ing on, Chad stepped up and took his place. Straightway,
he began to wish he could buy a horse and ride back to the mountains.
What fun that would be, and how he would astonish the folks on Kingdom
Come. He had his five dollars still in his pocket, and when the first
horse was brought out, the auctioneer raised his hammer and shouted in
loud tones:

"How much am I offered for this horse?"

There was no answer, and the silence lasted so long that before he knew
it Chad called out in a voice that frightened him:

"Five dollars!" Nobody heard the bid, and nobody paid any attention to
him.

"One hundred dollars," said a voice.

"One hundred and twenty-five," said another, and the horse was knocked
down for two hundred dollars.

A black stallion with curving neck and red nostrils and two white feet
walked proudly in.

"How much am I offered?"

"Five dollars," said Chad, promptly. A man who sat near heard the boy
and turned to look at the little fellow, and was hardly able to believe
his ears. And so it went on. Each time a horse was put up Chad shouted
out:

"Five dollars," and the crowd around him began to smile and laugh and
encourage him and wait for his bid. The auctioneer, too, saw him, and
entered into the fun himself, addressing himself to Chad at every
opening bid.

"Keep it up, little man," said a voice behind him. "You'll get one by
and by." Chad looked around. Richard Hunt was smiling to him from his
horse on the edge of the crowd.

The last horse was a brown mare--led in by a halter. She was old and a
trifle lame, and Chad, still undispirited, called out this time louder
than ever:

"Five dollars!"

He shouted out this time loudly enough to be heard by everybody, and a
universal laugh rose; then came silence, and, in that silence, an
imperious voice shouted back:

"Let him have her!" It was the owner of the horse who spoke--a tall man
with a noble face and long iron-gray hair. The crowd caught his mood,
and as nobody wanted the old mare very much, and the owner would be the
sole loser, nobody bid against him, and Chad's heart thumped when the
auctioneer raised his hammer and said:

"Five dollars, five dollars--what am I offered? Five dollars, five
dollars, going at five dollars, five dollars--going at five
dollars--going--going, last bid, gentlemen!" The hammer came down with
a blow that made Chad's heart jump and brought a roar of laughter from
the crowd.

"What is the name, please?" said