comfort her.

"Don't cry, Pepeeta! You ought to be thankful that you have got out of
the clutches of those villains. You could not have been worse off, and
you may be a great deal better! They were not always kind to you, were
they? I shouldn't wonder if they beat you sometimes! But you will never
be beaten any more. You shall have a nice little pony, and a cart, and
flowers, and pretty clothes, and everything that little girls like. I
don't know what they are, but whatever they are you shall have them. So
don't cry any more! What a pretty name Pepeeta is! It sounds like music
when I say it. I have got the toughest name in the world myself. It's a
regular jaw-breaker--Doctor Paracelsus Aesculapius! What do you think of
that, Pepeeta! But then you need not call me by the whole of it! You can
just call me Doctor, for short. Now, look at me just once, and give me a
pretty smile. Let me see those big black eyes! No? You don't want to?
Well, that's all right. I won't bother you. But I want you to know that
I love you, and that you are never going to have any more trouble as
long as you live."

These were the kindest words the child had ever had spoken to her, or at
least the kindest she could remember. They fell on her ears like music
and awakened gratitude and love in her heart. She ceased to sigh, and
before the ride to town was ended had begun to feel a vague sense of
happiness.

* * * * *

The next few years were full of strange adventures for these singular
companions. The quack had discovered certain clues to the past history
of the child whom he had thus adopted, and was firmly persuaded that she