THE FIRST MILESTONE
Three months sped by and were gone like a dream.
Day after day, until should come that longed-for, yet dreaded test, Rose
studied with a diligence that delighted the private tutor whom Donald,
through Miss Merriman, had secured for her--a young woman who found
herself astonished by her pupil's avidity in seeking knowledge.
The passing days were not, however, wholly dedicated to the books which
held for Smiles the key to the citadel she sought to possess.
Other doors and other hearts were open to her, and, because of her
simple charm, Donald's family welcomed her as a visitor whose every
advent in the city home seemed to bring a fresh breath from the hills
and open spaces. Little Muriel, who had loved her unseen, worshipped her
on sight, and Ethel, happy in Donald's betrothal to Marion Treville,
would have been glad to have had her with them far more often than she
would consent to come.
Long walks she took, too, regardless of weather, swinging freely along
on voyages of discovery; losing herself often in Boston's impossible
streets, only to find her way back home with the instinct for direction
of one bred amid forests, trackless, save for infrequent blind and
tortuous paths. And soon the historic, homey city cast its strange spell
over her heart, and claimed her for its own.
Spring came at last, not the verdant, glorious, festal virgin of the
Southland, but the hesitant, bashfully reserved maiden so typical of New
England, and Miss Merriman finally reported to Donald that their joint
protege seemed to be fairly prepared for the test which she had come so
far to take.
There are no rules, born of reason, which cannot yield to reasonable
exceptions, and, although the entrance requirements of the training
school were as exacting as its course, and as strict as its standard, a
standard which had long since made it the peer of any in all America,
some of the purely technical ones were waived upon the request of the
idolized chief junior surgeon on the staff, for Donald went personally
to the Superintendent and explained the case to her, and she agreed to
allow Rose to take a special examination; but she shook her head when he
mentioned the girl's age.
"Of course you know what the requirements are in that respect, doctor,"
she said. "We make exceptions, yes; but, if she enters now, she will be
by far the youngest girl in the school. I think that, before I give you
my decision, I shall have to see and talk with her."
Accordingly, that afternoon he took the rather frightened Smiles to the
Superintendent of nurses, and left them closeted together.
"Dr. MacDonald has told me about you, and your ambition, Miss Webb,"
said the Superintendent kindly. "You have been very courageous; but you
are very young, even younger than I thought. Now I want you to tell me
frankly just what your life has been, so that I may judge as to your
other qualifications, before deciding whether it is wise for you to take
the examinations."
Rose began hesitatingly; but, as the other drew her out with
judicious questions, she told her story with simple directness, and,
before long, the Superintendent had come to a realization that the
little mountain girl--whose life had, for so long, been one of unusual
responsibilities--had already acquired an uncommon maturity of
judgment. Although she was still some eighteen months below the
prescribed age for entering, she received the other's hesitating
permission to make the essay.
It would be difficult to decide who felt the greater nervousness during
the period of Smiles' written examination, and the time which had to
elapse before word came as to the result--Rose, Miss Merriman or Donald.
It was the last who heard first. The Superintendent invited him into her
office, as he was passing through the hospital corridor one day, and
said, "I am sure that you will be pleased to hear that Miss Webb has
passed her tests with flying colors, doctor."
A warmth of pleasurable relief passed through Donald; but he managed to
reply formally, "I _am_ pleased; but I hope that you didn't ease up any
because of anything ... er ... on my account."
"No, we didn't," was the response. "I'll admit that both your account of
what Miss Webb had done, and the girl herself, appealed to me so that I
was prepared to mark a bit leniently, if necessary; but it wasn't. I
really don't see how she managed to garner so much education in so short
a time."
"'Where there's a will,'" quoted Donald, with inward satisfaction over
the fact that his ward had fulfilled his prophecy, and he stole a few
minutes out of the busy morning to motor to the Merrimans' apartment to
bear the joy-bringing tidings personally to little Rose, whose eyes
shone happily and whose lips smiled their thanks, but who--perversely,
it seemed to him--gave Miss Merriman the reward which he felt should
have been his.
Dreams do come true sometimes, if they _are_ true, and so at last
arrived a bright May morning when Smiles folded away her little play
uniform forever, and--by right of conquest--donned the striped pink and
white gingham dress and bibless apron of a probationer, within the doors
of the newly built home of that old and worthy institution which had had
its inception, more than sixty years before, in the loving heart of
Nursing Sister Margaret.
