DIPHTHERIA.
On Tuesday the regular exercises of the day were to begin. All day
Monday, carriage after carriage came driving up to the academy,
depositing their loads of freight,--excited girls full of the
freshness and pleasure gathered from their brief holiday. The long
corridors were merry with affectionate osculations. Light, happy
laughs danced out from rosy lips, and arms were twined and intertwined
in the loving clasp of young girls. So much to tell! So much to hear!
Miss Ashton, welcoming the coming groups, called it a "Thanksgiving
Pandemonium;" but she enjoyed it quite as much as any of the rioters.
In the evening, when they were all together in the large parlor, she
turned the gathering into a pleasant party, helped to fill it with fun
and frolic, and sent even the most homesick to their rooms with smiles
instead of tears.
Not a word had been said of Nellie Blair's sickness. There is no place
where a panic is more easily started and harder to control than in a
girls' school; nor is there any cause that will so surely awaken it as
a case of diphtheria. Its acute suffering, its often sudden end, its
contagiousness, all combine to make it the most dreaded of diseases.
Some reason had to be given, of course, for the condition in which
Marion's room-mates found their room on their arrival, also for
Marion's removal. Miss Ashton had guardedly told them the truth, with
the strictest request that they should keep it to themselves; but, in
spite of her injunction, that night after the party broke up, there
was not a girl in the hall who did not know and who was not alarmed by
Nellie's sickness.
Anxious groups gathered together in the corridors and discussed it.
Some fled to their rooms and wrote hurried notes home, asking for
leave to come back at once. The panic had begun, augmented beyond
doubt by the excitement consequent on the return. Miss Ashton was
besieged by girls, all anxious to know the exact state of the case,
and not a few clamoring for leave to go away, even that very night,
from the contagion.
Had she any less influence over this frightened crowd, or they any
less trust in her wisdom and kindness, half of the rooms would have
been empty before morning; but, as it was, simply by telling them the
truth, that Nellie had diphtheria, but that the doctor said that it
was not a malignant case, and that there was not the slightest danger
of its spreading, with even ordinary care, she succeeded in so far
quieting their fears that they went to their rooms, though, if she had
only known it, to discuss with even more excitement than they had
shown to her the dreadful possibilities before them.
One girl actually stole out at midnight and, hurrying through the cold
and darkness, went to the house of a cousin who lived near by, waking
and alarming the family in a way that they found hard to forgive, and
taking by this exposure so severe a cold that, serious lung symptoms
developing, she was sent home, and her academical course ended. The
next morning when the school gathered in the chapel, they found Dr.
Dawson on the stage.
After the preliminary exercises were over, he rose, and said,--
"Young ladies, I understand you have taken fright on account of the
case of diphtheria that is occurring here. I am an old man, as you
see, and have had a hundred, perhaps five hundred cases as like this
as two peas in a pod." (He stopped, expecting a smile at least for his
homely comparison, but every face was as sober as if he had come to
sound a death-knell.) "Miss Blair _is_ sick, I might say is _very_
sick, but I am not in the least anxious about her, or about any of
you. Under ordinary circumstances, and I consider these very ordinary,
I think there is not any probability of another case in the house.
"Take an old physician's advice. Stay where you are, go promptly and
faithfully about your regular duties, don't mention the word
diphtheria, and don't think of it. If I were a life-insurance agent, I
would insure those of you who obeyed my injunctions for half the
premium that I would those who worry over this, or run away. Again I
say, go faithfully about your ordinary duties, and all of you"
(dropping his voice into solemn tones now) "ask God to be with and
protect you, and restore to you your sick companion."
Then he took up his hat and marched down through the long,
girl-bordered aisle, smiling and nodding to those he knew as he went.
On the whole, his speech did little to allay the panic. He had not
only allowed that Nellie was _very_ sick, but he had talked about
"life-insurance," and asking God for protection. Qualms of fear
followed him as he went. Miss Ashton understood the assembly better
than the wise physician, and before he had closed the door she
regretted that she had asked him to address them.
One part of his advice, however, was sound; that regarding to the
scholars at once resuming their work, and putting diphtheria out of
conversation and mind. If only good advice could or would always be
taken, what a different world it would be!
Fortunately here, among these two hundred girls, there were leaders
both sensible and trusted, who did follow the doctor's advice, went at
once about their studies, and ably seconded the exertions of the
teachers to resume the usual routine of work.
