CHERRY AMES, CHIEF NURSE This page intentionally left blank CHERRY AMES NURSE STORIES CHERRY AMES CHIEF NURSE By HELEN WELLS New York Copyright © 1944 by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc. Copyright © renewed 2006 by Harriet Schulman Forman Springer Publishing Company, Inc. 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, Inc. Springer Publishing Company, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor New York, NY 10036-8002 Production Editor: Print Matters, Inc. Cover design by Takeout Graphics, Inc. Composition: Compset, Inc. 06 07 08 09 10/5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wells, Helen, 1910– Cherry Ames, chief nurse / by Helen Wells. p. cm. — (Cherry Ames nurse stories) Summary: Now chief of her unit in the Army Nurse Corps, Cherry Ames has the support of her Spencer Hospital friends as she strives to meet the challenge of organizing an evacuation hospital on a Pacific island. ISBN 0-97715-973-6 (pbk.) [1. Nurses—Fiction. 2. Hospitals—Fiction. 3. World War, 1939-1945—Fiction. 4. United States. Army Nurse Corps—Fiction. 5. Islands of the Pacific—History—20th century—Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.W4644Cd 2005 [Fic]—dc22 2005051740 Printed in the United States of America by Bang Printing Contents FOREWORD vii I Jungle Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II Leapfrog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 III Island 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 IV Troubles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 V A Plane Arrives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 VI Bessie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 VII The Silent Flier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 VIII Monkey and Other Business . . . . . . . . . . . 129 IX Danger Ahead! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 X Under Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 XI Happy Landings! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 v This page intentionally left blank Foreword 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 coura- geous 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 reg- istered 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 peo- ple were motivated by Cherry Ames to become RNs vii viii FOREWORD as well. Cherry Ames motivated young people on into the 1970s, when the series ended. Readers who re- member reading these books in the past will enjoy rereading them now—whether or not they chose nurs- ing as a career—and perhaps sharing them with others. My career has been a rich and satisfying one, during which I have delivered babies, saved lives, and cared for people in hospitals and in their homes. I have worked at the bedside 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 enter nursing. During the time that 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 shortage 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-first century. FOREWORD ix The final dedication is to you, both new and old 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 nurs- ing as your life’s work. Remember, as Helen Wells herself said: there’s no other skill that’s “alwaysneeded by everybody, everywhere.” Harriet Schulman Forman, RN, Ed.D. Series Editor