ell--"

"I didn't see no harm givin' the little gal a fish," said Chad. "Little
gal," indeed! Chad lost the ground he might have gained. Margaret's
eyes looked all at once like her father's.

"I'm a little GIRL, thank you."

Chad turned to her father now, looking him in the face straight and
steadily.

"I reckon I had no business meddlin', but I didn't think hit was fa'r
fer him to hit the nigger; the nigger was littler, an' I didn't think
hit 'as right."

"I didn't mean to hit him--I was only playin'!"

"But I THOUGHT you was goin' to hit him," said Chad. He looked at the
General again. "But I had no business meddlin'." And he picked up his
old coonskin cap from the grass to start away.

"Hold on, little man," said the General.

"Dan, haven't I told you not to tease Snowball?" Dan dropped his eyes
again.

"Yes, sir."

"You struck first, and this boy says he oughtn't to have meddled, but I
think he did just right. Have you anything to say to him?"

Dan worked the toe of his left boot into the turf for a moment "No,
sir."

"Well, go up to your room and think about it awhile and see if you
don't owe somebody an apology. Hurry up now an' change your clothes.

"You'd better come up to the house and get some dry clothes for
yourself, my boy," he added to Chad. "You'll catch cold."

"Much obleeged," said Chad. "But I don't ketch cold."

He put on his old coonskin cap, and then the General recognized him.

"Why, aren't you the little boy who bought a horse from me in town the
other day?" And then Chad recognized him as the tall man who had cried
"Let him have her."

"Yes, sir."

"Well, I know all about you," said the General, kindly. "You are
staying with Major Buford. He's a great friend and neighbor of mine.
Now you must come up and get some clothes, Harry!"--But Chad, though he
hesitated, for he knew now that the gentleman had practically given him
the mare, interrupted, sturdily,

"No, sir, I can't go--not while he's a-feelin' hard at me."

"Very well," said the General, gravely. Chad started off on a trot and
stopped suddenly, "I wish you'd please tell that little GURL"--Chad
pronounced the word with some difficulty--"that I didn't mean nothin'
callin' her a little gal. Ever'body calls gurls gals whar I come from."

"All right," laughed the General. Chad trotted all the way home and
there Miss Lucy made him take off his wet clothes at once, though the
boy had to go to bed while they were drying