ge, the Major was holding his
hands to his side, and the General was getting grave. It had just
occurred to him that those rams would make for each other like
tornadoes, and he said so.

"Of course they will," chuckled the Major. "Don't you suppose they know
that? That's what they're doing it for. Bless my soul!"

The King waved his hand just then and his black trumpeter tooted the
charge.

"Leggo!" said Chad.

"Leggo!" said Dan.

And Snowball and Rufus let go, and each ram ran a few paces and stopped
with his head close to the ground, while each knight brandished his
spear and dug with his spurred heels. One charger gave a ba-a! The
other heard, raised his head, saw his enemy, and ba-a-ed an answering
challenge. Then they started for each other with a rush that brought a
sudden fearsome silence, quickly followed by a babel of excited cries,
in which Mammy's was loudest and most indignant. Dan, nearly unseated,
had dropped his lance to catch hold of his charger's wool, and Chad had
gallantly lowered the point of his, because his antagonist was unarmed.
But the temper of rams and not of knights was in that fight now and
they came together with a shock that banged the two knights into each
other and hurled both violently to the ground. General Dean and the
Major ran anxiously from the hedge. Several negro men rushed for the
rams, who were charging and butting like demons. Harry tumbled from the
canopy in a most unkingly fashion. Margaret cried and Mammy wrung her
hands. Chad rose dizzily, but Dan lay still. Chad's elbow had struck
him in the temple and knocked him unconscious.

The servants were thrown into an uproar when Dan was carried back into
the house. Harry was white and almost in tears.

"I did it, father, I did it," he said, at the foot of the steps.

"No," said Chad, sturdily, "I done it myself."

Margaret heard and ran from the hallway and down the steps, brushing
away her tears with both hands.

"Yes, you did--you DID," she cried. "I hate you."

"Why, Margaret," said General Dan.

Chad startled and stung, turned without a word and, unnoticed by the
rest, made his way slowly across the fields.

CHAPTER 12.

BACK TO KINGDOM COME

It was the tournament that, at last, loosed Mammy's tongue. She was
savage in her denunciation of Chad to Mrs. Dean--so savage and in such
plain language that her mistress checked her sharply, but not before
Margaret had heard, though the little girl, with an awe