eye was fearless and kind, and, without question, he motioned to a seat—­with one wave of his hand setting Chad on the corner of a slab and the studious drone to vibrating again.  When the boy ventured to glance around, he saw Daws Dillon in one corner, making a face at him, and little Tad scowling from behind a book:  and on the other side, among the girls, he saw another hostile face—­next little Melissa which had the pointed chin and the narrow eyes of the “Dillon breed,” as old Joel called the family, whose farm was at the mouth of Kingdom Come and whose boundary touched his own.  When the first morning recess came, “little recess,” as it was called—­the master kept Chad in and asked him his name; if he had ever been to school, and whether he knew his A B C’s; and he showed no surprise when Chad, without shame, told him no.  So the master got Melissa’s spelling-book and pointed out the first seven letters of the alphabet, and made Chad repeat them three times—­watching the boy’s earnest, wrinkling brow closely and with growing interest.  When school “took up” again, Chad was told to say them aloud in concert with the others—­which he did, until he could repeat them without looking at his book, and the master saw him thus saying them while his eyes roved around the room, and he nodded to himself with satisfaction—­for he was accustomed to visible communion with himself, in school and out.  At noon—­“big recess” Melissa gave Chad some corn-bread and bacon, and the boys gathered around him, while the girls looked at him curiously, merely because he was a stranger, and some of them—­especially the Dillon girl—­whispered, and Chad blushed and was uncomfortable, for once the Dillon girl laughed unkindly.  The boys had no games, but they jumped and threw “rocks” with great accuracy at a little birch-tree, and Daws and Tad always spat on their stones and pointed with the forefinger of the left hand first at what they were going to throw at, while Chad sat to one side and took no part, though he longed to show them what he could do.  By and by they fell to wrestling, and finally Tad bantered him for a trial.  Chad hesitated, and his late enemy misunderstood.

“I’ll give ye both underholts agin,” he said, loftily, “you’re afeerd!”

This was too much, and Chad sprang to his feet and grappled, disdaining the proffered advantage, and got hurled to the ground, his head striking the earth violently, and making him so dizzy that the brave smile with which he took his fall looked rather sickly and pathetic.

“Yes, an’ Whizzer can whoop yo’ dawg, too,” said Tad, and Chad saw that he was going to have trouble with those Dillons, for Daws winked at the other boys, and the Dillon girl laughed again scornfully—­at which Chad saw Melissa’s eyes flash and her hands clinch as, quite unconsciously, she moved toward him to take his part; and all at once he was glad that he had nobody else to champion him.