“I am Arthur Steele. I came home on a vacation to-day, and was sitting
up to watch father's melon-patch for the pure fun of it, expecting to
catch some small boys, and when I caught you, I couldn't resist the
temptation of a little farce. As for Amy, that only occurred to me at
the last; and if you think it unfair, you may have your promise back.”
Lina had now measurably recovered her equannimity, and, ignoring his
explanation, demanded, as she looked around:--
“How am I to get out of this dreadful place?” mentally contemplating
meanwhile the impossibility of clambering through that fence with a
young gentleman looking on.
“I will let down the bars,” he said, and they turned toward the fence.
“Let's see, this is your melon, is it not?” he observed, stooping to
pick up the booty Lina had dropped in her first panic. “You must keep
that anyhow. You 've earned it.”
Since the tables turned so unexpectedly in her favor, Lina had recovered
her dignity in some degree, and had become very freezing toward this
young man, by whom she began to feel she had been very badly treated.
In this reaction of indignation she had really almost forgotten how she
came in the garden at all. But this reference to the melon quite upset
her new equanimity, and as Arthur grinned broadly she blushed and stood
there in awful confusion. Finally she blurted out:--
“I didn't want your stupid melon. I only wanted some fun. I can't
explain, and I don't care whether you understand it or not.”
Tears of vexation glittered in her eyes. He sobered instantly, and said,
with an air of the utmost deference:--
“Pardon me for laughing, and do me the justice to believe that I 'm
in no sort of danger of misunderstanding you. I hooked too many melons
myself as a boy not to sympathize perfectly. But you must really let me
carry the melon home for you. What would the girls say, if you returned
empty-handed?”
“Well, I will take the melon,” she said, half defiantly; “but I should
prefer not to have your company.”