little master. Meanwhile, all unconscious, Chad fished on, catching perch
after perch, but he could not keep his eyes on his cork while the little girl
was so near, and more than once he was warned by a suppressed cry from the
pickaninny when to pull. Once, when he was putting on a worm, he saw the
little girl watching the process with great disgust, and he remembered that
Melissa would never bait her own hook. All girls were alike, he "reckoned" to
himself, and when he caught a fish that was unusually big, he walked over to
her.

"I'll give this un to you," he said, but she shrank from it.

"Go 'way!" she said, and she turned her pony. Dan was red in the face by this
time. How did this piece of poor white trash dare to offer a fish to his
sister. And this time the words came out like the crack of a whip:

"S'pose you mind your own business!"

Chad started as though he had been struck and looked around quickly. He said
nothing, but he stuck the butt of his pole in the mud at once and climbed up
on the bank again and sat there, with his legs hanging over; and his own face
was not pleasant to see. The little girl was riding at a walk up the road.
Chad kept perfect silence, for he realized that he had not been minding his
own business; still he did not like to be told so and in such a way. Both
corks were shaking at the same time now.

"You got a bite," said Dan, but Chad did not move.

"You got a bite, I tell you," he said, in almost the tone he had used to
Snowball, but Chad, when the small aristocrat looked sharply around, dropped
his elbows to his knees and his chin into his hand--taking no notice. Once he