Dick Brown's affliction was a crooked back, yet he bore his burden
so cheerfully, that Demi once asked in his queer way, "Do humps
make people good-natured? I'd like one if they do." Dick was
always merry, and did his best to be like other boys, for a plucky
spirit lived in the feeble little body. When he first came, he was
very sensitive about his misfortune, but soon learned to forget it,
for no one dared remind him of it, after Mr. Bhaer had punished
one boy for laughing at him.

"God don't care; for my soul is straight if my back isn't," sobbed
Dick to his tormentor on that occasion; and, by cherishing this
idea, the Bhaers soon led him to believe that people also loved his
soul, and did not mind his body, except to pity and help him to
bear it.

Playing menagerie once with the others, some one said,

"What animal will you be, Dick?"

"Oh, I'm the dromedary; don't you see the hump on my back?" was
the laughing answer.

"So you are, my nice little one that don't carry loads, but marches
by the elephant first in the procession," said Demi, who was
arranging the spectacle.

"I hope others will be as kind to the poor dear as my boys have
learned to be," said Mrs. Jo, quite satisfied with the success of her
teaching, as Dick ambled past her, looking like a very happy, but a