d
as well as Dan, and in mental arithmetic even Harry was no match for
him; and when in the spelling class he went from the bottom to the head
in a single lesson, the teacher looked as though he were going to give
the boy a word of praise openly and Margaret was regarding him with a
new light in her proud eyes. That was a happy day for Chad, but it
passed after school when, as they went home together, Margaret looked
at him no more; else Chad would have gone by the Deans' house when Dan
and Harry asked him to go and look at their ponies and the new sheep
that their father had just bought; for Chad was puzzled and awed and
shy of the little girl. It was strange--he had never felt that way
about Melissa. But his shyness kept him away from her day after day
until, one morning, he saw her ahead of him going to school alone, and
his heart thumped as he quietly and swiftly overtook her without
calling to her; but he stopped running that she might not know that he
had been running, and for the first time she was shy with him. Harry
and Dan were threatened with the measles, she said, and would say no
more. When they went through the fields toward the school-house, Chad
stalked ahead as he had done in the mountains with Melissa, and,
looking back, he saw that Margaret had stopped. He waited for her to
come up, and she looked at him for a moment as though displeased.
Puzzled, Chad gave back her look for a moment and turned without a
word--still stalking ahead. He looked back presently and Margaret had
stopped and was pouting.

"You aren't polite, little boy. My mamma says a NICE little boy always
lets a little GIRL go first." But Chad still walked ahead. He looked
back presently and she had stopped again--whether angry or ready to
cry, he could not make out--so he waited for her, and as she came
slowly near he stepped gravely from the path, and Margaret went on like
a queen.

In town, a few days later, he saw a little fellow take off his hat when
a lady passed him, and it set Chad to thinking. He recalled asking the
school-master once what was meant when the latter read about a knight
doffing his plume, and the school-master had told him that men, in
those days, took off their hats in the presence of ladies just as they
did in the Bluegrass now; but Chad had forgotten. He understood it all
then and he surprised Margaret, next morning, by taking off his cap
gravely when he spoke to her; and the little lady was greatly pleased,