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, 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