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 spat dexterously into the creek. Dan's own cork was
going under:

"Snowball!" he cried--"jerk!" A fish flew over Chad's head. Snowball
had run for the other pole at command and jerked, too, but the fish was
gone and with it the bait.

"You lost that fish!" said the boy, hotly, but Chad sat silent--still.
If he would only say something! Dan began to think that the stranger
was a coward. So presently, to show what a great little man he was, he
began to tease Snowball, who was up on the bank unhooking the fish, of
which Chad had taken no notice.

"What's your name?"

"Snowball!" henchman, obediently.

"Louder!"

"S-n-o-w-b-a-l-l!"

"Louder!" The little black fellow opened his mouth wide.

"S-N-O-W-B-A-L-L!" he shrieked.

"LOUDER!"

At last Chad spoke quietly.

"He can't holler no louder."

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

"Don't hit him!"