atch the delicious smell of the
fresh leaves and print. It was while he was standing with his treasures
under the big elm at the turnstile, looking across the campus at the
sundown that two boys came down the gravel path. He knew them both at
once as Dan and Harry Dean. Both looked at him curiously, as he
thought, but he saw that neither knew him and no one spoke. The sound
of wheels came up the street behind him just then, and a carriage
halted at the turnstile to take them in. Turning, Chad saw a slender
girl with dark hair and eyes and heard her call brightly to the boys.
He almost caught his breath at the sound of her voice, but he kept
sturdily on his way, and the girl's laugh rang in his ears as it rang
the first time he heard it, was ringing when he reached his room,
ringing when he went to bed that night, and lay sleepless, looking
through his window at the quiet stars.

For some time, indeed, no one recognized him, and Chad was glad. Once
he met Richard Hunt riding with Margaret, and the piercing dark eyes
that the boy remembered so well turned again to look at him. Chad
colored and bravely met them with his own, but there was no
recognition. And he saw John Morgan--Captain John Morgan--at the head
of the "Lexington Rifles," which he had just formed from the best
blood of the town, as though in long preparation for that coming
war--saw him and Richard Hunt, as lieutenant, drilling them in the
campus, and the sight thrilled him as nothing else, except Margaret,
had ever done. Many times he met the Dean brothers on the playground
and in the streets, but there was no sign that he was known until he
was called to the blackboard one day in geometry, the only course in
which he had not been sent to the "kitchen." Then Chad saw Harry turn
quickly when the professor called his name. Confused though he was for
a moment, he gave his demonstration in his quaint speech with perfect
clearness and without interruption from the professor, who gave the boy
a keen look as he said, quietly:

"Very good, sir!" And Harry could see his fingers tracing in his
class-book the figures that meant a perfect recitation.

"How are you, Chad?" he said in the hallway afterward.

"Howdye!" said Chad, shaking the proffered hand.

"I didn't know you--you've grown so tall. Didn't you know me?"

"Yes."

"Then why didn't you speak to me?"

"'Cause you didn't know ME."

Harry laughed. "Well, that isn't fair. See you again."

"All ri