Cherry Ames 22 Rural Nurse (2 page)

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Some of Cherry’s patients, unable to pay, would be treated without charge by Dr. Miller as county health offi cer. Other patients, able to pay, would be treated privately by any of the county doctors, who would call Cherry in to do the necessary nursing. Many times her patients would be persons she herself discovered to be in need of health care and referred to a doctor.

Cherry and Dr. Hal talked over the day’s cases and made plans for next week’s visits. The big bare room grew shadowy. The young doctor closed the last case folder while Cherry fi nished writing down his nursing instructions.

“There! That’s all we can do for today,” he said.

“There’s nothing that can’t safely wait over the weekend. Gosh, I’m starving!”

Cherry looked over her shoulder. “It’s so late, even my clerk has gone home.”

Dr. Hal got up and stretched his long arms and legs.

“Miss Cherry, did you feel as overheated all day as I did? Calendar says September third, but I thought I’d melt.”

“The heat’s good, makes the corn ripen,” Cherry quoted her farmer friends. “Yes, Doctor, the sun felt so warm today I wanted to go swimming.”

“Well, why don’t we?” Dr. Miller suggested. “Swimming weather isn’t going to last much longer. Why don’t we round up some people, and have a picnic and swim at Riverside Park?”

Cherry was interested. “Tomorrow? Or Monday?

That’s Labor Day.” She had a moment’s hesitation 6
CHERRY

AMES,

RURAL

NURSE

about whether it would be all right for her to see Dr. Hal socially. They had not yet done so, unless she counted accidentally meeting him at the town’s one drugstore or garage or seeing him at church. Both of them had been crowded for time, she with in-job training, and he in learning his duties as part-time health offi cer.

But now—? Well, Cherry decided, formal medical eti-quette need not apply in a little backwoods town like Sauk, where there was only a handful of people to be friends with one another.

Dr. Hal must have been thinking much the same thing, for he said:

“You know, Miss Cherry—darn it, let’s drop the formalities when we’re not working. Can’t I call you Cherry, and you call me Hal?”

Cherry smiled and nodded. “Yes, Doctor,” she said to tease him. He was only a few years older than she was, so it felt perfectly natural to be friends.

“Well, you know, Cherry,” he said, perching on a desk, “it’s a funny thing how I haven’t gotten around to seeing you except on the job. I’ve wanted to. In fact, since I came to Sauk, I haven’t spent time with anyone except medical personnel and patients. Maybe that’s what comes of working
and
living at Dr. Clark’s house.

Hmmm? Why, now that we spoke of having a swimming party, I realize I don’t know any people to invite except one next door neighbor.”

“Well, I only know my next door neighbors and the Drew girls,” Cherry said. “I’m still new here, too.

Never mind. My Aunt Cora knows everybody for miles

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around here. She’ll gather up some acquaintances for us.”

“Your Aunt Cora sounds grand.”

“She is. And if I don’t go home to supper soon, she may send Sheriff Steeley after me.” Dr. Hal decided to leave his car parked where it was, and walk home. The tree-fi lled main street was only eight blocks long and part of a federal highway.

They met no one else out walking at this hour; people were indoors having their suppers. Only the birds were in sight, swooping and twittering as the sun dropped.

Cherry felt relaxed, and listened to the young man walking beside her.

Hal told Cherry he came from a small town like this one, but in another part of Iowa. He had taken his medical training at the fi ne schools here in his home state. Then he had served as intern and, later, as staff physician at a large hospital in St. Louis, Missouri.

“I didn’t feel at home working in a big institution,” he said. “I didn’t like the rigid routine. I missed my own country kind of people. Besides, I felt cooped up in the city. So I looked for an opening in a rural area, and the United States Public Health Service gave me a scholar-ship and trained me as a health offi cer. Then a former professor of mine wrote that his old friend, Dr. Clark, was looking for a husky young assistant. So here I am.” He smiled down a little shyly at Cherry. “What about you? You did tell me a few things about your training, the different kinds of nursing you’ve done, but I’d like to hear more.”

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AMES,

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NURSE

It embarrassed Cherry to talk about herself. As they turned the next corner, she could see Aunt Cora’s straight fi gure standing on the front porch, farther up the street. Cherry mumbled, “My aunt must think I’m lost, strayed, or stolen,” and walked faster.

