"Pearl," the doctor said smiling, "Arthur's father sent me 50 pounds and a letter that will make me blush every time I think of it. Now I cannot take the money. The operation, no doubt, saved his life, but if it hadn't been for you there would have been no operation. I want you to take the money. If you do not, I will have to send it back to Arthur's father and tell him all about it."
Pearl looked at him in real distress.
"And I'll tell everyone else, too, what kind of a man I am—Jim here knows it already"—the doctor's eyes were smiling as he watched her troubled little face.
"Oh, Doctor Clay," she cried, "you're worse 'n Danny when you get a notion inter yer head. What kin I do with ye?"
"I do not know," the doctor laughed, "unless you marry me when you grow up."
"Well," Pearl answered gravely, "I can't do that till ma and me git the family raised, but I'm thinkin' maybe Mary Barner might take ye."
"I thought of that, too," the doctor answered, while a slight shadow passed over his face, "but she seems to think not. However, I'm not in a hurry Pearl, and I just think I'll wait for you."
After Camilla and Jim and the doctor had gone that night, and Teddy and Billy and Jimmy had gone to bed, Pearl crept into her father's arms and laid her head on his broad shoulder.
"Pa," she said drowsily, "I'm glad I'm home."
Her father patted her little brown hand.