Among the most prominent of these was Dorothy Ottley. She had that
indescribable moral power over the girls which comes, and one is
tempted to say comes only, from a consistent, faithful, gentle,
loving character. She did not draw to herself that impulsive love
which is here to-day and gone to-morrow, so common among girls; but if
any were sad or sick or in trouble they instinctively sought Dorothy,
and they always found in her what they needed.
She was plain looking; her sea-browned face, her thin, light hair that
wind and wave had bleached, the pathetic look that years of a hard
life had stamped upon her, could not conceal, could not even dim, the
strong, true soul that looked out of her gray eye, or change the
effect of the honest words her lips always spoke. Now, wherever she
went, the girls clustered around her, followed her example in prompt
attendance on the regular duties, and somehow, no one could have told
you just how, felt safer that she was there.
Marion, Miss Ashton kept from among them. If she had been exposed to
the disease from Nellie's being with her, it might be best not to
allow her to mingle with the others; besides, they would shun her, and
that Marion would find hard to bear. As it was not known except to her
room-mates that she had returned from her vacation, this was easy to
do; and so in the pleasant guest-room Marion went on with her studies
without a fear of diphtheria, only thinking of, and anxious for, the
sick friend.
It was Gladys who began the series of attentions that on the second
day filled Nellie's room with gifts of flowers, of fruit, of books,
even of candy and pretty toys, which the girls had already begun to
gather for the coming Christmas. Miss Mason, the trained nurse, was
kept busy at certain hours answering the teacher's knock who brought
the gifts and the accompanying love,--and Nellie, poor Nellie,
struggling with the pain and the uncertainty, was cheered and helped
by loving attentions given to her for the first time in her desolate
life.
Miss Ashton, hearing every hour from the sickroom, shared in the cheer
and the help; there was a reward to her in this proof of the
tenderness and generosity of that wonderful woman's nature she had
made it her life's work to develop and train.
Each day there was a bulletin put up in the hall, stating Nellie's
condition. It was always cheerful. Miss Ashton wrote,--
"Nellie is cross this morning. Dr. Dawson pronounces it the best
symptom he has seen since she was taken sick."
"Nellie has asked for a piece of that mince-pie one of you sent
her. Nurse says, 'No,' but looks much pleased at the request."
"Rejoicing in the hospital! a decided improvement in Nellie."
"Nellie teases to sit up."
"Nellie lifted onto the sofa! Dressed in my old blue wrapper!
Looks white and funny."
"Nellie sends her love and thanks to all her kind, kind
friends."
"Nellie teasing to see Marion Parke."
"Nellie pronounced out of danger."
"Nellie removed to Mrs. Gaston's, where she will stay until she
is strong enough to resume her studies. Sends love and thanks."
The next day there were rumors around the school that Marion Parke,
who had been missed by this time, and accounted for, was taken sick
with diphtheria, and was much worse than Nellie had ever been.
Now, of course, the panic began anew; and as many of the girls had
written home and obtained leave to return, more than that, commands to
do so, as the sick girl's case was contagious, Miss Ashton found all
her trouble renewed.
She had been besieged with letters from anxious parents, charging her
not to trifle with their children's lives, but by all means to send
them home at once if there was the least real danger; so now she had
no hesitation in letting those go who wished, indeed it was a relief
to her to have the number of her school smaller, and the anxiety
lessened; but now it was only a scare. Marion did have a sore throat,
but it was one which comes often with an ordinary cold, and Dr. Dawson
laughed at it, gave her some slight medicines, and scolded Miss Ashton
for having separated her so long from the girls.
The girls gave her a wide berth, but for this Miss Ashton had prepared
her, and Marion was more amused than hurt by it.
Before a week had passed, the four room-mates were together in their
old rooms, and Marion was made a heroine. All she had done for Nellie
was exaggerated, with that generous exaggeration of which girls are so
capable.
After all, this diphtheritic episode had only been injurious to the
school inasmuch as it had broken into the regular routine, and thrown
hindrances into the completion of work which was expected to be done
before the coming on of the long holiday vacation.
That Christmas and New Year's came so soon after Thanksgiving was
something for the teachers to deplore; but as they were in no way
responsible for it, and as indeed Christmas was a religious holiday,
well in keeping with the _animus_ of the institution, they met it
heartily, the more so than usual this year, as they hoped, the
vacation over, to resume the regular course, both in study and
discipline, without any further interruption.