Cherry Ames 22 Rural Nurse by Helen Wells Page B

said. “And just to our left, that’s the living room. Or was.” Beyond that, down the hall, was the old dining room, and across the rear of the house they could see a kitchen.
    The house was so still, as they stood on the threshold and peered in, that they could hear their own breathing. Jane muttered that she wished she knew the century old secret of this place.
    “You wouldn’t let a ghost keep you away?” Cherry teased her.
    “I’d simply invite the ghost to live with us,” Jane said.
    “Joking aside, there must be some reason why there’s a legend or story about this farm. If I could only—Why, what are you doing, Cherry?”
    “Sniffi ng. Don’t you smell it?”
    A curious sour odor came from somewhere in the house. Cherry could not identify it. At the same time, she noticed how warm the air was in the house. Well, an old, closed-up house, with the mid-September sun beating down on it, could be expected to be hot and 58 CHERRY
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    smell musty. Except that this sour, moldy odor was not quite the same as dust and mustiness—Cherry sniffed again, trying to locate where the odor came from. It seemed to hang in the air everywhere.
    Jane was laughing at her. “You look like a puppy, sniffi ng in all directions! Can’t we go in?…Not a good idea? Well, then, Miss Nurse, I admit I’m getting awfully tired.”
    They agreed it was enough exploring for a fi rst visit.
    They slowly made their way back to the car. Then they drove on to Sauk. Dr. Hal X-rayed Jane’s ankle, which was healing satisfactorily, and Cherry drove her back to the Barkers’. Since she was out in the fi eld anyway, she visited two more patients.
    After supper with Aunt Cora, Cherry was so full of fresh air that she could hardly keep her eyes open.
    She did write a long letter to her nurse friends—all about rural nursing. Then Cherry telephoned her family in Illinois and had a good talk with her mother and father.
    Sunday was fun. At church Cherry saw her new friends again, and Dr. Hal. He invited Cherry and Aunt Cora to the potluck supper. Since it was fi fteen miles away, and since Cherry and Dr. Hal drove all week at work, Aunt Cora decided they’d go no farther than her own dining table. She appointed Dr. Hal to help her while she made coffee and buttermilk biscuits. Cherry was delegated to bring in the rest of the food, and set the table, not forgetting candles and fl owers.

    A CURIOUS EMERGENCY
    59
    The three of them lingered over supper. Dr. Hal seemed to be enjoying himself. He told them of a discovery he had made about the cave at Riverside Park.
    “You remember, Cherry, that you wondered so much what was on the other side of that barrier, deep in the cave? Well, even though I was sure there was nothing, you got me to wondering, too. So I went back there, late yesterday afternoon. Went with Joe Mercer. Took two of us to dislodge that old barn door.” He explained to Mrs. Ames how the old door was wedged against, almost into, the walls of the cave. “And what do you suppose Joe and I found?”
    “What?” Cherry asked, holding her breath.
    “Nothing. A pile of dirt. Just dirt and darkness. Some kids must’ve dug loose enough dirt to put the old barn door in place. They probably did it to make a hiding place for some game. Joe and I felt foolish, I can tell you! We put the door back as we found it.”
    “If that’s a discovery,” Aunt Cora said, “then I’m a ring-tailed monkey.”
    The fi rst person to tell Cherry the bad news was the highway patrolman. He hailed her to a stop on the highway early Tuesday morning, and braked his car alongside her car.
    “Morning! You’re Cherry Ames, the county nurse, aren’t you? I’m Tom Richards.” He touched his broad-brimmed hat in greeting. He was a strapping, sun-reddened man. “There’s some people suddenly taken sick around here, Nurse. Seems they went to the potluck 60 CHERRY
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    supper—here’s their names. One of their youngsters