<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></SPAN>CHAPTER XXVIII<br/> <small>BEAUTIFUL BEULAH</small></h2>
<p>Nan did not know very much about it. She had
a dreamy remembrance of the first day or two of
her sojourn in what the girls called “the sick bay.”
She remembered Dr. Larry’s kind face leaning
above her; and she realized that he was there a great
deal at first.</p>
<p>The fact was, the physician made a hard fight to
ward off the threatened attack of pneumonia that
he feared. Nan had been in a receptive state for
sudden illness when she slipped into the icy water
that morning—worried in mind, and having eaten
little for several meals. Then was added to this
the mental shock of Linda’s accusation.</p>
<p>Her mind wandered, and Dr. Prescott and Mrs.
Cupp heard a great deal about a “black ghost” and
a “boy in black” who were trying to get Linda
Riggs’ necklace away from Nan. This troubled
the girl greatly in her first delirium.</p>
<p>Then she wandered to Scotland and took up the
burden of her parents’ financial troubles. She
tried to get them home on the boat, but they had no
tickets, and the captain would not trust them for<span class="pagenum">[213]</span>
their passage. These and many other imaginary
troubles helped to confuse the poor girl’s mind.</p>
<p>But finally the delirium settled into one thing.
Nan wanted Beulah!</p>
<p>At first the principal thought she meant <i>her</i>.
Dr. Prescott knew, of course, that her girls called
her in affection “Dr. Beulah.” She came to the
bedside as often as Nan cried out the name. But
soon it was apparent that the principal’s kind and
beautiful face did not assuage Nan’s longing.</p>
<p>The girl talked intimately to “Beautiful Beulah”
about “Momsey” and “Papa Sherwood.” “If we
were only back, all together again, in the little dwelling
in amity,” weakly cried the sick girl. “Oh,
Beulah! I haven’t been nice to you. I’ve been
ashamed of you! I was afraid of what the girls
would say, and that Mrs. Cupp would think I was a
baby.”</p>
<p>“What can the poor child mean?” demanded the
worried principal, of the matron. “Dr. Larry says
that this worrying over the mysterious ‘Beulah’ is
doing her more harm than anything else.”</p>
<p>Mrs. Cupp’s face was very grim. She was not a
sympathetic looking woman at best. Now she
looked more severe than ever. She marched out of
the sick room without a word. She had already
removed from about Nan’s neck the fine gold chain
and key. In a few minutes she marched in again,
to Dr. Prescott’s unbounded surprise, and laid a<span class="pagenum">[214]</span>
wonderful, big, pink-cheeked doll beside Nan in the
bed.</p>
<p>Mrs. Cupp, it seems, had a pretty exact knowledge
of everything hidden at the bottom of the girls’
trunks, after all.</p>
<p>When Nan aroused the next time, there was
Beautiful Beulah right in the crook of her arm.
She smiled, hugged the doll close to her, took her
medicine without a murmur, and went at once to
sleep again.</p>
<p>“Poor little girl,” said good Dr. Larry when he
was told about it. “Of course that wasn’t what
has been really troubling her, Dr. Prescott. But
the doll is connected with a happier time, when she
was at home with her absent parents. With that
wax beauty in her possession all troubles look
smaller to her youthful mind.”</p>
<p>“I did think Nancy Sherwood was too big for
doll-babies!” sniffed Mrs. Cupp, refusing to show
any further tenderness.</p>
<p>“I can see how she feels,” said Dr. Prescott, understandingly.
“I’m tempted to play with that beautiful
thing myself. Nancy loves babies, and is
as kind as she can be to the smaller girls. It would
not hurt some of the girls older than she if they
‘played dolls’ again. They are altogether too
grown-up.”</p>
<p>Bess was at the door of the sick room morning,
noon and night. As soon as the physician said there<span class="pagenum">[215]</span>
was no danger, Nan’s chum was allowed in the
room. When she saw the big doll on the pillow beside
Nan’s head, she uttered a large, round “O!”</p>
<p>“Didn’t you ever see it before, Elizabeth?” asked
the principal, curiously.</p>
<p>“Oh—why! It’s Beautiful Beulah! Beg pardon,
Dr. Prescott! it isn’t named after you. Nan had it
ever so many years ago. My! I never suspected it
was in existence. And to bring it to school with
her! My!”</p>
<p>Nan’s vitality brought her out of the “sick bay”
in a short time. She lost only a week from her books
altogether. That, she told herself, did not so much
matter when her time at Lakeview Hall was to be
so short.</p>
<p>But she was faithful, and hurried to make up the
lost recitations. Linda Riggs was in retirement,
disgraced before the whole school. She had been
obliged to publicly deny the story she had started
about Nan Sherwood and the lost necklace. And,
too, the necklace had been sent by registered post to
Mr. Riggs with a sharp letter from Dr. Prescott
reminding him that the girls of Lakeview Hall were
not allowed to wear such jewelry.</p>
<p>Some of the girls were inclined to poke fun at
Nan’s big doll, which was brought up into Room
Seven, Corridor Four, and given a place of honor
there. But it was gentle fun, for the whole school
was sorry for Nan now. They knew that she must<span class="pagenum">[216]</span>
leave the Hall at the end of the term because of
financial reverses, and the girls were beginning to
find out how lovable she was, and to remember how
kind she had been to everybody.</p>
<p>Procrastination Boggs crocheted a shawl for
Beautiful Beulah and Laura Polk brought a tiny
embroidered cap that fitted the doll’s head perfectly.
