The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-04-06
AN |NCURABLE CASE
BY lZoLA FORESTER.

= should hCmor hin until the Crisis
Is past. Miss Powell. II these typhoid
cases, ~ find some peculiar manifesto
tons as the patient loses strength. He
Is totally unconscious Of who you are,
and merely connects you with this
other mental picture You under.
stand
Yes, doctor" returned Beth, obedt
emily. She stood By the cot after the
door had closed, looking down at the
patient He had been brought IN the
week before from one Of the large
hotels She understood that he
seemed veil supplied with money. His
doctor had engaged private room
and nurses. She vas the night nurse.
l, was her frs, year OF active ssrv-
ice Up home in Oregon they had
taken It as sort OF joke when Beth,
joyous, oudoor-lovtng Beth, decided
TO leave her garden and books and
mountain life ard 90 down 70 San
Francisco TO enter the hospital
Beth never been Jus, like the rest
OF Us, though, Margaret had de-
clared She's been ike Joan OF Arc,
don: you know seeing visions IL her
garden Now Val and Dot and | never
think Of hospitals Or troubles Of other
people, Lordy, haven't We enough OF
our Owl TO worry over. But Beth's
been ba1dag.ng ser dolls ever since
I can remember, and putting ice
bags OF their poor little heads. It's
700 bad because a girl loses all her
chances going way OF like that
Chances Of what Val had asked,
interested!y. Val vas fifteen, and Gu
rious over the vital issues OF life i
think Beth 5 wonderful
Lots 81 good II will do her shut up
in hospital The very best they ever
do is to marry a doctor" said Mar
garet vaguely
Yet Beth had gone down to the
hospital for her years OF training.
That summer she had had her first
long visit back home, but when the
first tang Of coolness came in the fall
air 1t had called her back to the long
white yards and the duty that was
her life.
Her second case vas the typhoid
one, and it bothered her She had
never before lost her professional
grip on herself but there was some
thing about this brown-haired boy ~
Ing back on the pillows, his voice
pleading with her all through the long
hours of the night, that had stirred
al unsupported force lying dormant
in her nature,
He was abou. t~enty-six, with face
and body that told Of clean. night liv
ing. Sometimes he called her Carol
sometimes his mother At first she
| had tried 10 quie- him 10 turn his
mind on something else. when he
would beg pit.tully for her TO stroke
his head for him. TO slip her cool palm
under his cheek 50 that he could rest
Then he would lay it across his lips
and kiss Il. 1t vas all very dscon
certing when one vas alone, and tbs
hours stole BY slowly
The doctor had told her he hac
wired for his mother from the East
and she would arrive any time. She
wondered Il Caro-" would come with
her, II she had right to come Oddly
enough she began TO resent the idea
But the days passed and no one came
for the patient in 1916
The day nurse vas an old.timer
cheerful and thoroughly used to habit!
and customs Of typhoid cases,
Ny goodness, they all make low
to you sooner or later" she laughed
when Berth asked her rather shyly i
the patient acted strangely in the day
time I've had more proposals from
my typhoids than any others 1t seem
to be part Of the disease their falling
In love with their nurses.
"Oh, but It isn't with me. He onl,
takes me for somebody else" sal
Beth, hastily He calls me by girl
name"
He'll call you by your own betor
he's sitting up, my dear. About thre
weeks clears the brain. and they neve
remember who they loved before. D
you like him."
Beth flushed holly resentfully, an
the day nurse laughed.
"Oh, you needn't tell me II you don
! want to. always enjoyed my typhoi
cases my first year or two He doe
seem a pretty, well-built youngstel
and he talks we'll, too Doctor say
his name is Randall Sears, and he
from Pittsburgh"
The third week the doctor said the
had heard from his mother, and sh
had been abroad Beth thought OF he
a good deal the night OF the crisis. H
had sunk into a stupor, breathin
slowly and tiredly. His forehead wa
cold and damp. She bent over hill
after the doctor had made his round
and laid her hand on his head, but b
did not stir, And strange thing hal
pened in 1916 through the weary hour
before the gray dawn showed unde
the window shade. Beth knelt besid
her patient, praying over him, talkin
to him, pleading him to fight again:
the gray mist that was closing /
around him, begging him to hear an
| 10 1hr fight fighf for life