pt in the dining room
three times a day; and even there some hint of social lines was
apparent.

In former times the hotel had been a mere annex of the bar-room. Now the
case was reversed; the bar-room became the annex. The hotel grew as
Kitty's power developed. Good food temptingly served brought many to the
house who had no interest in the annex. Her pies made the table famous
and were among the many things that rendered it easy to displace the
brown marbled oilcloth with white linen, and the one roller towel for
all, with individual service in each room.

In this hotel world the alert young widow made her court and ruled as a
queen. Here little Jim slept away his babyhood and grew to consciousness
with sounds of coming horses, going wheels; of chicken calls and
twittering swallows in their nests; shouts of men and the clatter of tin
pails; the distant song of saw mills and their noontide whistles; smells
of stables mixed with the sweet breathings of oxen and the pungent odour
of pine gum from new-sawn boards.

And ever as he grew, he loved the more to steal from his mother's view
and be with the stable hands--loving the stable, loving the horses,
loving the men that were horsemen in any sort, and indulged and spoiled
by them in turn. The widow was a winner of hearts whom not even the wife
of Tom Ford, the rich millman and mayor of the town, could rival in
social power, so Jim, as the heir apparent, grew up in an atmosphere of
importance that did him little good.

CHAPTER V

Little Jim's Tutors

"Whiskey" Mason had been for more than three years with Downey. He was
an adroit barkeep. He knew every favourite "mix" and how to use the
thickest glasses that would ever put the house a little more ahead of
the game. But the Widow soon convinced herself that certain rumours
already hinted at were well-founded, and that Mason's salary did not
justify his Sunday magnificence. Mason had long been quite convinced
that he was the backbone of the business and absolutely indispensable.
Therefore he was not a little surprised when the queen, in the beginning
of her reign, invited him to resign his portfolio and seek his fortune
elsewhere, the farther off the better to her liking.

Mason went not far, but scornfully. He took lodgings in the town to wait
and see the inevitable wreck that the widow was inviting for her house.
For two months he waited, but was disappointed. The hotel continued in
business; the widow had