Bess made leggings for Nan’s “child” and Gracie
Mason presented a pair of fur-trimmed boots.
Really, there never was so lucky a doll “baby” as
Beautiful Beulah, for she had presents galore.</p>
<p>Nan could not refuse any of these gifts, and most
of them came with funny little notes. The doll was
made much of by everybody in Corridor Four.
She was decked and re-decked in all the finery that
came to her and many of the girls “looked in” at
Room Seven every day, just to see how Nan’s
“child” got along.</p>
<p>The girl from Tillbury began to notice that some
of the biggest of them liked to hold the doll and
dress and redress it; and “there was a deal of fuss,”
as Mrs. Cupp said, made over the pretty blue-eyed
thing.</p>
<p>Finally Laura had a bright idea. She suggested
that a party be given in Beautiful Beulah’s honor.</p>
<p>“A regular, sure-enough, honest-to-goodness
party!” she cried. “Why not? Everybody bring
something to give the child—have a regular ‘shower’
party.”<span class="pagenum">[217]</span></p>
<p>“Goodness! haven’t we had parties enough for
one term?” demanded Nan. “That one at the boathouse
seemed to fill the bill.”</p>
<p>“Oh, nothing like that! We might not get out
of it so easy again,” admitted the red-haired girl.
“And, anyway, that’s ancient history. Let’s have
it in the afternoon and feed ’em tea and cakes.”</p>
<p>Bess was enthusiastic immediately. She had been
quite subdued since the boathouse party, and Nan’s
sickness; she was “just aching” for something to
happen! Anything “doing” always delighted Bess;
but the trouble with Nan’s chum was, she <i>would</i>
try to mix the business of studying with pleasure.</p>
<p>She started to crochet a “fascinator” (so Amelia
Boggs called it) for Nan’s doll, and fearing she
would not get it done in time she carried the crocheting
with her into German class, Frau Deuseldorf
was not particularly sharp-sighted; but her
hearing was not failing; and when she addressed
Bess twice without receiving any reply it was only
natural that the German teacher should step down
from the platform to see what the brown head was
doing, bent so low over Elizabeth’s book.</p>
<p>“Vell, vell, vell!” exclaimed the teacher, in some
excitement. “Vas iss?”</p>
<p>“Oh! One, two, three, <i>and</i> four!” muttered the
earnest Bess. “Did—did you speak to me, Madam?”
and the girl looked up dreamily, poising the crocheting
needle before taking up the next stitch.<span class="pagenum">[218]</span></p>
<p>“Ach! what is the child doing?” demanded the
lady, seizing the work in Bess’ hand.</p>
<p>“Oh, Madam Deuseldorf!” shrieked Bess. “You
made me drop a stitch.”</p>
<p>“Drop a stitch? Drop a stitch?” repeated the
lady, in some heat. “Undt vy shouldt you have
stitches to drop in classroom? Tell me that,
please!”</p>
<p>“Oh—oh—I—I——” poor Bess stammered,
Frau Deuseldorf could be very stern when she
wished.</p>
<p>“What iss this for?” demanded the teacher,
holding up the confiscated “fascinator” and shaking
it in the air so that all the girls began to
giggle.</p>
<p>“It’s for the party,” blurted out Bess, very red
in the face.</p>
<p>Just then Dr. Beulah and half a dozen visitors—some
of them gentlemen—entered the classroom.
