Tess shook her head in the negative.
"Deacon Hall and his wife Augusta gave one hundred dollars."
"I know her," Tess cried, "and I knows him a little, too. I tooked them berries and fish--they has a cottage below the ragged rocks."
"And there's the druggist, Mr. Bates--he did not put down his name on the list, but he gave fifty dollars."
Tessibel listened to the explanations as Young read on, making it all plain to her as he proceeded.
She was leaning far over toward him, her chin resting on her open palm.
"They be dum good blokes, to give their money to a squatter, ain't they?"
The professor started perceptibly. She did not understand that all had been done under his supervision; he had tried to impress upon her his great desire to help her, but no words of praise fell from her lips for him. He would have willingly given worlds had she said that he was "a dum good bloke."
"They are all sorry for you and your father," he ended lamely.
"It was the student, Graves, what brought Daddy the money," she burst out with a vivid blush.
"No, the student, Graves, had nothing to do with it," was the grim reply.
"He's a-been prayin' since Daddy went away--that air somethin'," Tess said stubbornly.
Professor Young rose--then seated himself again. He had come for something else, something that meant work and satisfaction for him.
"Now that your father is sure to be saved, will you leave this hut?" he asked peremptorily.
"Nope!"
"But it's not fit for you to be here alone, Tessibel. Listen ... I'll save your father's squatter rights, if you will study in some good school until he returns."
"Aw, cuss! Who air to pay all the money?" Tess got to her feet with effort.
"I will," deliberately answered Young.
"Nope, I air goin' to stay here," snapped Tess. "I can fish and live likes I have been doin' till Daddy comes. I promised him I'd stay. I can read the Bible now," she ejaculated, promptly producing the book from under the blankets of the bed. "I's a-readin it every day.... If ye don't believes, ye can listen and see."
She tossed back the curls from her shoulders as she ended emphatically: "I air a goin' to bring Daddy home through this here book--the student says."
Again the terrible jealousy of the handsome student flashed alive in the professor. Tess had opened the Bible to a chapter she had never read before.