for her own brothers did not do that, at least, not to her, though she
had heard her mother tell them that they must. All this must be
chivalry, Chad thought, and when Harry and Dan got well, he revived his
old ideas, but Harry laughed at him and Dan did, too, until Chad,
remembering Beelzebub, suggested that they should have a tournament
with two rams that the General had tied up in the stable. They would
make spears and each would get on a ram. Harry would let them out into
the lot and they would have "a real charge--sure enough." But Margaret
received the plan with disdain, until Dan, at Chad's suggestion, asked
the General to read them the tournament scene in "Ivanhoe," which
excited the little lady a great deal; and when Chad said that she must
be the "Queen of Love and Beauty" she blushed prettily and thought,
after all, that it would be great fun. They would make lances of
ash-wood and helmets of tin buckets, and perhaps Margaret would make
red sashes for them. Indeed, she would, and the tournament would take
place on the next Saturday. But, on Saturday, one of the sheep was
taken over to Major Buford's and the other was turned loose in the
Major's back pasture and the great day had to be postponed.

It was on the night of the reading from "Ivanhoe" that Harry and Dan
found out how Chad could play the banjo. Passing old Mammy's cabin that
night before supper, the three boys had stopped to listen to old Tom
play, and after a few tunes, Chad could stand it no longer.

"I foller pickin' the banjer a leetle," he said shyly, and thereupon he
had taken the rude instrument and made the old negro's eyes stretch
with amazement, while Dan rolled in the grass with delight, and every
negro who heard ran toward the boy. After supper, Dan brought the banjo
into the house and made Chad play on the porch, to the delight of them
all. And there, too, the servants gathered, and even old Mammy was
observed slyly shaking her foot--so that Margaret clapped her hands and
laughed the old woman into great confusion. After that no Saturday came
that Chad did not spend the night at the Deans', or Harry and Dan did
not stay at Major Buford's. And not a Saturday passed that the three
boys did not go coon-hunting with the darkies, or fox-hunting with the
Major and the General. Chad never forgot that first starlit night when
he was awakened by the near winding of a horn and heard the Major jump
from bed. He jumped too, and when the Major reac