The situation was tragic—for poor Bess. There
stood Frau Deuseldorf in commanding attitude, her
back to the door, unconscious of the approach of
the preceptress and her friends, and waving the
unfinished bit of crocheting in the air.</p>
<p>“For why did you come here to Lakeview, Miss?”
demanded the teacher. “To knit—to sew—to <i>play?</i>
Ach! I do not teach a class in baby-doll r-r-rags,
I hope! Remove yourself to the platform, Miss.
Take this—this plaything with you. Sit down there<span class="pagenum">[219]</span>
that the other pupils may see how you employ your
hands and mind in class——”</p>
<p>She turned majestically and saw the amused visitors.
Even Dr. Beulah seemed to relish the situation,
for her eyes twinkled and her lips twitched a
little as she said—to cover the German lady’s confusion:</p>
<p>“The time is not propitious for a visit to <i>your</i>
class, Madam, I can plainly see. We will withdraw.”</p>
<p>She did not speak sternly; but Nan—who was
watching—saw that Frau Deuseldorf turned
strangely pallid and that her hands shook as she
went back to her desk, following the angry and
tearful Bess. After a moment, when the girls had
settled into something like their usual calm, and
had stopped giggling, the lady leaned over and
patted Bess softly on the shoulder.</p>
<p>“Never mind, my dear,” she said, her voice vibrant
with some feeling that the girls who heard
her did not understand. “Put the foolish trifle on
my desk here and go back to your book. You are
punished enough. Ach! perhaps I am, too.”</p>
<p>And Nan Sherwood noted the fact that the German
lady was much troubled during the rest of
the session. She wondered why.</p>
<p>Like several of the instructors at Lakeview Hall,
Frau Deuseldorf did not sleep on the premises.
“Mister” Frau Deuseldorf kept a delicatessen shop<span class="pagenum">[220]</span>
in town and the couple had rooms behind the shop.
The German instructor’s husband, whom all the girls
called “Mister Frau Deuseldorf,” was a pursy, self-important
little man, with a bristling pompadour
and mustache. He was like a gnome with a military
bearing—if you can imagine such a person!</p>
<p>When Frau Deuseldorf put her heavily shod foot
over the threshold of the delicatessen shop she at
once became the typical German hausfrau, and
nothing else. Her University training was set
aside. She cooked her husband’s dinner with her
own hands and then served him in approved German
style.</p>
<p>It was the very afternoon of Bess Harley’s trouble
in German class that Nan and she chanced to
have an errand in town and obtained permission
from Mrs. Cupp to go there. The girls often
bought delicacies of Mister Deuseldorf—his cheeses
and <i>wurst</i> had quite a special flavor, and he made
lovely potato salad that often graced the secret banquets
at Lakeview Hall.</p>
<p>As Nan and Bess came along Main Street, there
was the little, bristle-haired Teuton, standing at his
door. His bald head was bare and he wore carpet
slippers and no coat. As the light was fading, he
evidently had come to the door to read a letter
which he held close to his purblind eyes.</p>
<p>“Frau Deuseldorf hasn’t come down from the
Hall yet—mean old thing!” ejaculated Bess.<span class="pagenum">[221]</span></p>
<p>“You needn’t call her names. <i>I</i> think she was
awfully easy on you,” Nan said, smiling. “And
she seemed worried, too, because Dr. Beulah caught
the classroom in such a turmoil.”</p>
<p>“Well, it wasn’t <i>my</i> fault,” grumbled Bess, knowing,
of course, that it was, but wishing to excuse
herself if she could.</p>
<p>Nan made no immediate reply. She was watching
the little German compassionately. As he stood
there in the open door scanning the rustling sheet
of paper, the girl saw that frank tears were running
down his plump cheeks. Nan clutched her chum’s
wrist, and whispered:</p>
<p>“Oh, Bess! what do you suppose is the matter
with Mister Frau Deuseldorf?”</p>
<p>“What? How? Oh!” exclaimed Bess, likewise
seeing the little man’s emotion as he turned back
into the shop. “Why, Nan!”</p>
<p>“Yes,” said Nan. “He was crying.”</p>
<p>“Let’s go in,” suggested the impulsive Bess.
“Maybe he will tell us about it.”</p>
<p>“But—but—I wouldn’t like to intrude,” Nan
said.</p>
<p>“Come on! We’ll buy a pickle,” exclaimed Bess.
“Surely he won’t think <i>that</i> very much of an intrusion.”</p>
<p>When the tinkling little bell over the door announced
the girls’ entrance the German appeared
from the rear premises, wiping his eyes on a checked<span class="pagenum">[222]</span>
handkerchief. He knew the two girls from the Hall
by sight.</p>
<p>“Goot afternoon, fraulein,” he said, in greeting.
