or seventeen years of age.

"I may be away at dinner time, so don't wait for me," she told her
father next morning. "I'm going out in the country a few miles--and
you know my car! If you'd just let me squeeze some of these patients
who never pay, you could have a new car yourself."

"Mine's all right," he smiled.

"But mine isn't. Look at it. You gave it to me only because you
scorned to ride in it any longer yourself. It would do for me, you
said, but you prance around in a bright shiny one yourself. I blush at
the row mine makes; sounds like a boiler factory; I drive only along
side streets. If the patients would pay what they owe, I could ride
like a lady instead of a slinking magpie."

The doctor leaned back in his chair and laughed (they were at
breakfast) and remarked that old friends were best.

"Don't call my asthmatic tin beast a friend; we're bitter enemies,"
said she.

It carried her to Terry Creek about noon, however, safely enough,
whither she went with a firm resolution that crushed a certain
embarrassment and anxiety. Suppose these people resented her
inquiries.

She placed the bearded, tanned rancher at once, when she saw him
working on a piece of harness before the door as she drove up. She had
seen him in town at different times. She once had stopped here, too,
several years previous when accompanying her father, who had been
called to dress the rancher's injured hand. The girl could not have
been over twelve or thirteen then, a shabby, awkward girl wearing a
braid who came out to gaze shyly at her sitting in the car.

Johnson arose from the ground and approached as she alighted, while
the girl's head popped into sight at the door.

"I'm Dr. Hosmer's daughter, Janet," she stated, putting out her hand
and smiling. "I've come to see you on a matter. Shall we go into the
house?"

With curiosity sharing a vague hostility in his bearing he led her in,
where his daughter was setting the table. Janet also told the girl who
she was. At once dismay and startlement greeted the announcement. But
she invited Janet to be seated, she herself withdrawing to a spot by
the stove.

No need for Janet to beat about the bush with her errand.

"Mr. Johnson," she said, "I've come to you and your daughter for a
little help if you can give it." That seemed the best way to break
down their reserve, an appeal rather than simply blunt questions--and
what was it if not an appeal? "What I have to say is just among