have
traced their origin back to the slums of London; hand-to-mouth tenants
of the valley-aristocrat, hewers of wood for him in the lowlands and
upland guardians of his cattle and sheep. And finally, walking up and
down the earth floor--stern and smooth of face and of a preternatural
dignity hardly to be found elsewhere--the mountain school-master.

It was a "blab school," as the mountaineers characterize a school in
which the pupils study aloud, and the droning chorus as shrill as
locust cries ceased suddenly when Chad came in, and every eye was
turned on him with a sexless gaze of curiosity that made his face
redden and his heart throb. But he forgot them when the school-master
pierced him with eyes that seemed to shoot from under his heavy brows
like a strong light from deep darkness. Chad met them, nor did his chin
droop, and Caleb Hazel saw that the boy's face was frank and honest,
and that his 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