished series is dedicated both to Helen Wells, the original author, and to her brother, Robert Wells, who transferred the rights to me. I am proud to ensure the continuation of Cherry Ames into the twenty-fi rst century.
The fi nal dedication is to you, both new and former readers of Cherry Ames: It is my dream that you enjoy Cherry’s nursing skills as well as her escapades. I hope that young readers will feel motivated to choose nursing
FOREWORD
ix
as their life’s work. Remember, as Helen Wells herself said: there’s no other skill that’s “
always
needed by everybody, everywhere.”
Harriet Schulman Forman, RN, EdD
Series Editor
This page intentionally left blank
CHERRY AMES, ISLAND NURSE
This page intentionally left blank
cherry stopped in front of hilton hospital and glanced at her wristwatch. She was not due to be on duty for twenty minutes. She stood for a moment, enjoying the sunshine and the fresh, sweet air of spring.
What a glorious morning!
In the sky overhead a small plane was circling about.
Shading her eyes with her hand, Cherry watched it descend slowly in widening spirals and bank to come in for a landing at the new private airfi eld outside Hilton.
“I wouldn’t mind being up in a plane myself this morning,” Cherry thought dreamily.
“Nurse Ames, you have a very bad case of spring fever,” she heard a voice boom.
Startled, she turned her head and saw Dr. Watson, a wide grin on his face, beside her. “Check that fever at the door,” he told her, laughing. “It’s highly contagious.” 1
2
CHERRY
AMES,
ISLAND
NURSE
“Good morning, Doctor. You sneaked up or I would have heard you,” she accused him as he started up the walk. Her eyes followed his clumsy, bearlike fi gure to the entrance. She had a warm spot in her heart for Dr. Ray Watson who was in charge of the Men’s Orthopedic Ward. He had been patient, understanding, and always cheerful when she was a nurse on his ward.
Cherry was now one of the emergency nurses and was often the nurse on one of his cases. Dr. Watson handled accident cases involving orthopedics, such as fractures and other conditions that caused interference with the use of bones and joints.
Cherry forgot the sunny sky and the plane and walked through the door into the antiseptic smell of the hospital. The quick change from the air outside made her nose prickle as always, but the odor quickly became familiar and she felt completely at home.
“Good morning, Miss Ames.”
“Good morning, Mrs. Peters,” Cherry returned the greeting from the head nurse on Orthopedics.
“Whenever you’ve had enough of Emergency,” Mrs.
Peters said with a smile, “remember, I can always use an extra nurse.”
“I’ll say we can,” declared Nurse Ruth Dale, as she came in the door and fell in step with Cherry. “We’re always short of nurses, you know that.”
“Hospitals are always short of nurses,” agreed Cherry.
They went on down the corridor toward the section where the nurses had their lockers. “It’s a complaint as
A CALL FROM DR. FORTUNE
3
common as the common cold, or haven’t you heard?” Cherry asked airily.
Ruth made a face at her, taking the teasing in good humor. She and Cherry had been on duty in the same ward and had been good friends for a long time. Ruth was frank to say that Cherry was shining proof that beauty and brains went together. Cherry’s dark-brown, almost black eyes, black curly hair, and red cheeks, which went well with her name Cherry, always called forth admiring remarks. Her patients appreciated her cheerful presence.
The doctors and head nurses recognized Cherry’s ability and skill as a nurse and her deep interest in nursing. She could use her head when clear thinking was needed. And she was as good as a detective about getting at the facts of most anything.
On her part, Cherry never seemed to be aware that she was special and that is what endeared her to her fellow nurses.
She and Ruth reached the lockers and put their handbags, and the light sweaters they had worn around their shoulders, in their lockers. As they adjusted their caps, Ruth said, “You know, Cherry, I miss you. I guess we all do.”
“Why, Ruth, what a sweet thing to say!” exclaimed Cherry. “But why be so sad?” She grinned at her friend. “I may not be on the same ward but I’m right in the same hospital, so we just might arrange to lunch together sometime.”
4
CHERRY
AMES,
ISLAND
NURSE
“What a creature!” cried Ruth. “Taking my kind words and turning them into a feeble joke.” She peered over her shoulder to see if her petticoat showed below her uniform. “But, Cherry, honestly I envy you sometimes.
No, I don’t think envy is the right word. Admire is better. You are always, it seems, on interesting cases. That last case you had . . . Tom . . . Dick . . . oh, that young man with amnesia.”
“Oh, you mean Richard Albee,” Cherry said. “Yes, I’d never been on a psychiatric case before, and working with Dr. Hope was a wonderful education for me in a new fi eld. Before that, the mind always seemed to me to be rather a separate thing. But now I realize just how interrelated mind and body are—how the mind can actually affect physical well-being.” Cherry hung her head in mock chagrin. “Sorry, Ruth,” she apologized,
“my mind must be back in nurses’ training at Spencer School. I really didn’t intend to give an early-morning lecture.”
“Now, I know what your next job is going to be,” Ruth announced solemnly. “You’re going to be a lecturer on psychosomatic diseases, or in simple plain English, those diseases that can be traced to emotional distur-bances.” She smoothed down her uniform. “Well, I’m off to the bones-and-joints department. See you later.” Ruth went bouncing off.
Cherry turned down the corridor leading to Emergency. Here interns were on duty round-the-clock. In addition, there were a head nurse and assistant nurses and doctors quickly available on call. Medical help had
A CALL FROM DR. FORTUNE
5
to be on hand day and night to take care of any casualty that came in.