Dr. Hal looked amused and quickened his long, easy stride. “Well, you’ll have to tell me some other time.

Especially about why you wanted to have a try at rural nursing.”

“That’s easy. I was born and brought up across the Mississippi River east from here, in Illinois, in a town in the heart of the corn belt. I’ve always known and respected the people who grow the nation’s food, and I’ve always had a hankering to—to nurse out in the country.”

“Did anyone ever tell you you’re awfully pretty?” Dr. Hal said. She was tall and slim and full of life, with brilliant dark eyes and dark curls. “Did those cherry-red cheeks win you your name?”

“Thank you for the kind remarks,” Cherry said. “No, I’m named for my grandmother. My coloring turned out to be the sort of—uh—an appropriate accident.” Dr. Hal burst out laughing at that. They had reached Aunt Cora’s house. Cherry noticed in surprise that her aunt wore her next-to-best fl owered silk dress, and two cars were parked in front of the house. One was her aunt’s sleek new car, the other was a rusty black sedan, so old, big, and cumbersome that it resembled a boat or a hearse. What was going on?

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Aunt Cora came down the steps, shaking her head but smiling.

“Where in the world have you been, child? You’re Dr. Hal Miller, aren’t you? I’ve wanted to meet you ever since Aloysius told me about you. I’m sorry to snatch Cherry away, but an old friend of mine has just come home after being away all summer, and we’re celebrat-ing by going out for supper. I certainly hope you’ll come by another time, and often—”

“Thank you, Mrs. Ames. You may be seeing me sooner than you count on. Cherry, will you ask your aunt about the picnic?”

“What picnic?” Aunt Cora wanted to know.

“Why,” Cherry said, “the picnic and swimming party that we hope you’re going to arrange for us. For tomorrow or Labor Day.”

Aunt Cora looked baffl ed, but recovered immediately. “Do you want fried chicken to take along, or wie-ners and potatoes to roast over a bonfi re? And for how many of you?”

“Ah—we don’t know enough people yet to ask,” Dr. Hal admitted.

“I’ll get to work on it by telephone,” Aunt Cora promised. “I know ever so many young people who’d like to know you. Well! I’m glad you both are fi nally taking a little time off from work to socialize! How many young people do you want me to invite? Ten? Twenty?”

“Mrs. Ames, you’re wonderful,” said the young man.

“If I can help, let me know—and many, many thanks.

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AMES,

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NURSE

I’ll be in touch to ask whether it’ll be tomorrow or Monday.”

He looked so eager, Cherry could see he hoped it would be tomorrow. He continued down the quiet street, whistling.

“You
are
wonderful,” Cherry said to Aunt Cora, and hugged her. “You won’t mind being hostess, will you?”

“
You’ll
be the hostess—no, no, I’m not going along.

You young people will have more fun by yourselves.

Don’t worry about getting acquainted. In ten minutes you’ll all be old friends.”

“I’m anything but worried!” Cherry said. “I’m just delighted at the prospect of a picnic with new friends.”

“And with young Dr. Miller?” Her aunt gave her a shrewd look, which turned into a smile. “I saw you and that nice young doctor ambling down the street together at a snail’s pace.”

“Have I detained you? I’m sorry, Aunt Cora. We were working at the offi ce, honestly.”

“Oh, a few minutes’ delay doesn’t matter, honey.

Except that my friend Phoebe is waiting for us. She’s real interested in meeting my niece. She hasn’t seen you since you were three and fell in the duckpond.”

“I hope I’ve improved since then,” Cherry said, and followed her aunt into the house.

c h a p t e r i i

Guest at Aunt Cora’s

cherry was very fond of aunt cora—really an older cousin by marriage whom she had seen and known only in snatches all her life. Aunt Cora and her husband, Jim Ames, had always travelled a great deal, and sometimes had stopped off in Cherry’s hometown on their way to Bombay or Paris or Copenhagen. Now that Aunt Cora was a widow and “not as young as she used to be,” she stayed at home, enjoying her comfortable house and garden and her books and her many community activities. She had written to the Ameses that she would enjoy having some young company in the house.

Cherry’s twin brother, Charlie, was too busy and fas-cinated with his aviation engineering job in Indianapo-lis to be able to visit her. But Aunt Cora’s invitation had found Cherry between jobs and thinking about what sort of nursing job she would like to try next. She 11

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AMES,

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NURSE

had read in a professional bulletin last summer that R.N.’s were needed as rural nurses, and on inquiring, had learned there were job openings in Iowa, in Sauk County, in fact.

