, 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.

"You wouldn' dare tech him if one of my brothers was here," she said,
indignantly, "an' don t you dare tech him again, Tad Dillon. An' you--"
she said, witheringly, "you--" she repeated and stopped helpless for
the want of words but her eyes spoke with the fierce authority of the
Turner clan, and its dominant power for half a century, and Nancy
Dillon shrank, though she turned and made a spiteful face, when Melissa
walked toward the school-house alone.

That afternoon was the longest of Chad's life--it seemed as though it
would never come to an end; for Chad had never sat so still for so
long. His throat got dry repeating the dreary round of letters over and
over and his head ached and he fidgeted in his chair while the slow
hours passed and the sun went down behind the mountain and left the
school-house in rapidly cooling shadow. His heart leaped when the last
class was heard and the signal was given that meant freedom for the
little prisoners; but Melissa sat pouting in her seat--she had missed
her lesson and must be kept in for a while. So Chad, too, kept his se