"Yes, sir. How did you know me?" and a look of intense bitterness crept
into her eyes as the hateful name sounded in her ears.

"My boy is in school here, and he told me--"

"Is your boy Jerome Vane?" she interrupted, suddenly recognizing the
great similarity between man and boy.

"Yes, I am Dr. Vane--"

"Well, I must say you've got the impolitest boy I ever saw! I threw
'most a bucket of water in his face yesterday and punched his nose good.
Dad saw me and that's why he said I couldn't have any watermelon."

The doctor's face was a study, his lips twitched and his eyes grew
suspiciously bright. Leaning over the side of the carriage, he held out
his hand to the barefooted girl among the rocks and said tenderly,

"Come home with me, Tabitha. The little mother wants to see you. Jerome
is sorry and he will never torment you again. He didn't understand."

Tabitha eyed the doctor doubtfully. Maybe he wanted to lick her for the
blow she had given Jerome; but one look at the sympathetic face
dispelled her fear, and she started as if to accept his invitation, then
drew back.

"Thank you, Dr. Vane. I should be pleased to accompany you," she said
with all the politeness and formality she could muster, "but I reckon
I'd better be going home now. Dad is probably looking for me by this
time. He'll want his melon."

The doctor surveyed the shattered fruit on the mountainside, and then
looked down into the small brown face with its pathetically drooping
mouth.

"We'll drive around by the store and get another melon, Tabitha, and
everything will be all right. Won't that do?"

"Why didn't I think of that before?" she exclaimed in visible relief.
"How much will it cost? Four bits?"

"Yes, maybe a little more. Such things cost more here on the desert than
they do where they use raised."

Her face fell. "I've got only forty-two cents in my bank. I reckon I'll
have to take the licking after all."

"I'll give you the rest--" he began.

"No, I mustn't take money from people unless I've done something to earn
it. But--if you will lend me eight cents, I'll pay it back as soon as I
can earn it,--that is, if you can wait for it. Maybe it will be quite a
while before I get any more. There ain't many things a girl can do on
the desert to earn money fast. In Ferndale I used to pick berries. Do
you think you can wait?"

"Yes, indeed, Tabitha. Climb in and we'll hurry that melon home before
anyone knows it is gone."

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