neither had asked the mountain lad to come to see him--an omission that was
almost unforgivable according to Chad's social ethics. So Chad proudly went
into his shell again, and while the three boys met often, no intimacy
developed. Often he saw them with Margaret, on the street, in a carriage or
walking with a laughing crowd of boys and girls; on the porticos of old
houses or in the yards; and, one night, Chad saw, through the wide-open door
of a certain old house on the corner of Mill and Market Streets, a party
going on; and Margaret, all in white, dancing, and he stood in the shade of
the trees opposite with new pangs shooting through him and went back to his
room in desolate loneliness, but with a new grip on his resolution that his
own day should yet come.

Steadily the boy worked, forging his way slowly but surely toward the head of
his class in the "kitchen," and the school-master helped him unwearyingly.
And it was a great help--mental and spiritual--to be near the stern Puritan,
who loved the boy as a brother and was ever ready to guide him with counsel
and aid him with his studies. In time the Major went to the president to ask
him about Chad, and that august dignitary spoke of the lad in a way that made
the Major, on his way through the campus, swish through the grass with his
cane in great satisfaction. He always spoke of the boy now as his adopted son
and, whenever it was possible, he came in to take Chad out home to spend
Sunday with him; but, being a wise man and loving Chad's independence, he let
the boy have his own way. He had bought the filly--and would hold her, he
said, until Chad could buy her back, and he would keep the old nag as a
broodmare and would divide profits with Chad--to all of which the boy agreed.
The question of the lad's birth was ignored between them, and the Major
rarely spoke to Chad of the Deans, who were living in town during the winter,
nor questioned him about Dan or Harry or Margaret. But Chad had found out
where the little girl went to church, and every Sunday, despite Caleb Hazel's
protest, he would slip into the Episcopal church, with a queer