“Iss de school oudt yet?”</p>
<p>“Most of the classes are over for the day, sir,”
Nan replied, as Bess took much time in selecting
the wartiest and biggest pickle in the Deuseldorf
collection.</p>
<p>“Iss mein Frau come the town in yet?” pursued
the little man, whose idiomatic speech often amused
the girls when they came to the store.</p>
<p>“I believe she was correcting exercises, sir,” Nan
said, smiling. “I expect we girls make her much
extra trouble.”</p>
<p>“Ach!” he responded. “Trouble we haf in blenty—yes.
But <i>that</i> iss light trouble. Idt iss of
our Hans undt Fritz we haf de most trouble.
Yes!”</p>
<p>Nan and Bess knew that the German couple
worked only, and saved and “scrimped” only, for
the support of two grown sons in the military service
of the Fatherland. They desired that Hans and
Fritz should have the best, and marry well. But
for a young Prussian officer to keep up appearances
and hold a footing among his mates, costs much
more than his wage as a soldier.</p>
<p>“I hope your sons are well, Herr Deuseldorf,”
Nan said, speaking carefully.</p>
<p>“Vell? Ja—they no sickness have. But there<span class="pagenum">[223]</span>
iss more trouble as sickness—Ach! mein Frau, she
come!” he exclaimed.</p>
<p>Bess had selected the pickle. The little German
gave them no more attention, but darted out from
behind the counter to meet Frau Deuseldorf as she
entered the shop. He waved the letter he had been
reading excitedly, and began in high-pitched German
to tell his wife the news—and news of trouble
it was, indeed, as the two American girls could understand.</p>
<p>Both Bess and Nan had studied German a year
before they came to the Hall, and rapidly as the
little man talked they could understand much that
he said. The slower replies of his startled wife
they could likewise apprehend.</p>
<p>Nan and Bess clung together near the door, hesitating
to depart, for Mister Frau Deuseldorf had
not given Bess her change.</p>
<p>Hans was in trouble—serious trouble. His
brother, Fritz, wrote that it would take all the old
couple’s little savings to save Hans from disgrace;
and one brother’s disgrace would seriously affect
the career of the other.</p>
<p>“And perhaps I have offended the good Dr. Prescott
this very day,” cried Frau Deuseldorf. “You
know how it was at that other school last year,
Henry.” (The German teacher had only been at
Lakeview Hall half a year before this present term.)
“Dr. Prescott, too, is very, very stern. She entered<span class="pagenum">[224]</span>
my classroom, with friends, just as one
of those thoughtless girls had made me excited.
The room was in a turmoil—Ach! it would be
terrible now if the doctor requested my resignation.”</p>
<p>Nan drew Bess outside into the street. “Never
mind the change, Bessie,” she begged.</p>
<p>“Oh! I’m so ashamed of myself,” sighed Bess.
“I never knew people had so much trouble. And
those sons are men grown!”</p>
<p>“Their children, just the same. But I know she
is over-anxious about her position. I don’t suppose
the little shop earns them very much. It is probably
her salary at the school which goes to Germany.
Oh, my dear! you don’t suppose Dr. Beulah
<i>is</i> angry with Frau Deuseldorf because she does not
keep good order in her classes? We do bother her
a lot.”</p>
<p>Bess was very serious. “I know <i>I</i> do,” she admitted.
“Sometimes it’s fun to plague her—she
gets excited so easily, and forgets her polite English.”</p>
<p>“We mustn’t any more,” said Nan.</p>
<p>“I just know what I am going to do,” muttered
Bess; but Nan did not hear her.</p>
<p>Elizabeth was impulsive; of late she had shown
more strongly than before the influence Nan Sherwood’s
character had had upon her own disposition.
She felt herself at fault because of the scene that<span class="pagenum">[225]</span>
day in German class and Frau Deuseldorf feared
she would be blamed for it.</p>
<p>Dr. Beulah Prescott had never seemed like a very
harsh person to Bess; but the girl approached the
office that evening before supper with some timidity.
It had always been a hard thing for Bess Harley
to admit that she was wrong in any case; and now,
when Dr. Beulah was looking at her quizzically,
the girl from Tillbury shrank from the ordeal.</p>
<p>“Miss Elizabeth! you do not often seek my desk,
my dear,” said the preceptress pleasantly. “What is
it you wish?”</p>
<p>“Oh, Dr. Prescott!” exclaimed Bess, going headlong
into the matter as usual. “It’s about Frau
Deuseldorf.”</p>
<p>Dr. Prescott’s pretty brows drew together a little;
but perhaps it was a puzzled line instead of anger.</p>
<p>“What about your German instructor?” she asked
quietly.</p>
<p>“Oh, dear Dr. Prescott! you won’t blame her for
that trouble in class to-day—will you? It was I.
