The Courting Buggy — Fay Risner

Nurse Hal invites her parents to visit the Lapp farm near Wickenburg, Iowa to get acquainted with their two little granddaughters. She is in total turmoil when she hears she's going to get more company than she bargained for. Jim and Nora Lindstrom are bringing Nora's sister, Tootie, with them. Nurse Hal is sure her family is going to be shunned when scatterbrained Aunt Tootie does or says the wrong thing around their Amish friends. With all the scenarios that Hal imagined, she didn't come close to dreaming up the things this a little plumb off center aunt could do to get them in trouble with the Amish community. John Lapp invites Jim to go to the salebarn with him and his sons. He wonders if that was a wise thing to do when Jim buys a courting buggy and horse. The man is as excited about his purchase as he'd been about his first jalopy. However, Jim has doubts about the horse on the first ride home. Mike has traffic fright so he stops when traffic goes by him. Jim has to hide that fact from Nora. She made up her mind right away that she didn't like the courting buggy and doesn't want anything to do with it. She would be even more upset if she knew the horse had a problem. An elderly neighbor, Peter Rogies, has Alzheimer's disease. Before Nurse Hal can educate his family about how to care for the man, Aunt Tootie takes a liking to Peter. They go for a walk and end up on Lover's Lane in Jim's courting buggy. The next time the couple go for a walk they get lost in a timber in the dark. It would be just a matter of time before they succumb to the elements if the search party doesn't find them. What else will Aunt Tootie do to complicate Nurse Hal's Amish way of life? Lots of things and not all of them in The Courting Buggy.