Sue Barton Books Part II

Marianna engineers a reconcilation between Sue and Bill, at Christmas, wiring him to say that she is ill. They make up and decide to get married, as Henry St as a body does not bind its nurses too strongly, and Sue feels that she could work with Bill in his town practice, till she has children. She resigns from Henry Street and returns home for her wedding, Marianna and Kit hope to move later, to be near to her, as Kit wants to get an executive job in a hospital and there is a small hospital in Winslow, NH. Marianna is still going to school, and is still a bit of a rebel. Sue goes home, but a disaster happens. Bill's father is killed in a car crash in Europe and he has to look after his younger brother Eliot who is partly handicapped by polio, and he has to take care of his education till he can support himself. Sue is upset that this means they will have to delay their wedding for a couple of years, and she decides to try and get a job in Springdale where she can at least be near to Bill. However the town is not rich enough to fund a public health nurse, on its own. Sue rents a room from Veazie Cooney, a townswoman who was BIlls housekeeper. Veazie is a kindly middle aged widow, who suggests that SUe approach Elias Todd, the local millionaire, to see if he might agree to finance a nurse for the town. He refuses, but Sue happens to meet another widowed lady, Martha Edgett, who owns a large farm in the area. She runs a farm club, to help and educate the farming wives of the area, and when she hears Sue's tale, she suggests that the farm club might be able to provide funding, as the town needs a nurse. Sue is relieved as she was getting worried that she would not find a way of being close to Bill, but there are other problems. She starts to work as a nurse, visiting the local people in the villages around the area, but she is concerned that there have been several cases of typhoid, and the local people are starting to blame BIll, because he can't find teh origin of the outbreak.. and some begin to think that he is causing it. Sue begins to investigate and with the help of Ira Prouty, a local farmer's son, she find that the carrier is a tramp who lives rough in the hills and she and Bill manage to catch him and he goes to a hospital where he will be looked after. Bill finds his patients are now sympathetic to him and his practice is prosperous again. Then the town finds itself in the path of a hurricane and Bill and Sue have to take part in a rescue operation. Elias Todd is very impressed by them and decides to give the town a hospital and to help BIll and Sue. He falls in love with Martha Edgett and they get married.