"Baggage!" shouted Doctor Jim, snatching her from her seat and stalking up the beach with her.
Arriving at the Ladd place from the rear, by way of the pasture and the barnyard, they found Doctor John awaiting them. He was leaning over the little wicket gate at the back of the garden, eating a handful of plump gooseberries. With affected sternness he eyed their approach, not uttering a word till Barbara violently pushed the gate open and rushed at him. Then, straightening himself to his full height,—he had a half-head to the good of even the towering Doctor Jim,—he extended his hand to her, and said, civilly:
"Do have a gooseberry!"
At this Barbara shrieked with laughter. Doctor John always seemed to her the very funniest thing in the world, and his humour, in season and out of season, quite irresistible. At the same time she pounded him impatiently with her fists, and tried to pull him down to her.
"I don't want a gooseberry," she cried. "I want you to kiss me. I haven't seen you for more than a week, and you go and act just as if I had seen you every day!"
Doctor John stooped, but held her at arm's length, and gazed at her with preternatural gravity.
"Tell me one thing," he said.
"What?" whispered Barbara, impressed.
"Have you been taking any of Jim Pigeon's physic since I saw you?"
"No!" shrieked Barbara, with another wild peal of laughter. "Doctor Jim's a Tory. He might poison me!"