There Rose entered into a new life, as different from that of the old
physical freedom of the hills, and personal freedom from restraint, as
could well be imagined, for, as Donald had told her, she was now
mustered, as an untrained recruit, into a great modern army; and
discipline is the keynote in war, whether the battle be against evil
nations or evil forces.
From half after six in the morning until ten at night, when with
military precision came "lights out," her life was drawn to pattern. It
was not a hardship for her, as with some others, to arise at the early
hour; and the brief prayer and singing of the morning hymn, in company
with her fifty-odd sister-probationers and pupil nurses, impressed her
strongly the first time in which she had part in it, and never failed to
strengthen and uplift her for the day's toil. Times were to come
aplenty, to be sure, when the old call of untrammelled freedom stirred
her senses to mute rebellion; but, as often, her all-absorbed interest
in the work silenced it speedily.
Right at the outset Rose experienced the same shock which hundreds of
other would-be nurses have had. She, mistress of a home for years, was
obliged to learn to clean, to scrub, to make a bed! For two whole months
of probationary training she had to labor at the bedside or in the
classroom, doing the commonplace, practical tasks which, to many, seemed
merely unnecessary drudgery; but, if she occasionally felt that Donald's
prophecy was coming true with a vengeance, more often her level little
head held a prescient understanding of how important this unlovely
foundation was to the structure which should some day be built upon it.
And, although the Superintendent said nothing to Smiles, she noted with
secret appreciation that her new pupil possessed, in addition to her
sustaining enthusiasm, a no less valuable thing--the innate ability to
use her hands by instinct and without clumsy conscious effort. Had not
this girl, who was scarcely more than a child in years, for a long time
been both a homemaker and an ever-ready nurse to all those who became
ill within the confines of the scattered mountain settlement?
The second milestone was reached at last. Rose was one day summoned
alone into the Superintendent's sanctum, and the door was closed to all
others. A little later she came out with tears adding new lustre to her
shining eyes, for the talk had been very earnest and heart-searching;
but they were tears of happiness, for upon her gleaming curls now sat
the square pique cap which was the visible sign that she had safely
traversed the first stretch of the long, hard road. To be sure, she knew
well that even this, the so dearly desired cap and pale blue dress which
went with it, did not make her fully a pupil nurse, yet that afternoon
it seemed that life could never hold for her an honor more precious.
The afternoon on which this momentous event occurred was one of liberty
for Rose, and she hastened with the news to her dear Miss Merriman, the
precious cap smuggled out under her coat; but, after they had rejoiced
together, and she had admired its reflection in the glass, she suddenly
became doleful, and wailed in mock despair, "Oh, doesn't it seem as
though I'd never, _never_ be a real nurse. Why, now I've got to _leave
the hospital_"--the tragedy in her tone almost caused her friend to
break into laughter--"and study all sorts of awful Latin things. She
opened a catalogue and read aloud, 'Physiology, bacteriology,
chemistry, dietetics,' and goodness knows what else over at Simmons
College, for _four whole months_. I shall simply die, I just know that I
shall!"
Miss Merriman gently explained the necessity for each of them; but
wisely refrained from further frightening her by adding that a full
year's course was to be crowded into those sixteen weeks.
In due time these, too, were over, the awe-inspiring examination passed,
and Smiles was accepted as worthy of a place among the pupil nurses.
Like an athlete she had finished her preliminary training, and was ready
for the long, gruelling race toward the goal, two and a half years
distant.
Hard work though it was, Rose found all her days sunny ones, and only
one cloud partly obscured their brightness. Donald she saw on rare
occasions only, as the demands upon his time doubled and redoubled, and
of course their brief meetings at the hospital demanded strict formality
of intercourse. Deeply as he felt for her, he was a physician first,
last and all the time, and as uncompromising in his own ethics as he was
in his requirements of the nurses.
Yet, if she saw him seldom, there was another whom she saw increasingly
often. Dr. Bentley's attitude towards Rose was also strictly
professional; but he never failed to bow and speak pleasantly when he
met her in the corridors or wards, and she instinctively felt that in
him she had found another real friend.
Rose was too much a child of nature to be given to thinking much about
men; but there were minutes, just before sleep came at night, when her
mind would visualize Donald's strong, kindly face, which seemed to look
down at her with an expression almost fatherly, and she would whisper a
little prayer that she might help him as she had resolved to, that night
on the mountain top. And at such times another face, light, where his
was dark, came, not to supplant, but to supplement it.