LITMIR.BIZ

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“If you’re not under that ole willow branch, then you’ll probably be over near that big boulder, but I’m gonna get you. I hung you a few years back and let you get away, but no more.”

      “Papa, say you’re gonna catch him? How many times have I heard you say that? I bet a hundred,” came a voice from far up on the bank.

      “You heard me right daughter and when I do, I’m gonna carry him all over town and show him off. You just wait and see. Those folks down there will know that ole Doc Caulder can do more than just dish out the medicine.”

      Lamar Caulder was indeed more than a rural medical doctor. Although he had finished at the top of his class, he chose not to practice in the larger cities where his potential for financial success was practically guaranteed. Instead, he moved to the rural western part of Pennsylvania where he was needed. Even in the small town of Gettysburg, he had earned the reputation of being an excellent doctor and his surgical skills were unsurpassed. People would come from hundreds of miles away when surgery was needed.

      No sooner had he finished speaking, when he leaned forward to make another cast, stepped on a slippery stone, and lost his balance. In an attempt to steady himself, he took several awkward steps but fell headfirst into the water. Drenched and his hat disappearing downstream, he regained his balance and then just sat there in disgust.

      His daughter, Lucretia, couldn’t help but laugh. “Papa, are you trying to scare the fish to death or are you just trying to baptize yourself? You know we’re Methodist, don’t you?”

      Refusing to face his daughter, Doc Caulder remained in his sitting position. “Daughter, you better not tell anybody about what I just did to myself. I just stepped on a slippery rock. Anybody could have done it. Now run down there and get my hat before it gets in that deeper water.”

      Lucretia closed the book she had been reading and after retrieving his hat, edged her way down the stream and extended her hand to her father.

      Dripping wet, Doc Caulder, with the help of Lucretia, crawled up the creek bank to their blanket.

      “Here Papa, wrap up for a spell,” Lucretia said placing the blanket around his shoulders. “It won’t take long to dry you out and at least your shoes and socks are dry, and I won’t tell a soul about what happened to you, except maybe Mother.”

      Wiping the water from his eyes and straightening the few hairs that he kept neatly combed across his balding head, he exclaimed. “You better not tell her. She doesn’t much like me going fishing, anyway. She thinks I’m getting too old. That’s why she wants you to go with me, to keep an eye on me.”

      Lucretia pulled the blanket closer around his neck and with a tight hug replied, “Mother doesn’t make me go. I love spending time with you. And you certainly can be entertaining,” Lucretia replied with a smile.

      At that moment a brisk wind above ruffled the treetops enough to let a glint of sunlight filter to the ground where Lucretia was sitting. As its rays illuminated the rock and sparkled through her hair, Doc Caulder realized what a beautiful woman Lucretia had become. She stood a little over five feet tall with curly blond hair and large emerald eyes that glowed with warmth and excitement. She normally carried a smile on her face and her quick humor made her presence a joy.

      “Father, you sure do have a strange look on your face. Is something wrong with me?”

      “Wrong. Nothing’s wrong with you. It’s just the opposite. You ought to be married by now,” he said.

      “Married,” she replied. “I’m only seventeen and who do you think I should marry?”

      Doc Caulder reached in his pocket, pulled out a twist of tobacco and after biting off a wad continued, “You’re going on eighteen and your mother feels that Robert would make a fine husband for you. He’s smart as a whip, well mannered and, I must say, he’s going to make one fine surgeon. No telling where that young man will end up. He’s far ahead of where I was when I was his age, and you know the ladies around here think he’s kinda handsome too.”

      Robert Townsley had finished at the top of his class in medical school and instead of remaining on the east coast for his apprenticeship, he choose to study under Doctor Caulder whose reputation was well known throughout the medical circle.

      Surprised at his remarks, Lucretia exclaimed, “What you’re saying is that Robert has a promising future and would be a good provider for me. What about love? You didn’t mention that, Father.”

      Seeing that he had upset his daughter, Doc Caulder squirmed uneasily under his blanket and muttered, “You know you need to love the person you plan to spend your lifetime with. What I meant is that if you two do fall in love, then it would be fine with me.”

      Lucretia, with a twinkle in her eyes, replied, “I’m glad to hear that, because Mother and I had the same conversation the other day. Only difference is that she says that with all that he has to offer, that if I don’t love him right now, I would probably grow to love him with time. Kind of like what happened between you two.”

      “Like what happened between me and your mother!” her father stammered slinging his blanket. “Did she actually say that she learned to love me?”

      “Well, in a way she kinda insinuated that.”

      “Well let me set you straight right now, Miss Lucretia Caulder. I was in my senior year at college and we were having our spring ball. The orchestra was playing and the young men all dressed in their best were twirling the girls around and around on the dance floor. Being a little bashful, I was over near the punch bowl, when all of a sudden the door opened and the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen in my life appeared. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her as she removed her wrap and then looked around the room as if she were unescorted.”

      “What did you do Papa?” Lucretia asked, moving closer to her father.

      “Well, I dropped my glass like a fool, got up the nerve and hurried over there as fast as these little short legs could carry me. Several other boys had the same idea, but I got there first, introduced myself and had her on the dance floor before she had time to say no.”

      “Could she dance well?”

      “No matter how tired I became, I stayed on the floor with her and wouldn’t allow anyone to break in on us. Finally she asked me if I would care to escort her outside to the terrace to get some fresh air. Well, we walked a spell and talked a lot and the whole time I was thinking of nothing but trying to steal a kiss. I kept waiting for the right time and I just couldn’t get up the nerve. Finally, with only a few minutes left before the dance ended, I asked her if I could please kiss her and to my astonishment she consented.”

      “Papa, you’re embarrassing me talking about you and Mama and all that kissing stuff.”

      “Well, I’ve got a point to make daughter and that is when our lips touched I broke out in a cold sweat and your mother got so limp I thought she was going to faint on me. For the next few moments, I thought I was in heaven and when we finished, she stood there speechless. Finally, she straightened herself and then invited me to her home for dinner. Yes ma’am, Lucretia, we were in love and I did say ‘we.’ I dated your mother for about three months and to her father’s objection, we were married.”

      “Why did he object to your marriage?” Lucretia asked.

      “Said that we needed a longer courtship and that no respectable woman would marry someone she had only recently met.”

      “What happened then?”

      Doc Caulder smiled. “She told her father that she was going to marry me whether he approved or not, and within the month, we were married.”

      “Why are you telling me this now, Papa?”

      “Lucretia, your mother and I fell in love with each other the first night we met and when I kissed her, I knew I’d found the woman that I’d always dreamed off. And no matter what she said, she felt the same about me. It wasn’t any growing in love.”

      Lucretia

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