and found the master at the corner of the fence and looking at a low red star whose rich, peaceful light came through a gap in the hills.  Chad shyly drew near him, hoping in some way to get a kindly word, but the master was so absorbed that he did not see or hear the boy and Chad, awed by the stern, solemn face, withdrew and, without a word to anybody, climbed into the loft and went to bed.  He could hear every stroke on the floor below, every call of the prompter, and the rude laughter and banter, but he gave little heed to it all.  For he lay thinking of Caleb Hazel and listening again to the stories he and the cattle-dealer had told him about the wonderful settlements.  “God’s Country,” the dealer always called it, and such it must be, if what he and the master said was true.  By and by the steady beat of feet under him, the swift notes of the banjo, the calls of the prompter and the laughter fused, became inarticulate, distant—­ ceased.  And Chad, as he was wont to do, journeyed on to “God’s Country” in his dreams.

CHAPTER 4.  THE COMING OF THE TIDE

While the corn grew, school went on and, like the corn, Chad’s schooling put forth leaves and bore fruit rapidly.  The boy’s mind was as clear as his eye and, like a mountain-pool, gave back every image that passed before it.  Not a word dropped from the master’s lips that he failed to hear and couldn’t repeat, and, in a month, he had put Dolph and Rube, who, big as they were, had little more than learned the alphabet, to open shame; and he won immunity with his fists from gibe and insult from every boy within his inches in school—­including Tad Dillon, who came in time to know that it was good to let the boy alone.  He worked like a little slave about the house, and, like Jack, won his way into the hearts of old Joel and his wife, and even of Dolph and Rube, in spite of their soreness over Chad’s having spelled them both down before the whole school.  As for Tall Tom, he took as much pride as the school-master in the boy, and in town, at the grist-mill, the cross-roads, or blacksmith shop, never failed to tell the story of the dog and the boy, whenever there was a soul to listen.  And as for Melissa, while she ruled him like a queen and Chad paid sturdy and uncomplaining homage, she would have scratched out the eyes of one of her own brothers had he dared to lay a finger on the boy.  For Chad had God’s own gift—­to win love from all but enemies and nothing but respect and fear from them.  Every morning, soon after daybreak, he stalked ahead of the little girl to school, with Dolph and Rube lounging along behind, and, an hour before sunset, stalked back in the same way home again.  When not at school, the two fished and played together—­inseparable.