aited while a little
breath of air stirred the leaves, the sunshine flickered, and a cricket
sang a sort of lonesome song. Laddie leaned against the tree again,
and he was thinking so hard, to look at him made me begin to repeat to
myself the beech part of that beautiful churchyard poem our big folks
recite:

"There, at the foot of yonder nodding beech,
That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,
His listless length at noontide he would stretch,
And pore upon the brook that babbles by."

Only he was studying so deeply you could almost feel what was in his
mind, and it was not about the brook at all, even if one ran close.
Soon he began talking.

"Not so bad!" he said. "You might think worse. I admit the
cleanliness, I strive for decency, I delight in being humanely
interesting, even for an hour; you might think worse, much worse! You
might consider me a 'clown.' 'A country clod.' Rather a lowdown,
common thing, a 'clod,' don't you think? And a 'clown'! And 'gross'
on top of that!"

"What can you mean?" asked the Princess.

"Since you don't seem to share the estimate of me, I believe I'll tell
you," said Laddie. "The other day I was driving from the gravel pit
with a very heavy load. The road was wide and level on either side. A
man came toward me on horseback. Now the law of the road is to give
half to a vehicle similar to the one you are driving, but to keep all
of it when you are heavily loaded, if you are passing people afoot or
horseback. The man took half the road, and kept it until the nose of
his horse touched one of the team I was driving. I stopped and said:
'Good morning, sir! Do you wish to speak with me?' He called angrily:
'Get out of my way, you clod!' 'Sorry sir, but I can't,' I said. 'The
law gives me this road when I am heavily loaded, and you are on foot or
horseback.'"

"What did he do?" asked the Princess.

And from the way she looked I just knew she guessed the man was the
same one I thought of.

"He raised his whip to strike my horse," said Laddie.

"Ah, surely!" said the Princess. "Always an arm raised to strike. And
you, Man? What did you do?" she cried eagerly.

"I stood on my load, suddenly," said Laddie, "and I called: 'Hold one
minute!'"

"And he?" breathed the Princess.

"Something made him pause with his arm still raised. I said to him:
'You must not strike my horse. It never has been struck, and it can't
defend itself. If you want t