the Major's answer was quick and apologetic:

"Oh!" he said, and for a moment there was silence again. Chad watched the
woods, the fields, and the cattle, the strange grain growing about him, and
the birds and the trees. Not a thing escaped his keen eye, and, now and then,
he would ask a question which the Major would answer with some surprise and
wonder. His artless ways pleased the old fellow.

"You haven't told me your
name."

"You hain't axed me."

"Well, I axe you now," laughed the Major, but Chad saw nothing to laugh at.

"Chad," he said.

"Chad what?"

Now it had always been enough in the mountains, when anybody asked his name,
for him to answer simply--Chad. He hesitated now and his brow wrinkled as
though he were thinking hard.

"I don't know," said Chad.

"What? Don't know your own name?" The boy looked up into the Major's face with
eyes that were so frank and unashamed and at the same time so vaguely troubled
that the Major was abashed.

"Of course not," he said kindly, as though it were the most natural thing in