d Chad.

"Howdye!" said the other boy, and he, too, stared curiously, but Chad
had got used to people staring at him.

"I'm goin' over the big rock," added the new arrival, and he went down
the creek and climbed around a steep little cliff, and out on a huge
rock that hung over the creek, where he dropped his hook. He had no
cork, and Chad knew that he was trying to catch catfish. Presently he
jerked, and a yellow mudcat rose to the surface, fighting desperately
for his life, and Dan and Snowball yelled crazily. Then Dan pulled out
a perch.

"I got another one," he shouted. And Chad fished silently. They were
making "a mighty big fuss," he thought, "over mighty little fish." If
he just had a minnow an' had 'em down in the mountains, "I Gonnies,
he'd show'em what fishin' was!" But he began to have good luck as it
was. Perch after perch he pulled out quietly, and he kept Snowball busy
stringing them until he had five on the string. The boy on the rock was
watching him and so was the boy near him--furtively--while Snowball's
admiration was won completely, and he grinned and gurgled his delight,
until Dan lost his temper again and spoke to him sharply. Dan did not
like to be beaten at anything. Pretty soon there was a light thunder of
hoofs on the turf above the bank. A black pony shot around the bank and
was pulled in at the edge of the ford, and Chad was looking into the
dancing black eyes of a little girl with a black velvet cap on her dark
curls and a white plume waving from it.

"Howdye!" said Chad, and his heart leaped curiously, but the little
girl did not answer. She, too, stared at him as all the others had done
and started to ride into the creek, but Dan stopped her sharply:

"Now, Margaret, don't you ride into that water. You'll skeer the fish."

"No, you won't," said Chad, promptly. "Fish don't keer nothin' about a
hoss." But the little girl stood still, and her brother's face flushed.
He resented the stranger's interference and his assumption of a better
knowledge of fish.

"Mind your own business," trembled on his tongue, and the fact that he
held the words back only served to increase his ill-humor and make a
worse outbreak possible. But, if Chad did not understand, Snowball did,
and his black face grew suddenly grave as he sprang more alertly than
ever at any word from his little master. Meanwhile, all unconscious,
Chad fished on, catching perch after perch, but he could not keep his
eyes on his cork