are." The General looked thoughtful.

"I will speak to Major Buford about him," he said, and he did--no little to
that gentleman's confusion--though he defended Chad staunchly--and the two
friends parted with some heat.

Thereafter, the world changed for Chad, for is there any older and truer story
than that Evil has wings, while Good goes a plodding way? Chad felt the
change, in the negroes, in the sneering overseer, and could not understand.
The rumor reached Miss Lucy's ears and she and the Major had a spirited
discussion that rather staggered Chad's kind-hearted companion. It reached the
school, and a black-haired youngster, named Georgie Forbes, who had long been
one of Margaret's abject slaves, and who hated Chad, brought out the terrible
charge in the presence of a dozen school-children at noon-recess one day. It
had been no insult in the mountains, but Chad, dazed though he was, knew it
was meant for an insult, and his hard fist shot out promptly, landing in his
enemy's chin and bringing him bawling to the earth. Others gave out the cry
then, and the boy fought right and left like a demon. Dan stood sullenly near,
taking no part, and Harry, while he stopped the unequal fight, turned away
from Chad coldly, calling Margaret, who had run up toward them, away at the
same time, and Chad's three friends turned from him then and there, while the
boy, forgetting all else, stood watching them with dumb wonder and pain. The
school-bell clanged, but Chad stood still--with his heart well nigh breaking.
In a few minutes the last pupil had disappeared through the school-room door,
and Chad stood under a great elm--alone. But only a moment, for he turned
quickly away, the tears starting to his eyes, walked rapidly through the
woods, climbed the worm fence beyond, and dropped, sobbing, in the thick
bluegrass.

An hour later he was walking swiftly through the fields toward the old brick