I did it. I was crocheting instead of attending to
the work. And you know how easy it is for her to
get excited. Please blame me and not her, Dr.
Prescott.”</p>
<p>“My dear child!” gasped the lady, in some surprise.
“Perhaps I do not just understand. Sit
down here. Now, be quiet, and don’t sob so. Tell
me all about it.”<span class="pagenum">[226]</span></p>
<p>And Bess managed soon to control herself and
explain fully her reason for coming to “beg off”
for Frau Deuseldorf. The preceptress listened
quietly; nor did she smile at Bess Harley’s way of
trying to straighten out the affair.</p>
<p>“You are a kind girl,” she said, “and I am glad
to see that—despite your thoughtlessness—you consider
others. You should consider the Madam always
in class, for she has a hard time enough at
the best. I know she is easily excited; but I judge
her work from results. I am quite satisfied with
her and have no intention of disturbing her about
that contretemps to-day. Indeed, I should not have
mentioned it to her had you not told me how she
felt about it.</p>
<p>“I will send Henry down town with a note at
once to her. She shall sleep in peace to-night, after
all, if my assurance of good will and sympathy will
help her to do so.”</p>
<p>The news of the German teacher’s trouble circulated
among the girls and it was noticeable that
those who took German were more careful about
giving the good, if excitable, lady trouble during
the weeks that immediately followed.</p>
<p>Meanwhile Bess finished the “fascinator.” The
other girls friendly to the chums in Room Seven,
Corridor Four, brought gifts, too. Beautiful Beulah
had an afternoon reception that was the talk
of the Hall for weeks.<span class="pagenum">[227]</span></p>
<p>Of course, the little folk came; Nan was friends
with every child in the primary grades, and she invited
them to come and bring their dolls. There
was tea and cakes enough for all; and the “reception”
overflowed into the corridor. Mademoiselle
Loro (who had taken a great fancy to Nan Sherwood)
presided at the tea-table. The little Frenchwoman
had by no means forgotten her youth and
she did not cast any “damper” upon the occasion,
as Bess Harley was afraid she would.</p>
<p>“I don’t know how it is, Nan,” said Bess, when
the entertainment was over and they were alone.
“You are just the funniest girl I ever heard of.
Any other girl would never have thought of inviting
a teacher to a doll’s party; if she had, the girls
would have been afraid to come. But we had a
splendid time, and I shall try to please Mademoiselle
more in the future. She’s an awfully nice old
thing.”</p>
<p>Nan only smiled. In her wise little brain this
very result had been foreseen. She had begun to
see that when the girls and the teachers only met
in the classroom, or at meals, they did not “warm
up to each other”; social intercourse with their instructors
made the girls less antagonistic toward
them.</p>
<p>The weather grew colder and the ice was pronounced
safe. Skating began, and the chums from
Tillbury soon showed the other girls how well they<span class="pagenum">[228]</span>
could skate together. Walter Mason declared he
had just as soon skate with Nan Sherwood as with
any boy he knew.</p>
<p>Nan and Bess went down to Mrs. Cupp’s room
one day to ask for the privilege of going to town
to get their skates sharpened. It was late afternoon
and growing dusky in the stairways. There was
no light in Mrs. Cupp’s room.</p>
<p>Before the girls reached the top of the flight leading
to the basement they heard the matron scream.
Then a sharp, shrill voice cried:</p>
<p>“I want my money! Give me my money! You
and Miss Vane are trying to keep it from me. I
want my money!”</p>
<p>“Go away! Go away!” the startled girls heard
Mrs. Cupp murmur.</p>
<p>“I’ll haunt you! I’ll foller you——”</p>
<p>Bess had uttered a cry. Out of the matron’s
room scuttled a thin, black figure, which darted
down the stairs.</p>
<p>“The boathouse ghost!” gasped Bess, clinging to
Nan, in fright.</p>
<p>“Goodness!” returned Nan. “If it is, he’s a long
way off his beat, isn’t he? Boathouse ghost, indeed!”</p>
<p>But when they went into the matron’s room they
found Mrs. Cupp lying back in her chair, in a pitiable
state of fright.</p>
<hr class="l1" />
<p><span class="pagenum">[229]</span></p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />