As the girls feasted they heard a crunching sound and inquired in low voices what it was.
McNutt was stumping over the patch and plumping his wooden foot into every melon he could ？nd，smashing them wantonlya against the ground.The discovery ？lled them with horror.They had thought inducing the agent to rob his own patch of a few melons，while under the delusion that they belonged to his enemy Brayley，a bit of harmless fun；but here was the vindictiveb fellow actually destroying his own property by the wholesale.
"Oh，don't！Please don't，Mr.McNutt！"pleadedPatsy，in frightened accents.
"Yes，I will，"declared the agent，stubbornly."I'll giteven with Dan Brayley fer once in my life，ef I never do another thing，by gum！""But it's wrong—it's wicked！"protested Beth.
"Can't help it；this is my chance，an'I'll make them bum ？fteen—cent mellings look like a penny a piece afore I gits done with 'em.""Never mind，girls，"whispered Louise."It's the law ofretribution.Poor Peggy will be sorry for this tomorrow."The man had not the faintest suspicion where he was.He knew his own melon patch well enough，having worked in it at times all the summer；but he had never climbed over the fence and approached it from the rear before，so it took on a new aspect to him from this point of view，and moreover the night was dark enough to deceive anybody.
If he came across an especially big melon McNutt would lug it to the carriage and dump it in.And so angry and energetic was the little man that in a brief space the melon patch was a scene of awful devastationa，and the surrey contained all the fruit that survived the massacre.
Beth unhitched the horse and they all took their places in the carriage again，having some difficulty to find places for their feet on account of the cargo of melons.McNutt was stowed away inside，with Louise，and they drove away up the lane.The agent was jubilantb and triumphant，and chuckled in gleeful tones that thrilled the girls with remorse as theyremembered the annihilationa of McNutt's cherished melons."Ol'Dan usu'lly has a dorg，"said Peggy，between his ？tsof laughter；"but I guess he had him chained up ternight.""I'm not positively sure that was Brayley's place，"remarked Beth；"it's so very dark.""Oh，it were Brayley's，all right，"McNutt retorted."I could tell by the second—class taste o'them mellings，an'their measley little size.Them things ain't a circumstance tob the kind I raise.""Are you sure？"asked Louise.
"Sure's shootin'.Guess I'm a jedge o'mellings，when I sees 'em.""No one could see tonight，"said Beth.
"Feelin's jest the same，"declared the little man，con？dently.
After wandering around a sufficient length of time to allayc suspicion，Beth ？nally drew up before McNutt's house again.
"I'll jest take my share o'them mellings，"said Peggy，ashe alighted."They ain't much 'count，bein'Brayley's；but it'll save me an'the ol'woman from eatin'our own，or perhaps I kin sell 'em to Sam Cotting."He took rather more than his share of the spoilsd，butthe girls had no voice to object.They were by this time so convulseda with suppressed merriment that they had hard work not to shriek aloud their laughter.For，in spite of the tragic revelations the morrowb would bring forth，the situation was so undeniably ridiculous that they could not resist its humor.
"I've had a heap o'fun，"whispered McNutt."Goodnight，gals.Ef ye didn't belong to thet gum—twisted nabob，ye'd be some pun'kins.""Thank you，Mr.McNutt.Good night."And it was not until well on their journey to the farm that the girls finally dared to abandon further restraint.Then，indeed，they made the grim，black hills of the plateau resoundc to the peals of their merry laughter.
