yelled crazily. Then Dan pulled out a perch.

"I got another one," he shouted. And Chad fished silently. They were making "a
mighty big fuss," he thought, "over mighty little fish." If he just had a
minnow an' had 'em down in the mountains, "I Gonnies, he'd show'em what
fishin' was!" But he began to have good luck as it was. Perch after perch he
pulled out quietly, and he kept Snowball busy stringing them until he had five
on the string. The boy on the rock was watching him and so was the boy near
him--furtively--while Snowball's admiration was won completely, and he grinned
and gurgled his delight, until Dan lost his temper again and spoke to him
sharply. Dan did not like to be beaten at anything. Pretty soon there was a
light thunder of hoofs on the turf above the bank. A black pony shot around
the bank and was pulled in at the edge of the ford, and Chad was looking into
the dancing black eyes of a little girl with a black velvet cap on her dark
curls and a white plume waving from it.

"Howdye!" said Chad, and his heart leaped curiously, but the little girl did
not answer. She, too, stared at him as all the others had done and started to
ride into the creek, but Dan stopped her sharply:

"Now, Margaret, don't you ride into that water. You'll skeer the fish."

"No, you won't," said Chad, promptly. "Fish don't keer nothin' about a hoss."
But the little girl stood still, and her brother's face flushed. He resented
the stranger's interference and his assumption of a better knowledge of fish.

"Mind your own business," trembled on his tongue, and the fact that he held
the words back only served to increase his ill-humor and make a worse outbreak
possible. But, if Chad did not understand, Snowball did, and his black face
grew suddenly grave as he sprang more alertly than ever at any word from his