CHAPTER 3. A "BLAB SCHOOL" ON KINGDOM COME

Chad was awakened by the touch of a cold nose at his ear, the rasp of a warm
tongue across his face, and the tug of two paws at his cover. "Git down, Jack!"
he said, and Jack, with a whimper of satisfaction, went back to the fire that
was roaring up the chimney, and a deep voice laughed and called:

"I reckon you better git UP, little man!"

Old Joel was seated at the fire with his huge legs crossed and a pipe in his
mouth. It was before busily astir. There was the sound of tramping in the
frosty air outside and the noise of getting breakfast ready in the kitchen. As
Chad sprang up, he saw Melissa's yellow hair drop out of sight behind the foot
of the bed in the next corner, and he turned his face quickly, and, slipping
behind the foot of his own bed and into his coat and trousers, was soon at the
fire himself, with old Joel looking him over with shrewd kindliness.

"Yo' dawg's got a heap o' sense," said the old hunter, and Chad told him how
old Jack was, and how a cattle-buyer from the "settlements" of the Bluegrass
had given him to Chad when Jack was badly hurt and his owner thought he was
going to die. And how Chad had nursed him and how the two had always been
together ever since. Through the door of the kitchen, Chad could see the old
mother with her crane and pots and cooking-pans; outside, he could hear the
moo of the old brindle, the bleat of her calf, the nicker of a horse, one
lusty sheep-call, and the hungry bellow of young cattle at the barn, where
Tall Tom was feeding the stock. Presently Rube stamped in with a back log and
Dolph came through with a milk-pail.