"What do you know about it? Louder!", and Dan started menacingly after the
little darky but Chad stepped between.

"Don't hit him!"

Now Dan had never struck Snowball in his life' and he would as soon have
struck his own brother--but he must not be told that he couldn't. His face
flamed and little Hotspur that he was, he drew his fist back and hit Chad full
in the chest. Chad leaped back to avoid the blow, tumbling Snowball down the
bank; the two clinched, and, while they tussled, Chad heard the other brother
clambering over the rocks, the beat of hoofs coming toward him on the turf,
and the little girl's cry:

"Don't you DARE touch my brother!"

Both went down side by side with their head just hanging over the bank, where
both could see Snowball's black wool coming to the surface in the deep hole,
and both heard his terrified shriek as he went under again. Chad was first to
his feet.

"Git a rail!" he shouted and plunged in, but Dan sprang in after him. In three
strokes, for the current was rather strong, Chad had the kinky wool in his
hand, and, in a few strokes more, the two boys had Snowball gasping on the
bank. Harry, the taller brother, ran forward to help them carry him up the
bank, and they laid him, choking and bawling, on the grass. Whip in one hand
and with the skirt of her long black riding-habit in the other, the little
girl stood above, looking on--white and frightened. The hullabaloo had reached
the house and General Dean was walking swiftly down the hill, with Snowball's
mammy, topped by a red bandanna handkerchief, rushing after him and the
kitchen servants following.