From there on, it had been a matter of taking and passing the written examinations given by Iowa’s Merit System, similar to Civil Service, and undergoing fi eld training. It helped that Cherry earlier had trained and worked as a visiting nurse in New York City. It helped further that the Visiting Nurse Service had allowed Cherry time to go to college part time and take the advanced courses required in public health nursing.

Now she was ready for a highly independent sort of job, and very much at home in Aunt Cora’s roomy, fl ower-fi lled house. Aunt Cora’s choicest African violets grew in white pots in the living room, and Mrs. Phoebe Grisbee was fussing over them.

“I declare, Cora, why don’t you tamp down a little tobacco on the soil? Oh, here’s your niece! My, Cherry, you certainly have changed since you fell in with the ducks!”

“I should hope so,” Aunt Cora said amiably, and Cherry took Mrs. Grisbee’s outstretched hand.

Her aunt’s friend was a plump, plainly dressed woman with spectacles and a big smile on her round face. She had never been farther away from home than St. Louis, and still held to many of the ideas and ways of living she had learned as a girl growing up on a farm near here.

Cherry said, “I’m glad to see you, Mrs. Grisbee,” and thought that Phoebe Grisbee, whether as dowdy as her

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13

old car or not, must be an awfully nice person for Aunt Cora to be lifelong friends with her.

“Mr. Grisbee,” Mrs. Grisbee explained to Cherry, “is at home all by himself, poor soul, though I did invite him. You know how Mr. Grisbee is about hen parties, Cora, and restaurant food.”

“Yes, I know Henry’s not a ladies’ man,” said Aunt Cora.

“We three ladies,” she said, turning to Cherry, “are about to have supper at Sauk’s one and only restaurant.”

“At least I left a nice supper for him,” said Phoebe Grisbee, worrying about her husband, “and a pot of his favorite herb tea keeping hot on the stove. Cherry, you’re a nurse, you’d know about the healthful value of herbs?”

“Mmm—well, perhaps certain herbs,” Cherry said.

She wondered how much reliance Mrs. Grisbee put in farm lore and how much in tested scientifi c discoveries. “I don’t mean to sound offi cial, but herbs haven’t much value, except a few as a mild tonic, Mrs. Grisbee. Modern medical science provides much better medications.”

“Phoebe knows that perfectly well,” Aunt Cora said.

“If she sets any store by herbs, it’s because she takes pleasure growing them in her garden.” Mrs. Grisbee nodded mildly. “Speaking of medicines, Miss Nurse,” she said, “we may be in the backwoods, but we can buy the best just the same. Our local drugstore and the door-to-door salesmen take good care of us.”

“What door-to-door salesmen?” Cherry asked.

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CHERRY

AMES,

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NURSE

“Oh, the Watkins Company man comes through these parts about six times a year,” Mrs. Grisbee said.

“He’s due pretty soon again. You watch, out there on the country roads, and you’ll see a man driving a smart-looking delivery truck and going from farm to farm selling his wares. He sells a certain amount in towns, too, but mostly it’s to the farmers.”

Aunt Cora explained to Cherry that some farm people were isolated and did not have much time to travel into the nearest town to shop; besides, a town like Sauk offered only limited supplies. Therefore, door-to-door salesmen and local pedlars brought the needed merchandise to the farmers.

“What do they sell?” Cherry asked. She remembered seeing door-to-door salesmen occasionally in and around her home town, but Hilton was not as rural as here. “You mentioned that they sell medicines—I guess you mean patent medicines?”

“That’s right, patent medicine,” Phoebe Grisbee said.

“Oh, liniment and cough syrup and vitamins and laxa-tive herb tablets, and lots of other home remedies. And livestock remedies, and insect spray, and even tooth-paste and vanilla and—Why, I buy all my needles and thread from Mr. Carlson; he has the best. And I count on Old Snell, whenever he turns up, for certain of my herbs and berries—he gathers ’em in the woods.”

“That’s a real convenience,” said Cherry.

“Well, you’ll soon be educated in country ways,” said Aunt Cora. “Now, honey, if you’re planning to change out of that uniform—”