n. Yet Jim lived with them in
all their ways and neither chewed, smoked, nor drank. How or why, none
understood. He said simply that he "didn't feel like he wanted to." With
the liquor it was a different matter. Here it was a question of
principle and his word to his mother helped him where by nature he was
weak. So he grew up, hedged about with a dignity that was in some sense
a foreshadowing of his destiny. But there was much dross to be burned
away and the two great passions that stood between Jim Hartigan and full
spiritual manhood had their roots in these early years at Downey's.
Later he matched his strength against theirs and with that struggle, in
which no quarter was asked or given, these pages are ultimately
concerned.

CHAPTER VII

He Gets a Much-needed Lesson

Many a man has been ruined by a high, unbroken level of success.
Intellectually it makes for despotism and a conviction of infallibility.
In the world of muscle, it creates a bully.

Young Jim was far from losing his interest in the ring, and he was
growing so big and strong that there were few in town who cared to put
on the gloves with him. All that Bill Kenna had taught him, and more,
was stored as valued learning. Kenna used to say, in his Irish vein:
"There is twelve rules for to conduct yourself right in a shindy; the
first is, get your blow in first; and, if ye live up to this, ye needn't
worry about the other iliven rules." Jim accepted this as fundamental
truth and thereby became the aggressor in nearly every brawl.

His boiling, boisterous, animal nature grew with his body and he
revelled in the things of brawn. He responded joyfully when he was
called on to eject some rowdy from the bar-room, and begetting
confidence with each new victory, he began to have a vast opinion of
himself. About this time a powerful rival of Downey's, known as the
Dummer House, claimed attention at the other end of town. One was
located to catch the inbound from the west; the other, those from the
east. And when the owners were not at war, they kept at best an armed
neutrality.

John Downey had delivered himself of some unhallowed hopes concerning
the rival house, and Jim, as he passed the opposition Inn on a certain
evening, had the picturesque devastations vividly in mind. It so
happened that a masting team of oxen was standing patiently outside
awaiting the driver who was refreshing himself at the bar. A masting
team consists of six to twelve str