oon as they came
together. Half drunk Jack is a man who would bite your ear off. It was no
rassle; it was a fight. Abe moved like lightning. He acted awful limber
an' well greased. In a second he had got hold of the feller's neck with
his big right hand and hooked his left into the cloth on his hip. In that
way he held him off and shook him as you've seen our dog shake a
woodchuck. Abe's blood was hot. If the whole crowd had piled on him I
guess he would have come out all right, for when he's roused there's
something in Abe more than bones and muscles. I suppose it's what I feel
when he speaks a piece. It's a kind of lightning. I guess it's what our
minister used to call the power of the spirit. Abe said to me afterwards
that he felt as if he was fighting for the peace and honor of New Salem.

"A friend of the bully jumped in and tried to trip Abe. Harry Needles
stood beside me. Before I could move he dashed forward and hit that
feller in the middle of his forehead and knocked him flat. Harry had
hit Bap McNoll the cock fighter. I got up next to the kettle then and
took the scum off it. Fetched one of them devils a slap with the side of
my hand that took the skin off his face and rolled him over and over.
When I looked again Armstrong was going limp. His mouth was open and his
tongue out. With one hand fastened to his right leg and the other on the
nape of his neck Abe lifted him at arm's length and gave him a toss in
the air. Armstrong fell about ten feet from where Abe stood and lay there
for a minute. The fight was all out of him and he was kind of dazed and
sick. Abe stood up like a giant and his face looked awful solemn.

"'Boys, if there's any more o' you that want trouble you can have some
off the same piece,' he said.

"They hung their heads and not one of them made a move or said a word.
Abe went to Armstrong and helped him up.

"'Jack, I'm sorry that I had to hurt you.' be said. 'You get on to your
horse and go home.'

"'Abe, you're a better man than me,' said the bully, as he offer'd his
hand to Abe. 'I'll do anything you say.'"

* * * * *

So the Clary's Grove gang was conquered. They were to make more trouble
but not again were they to imperil the foundations of law and order in
the little community of New Salem. As they were starting away Bap McNoll
turned to Harry Needles and shouted: "I'll git even with you yet--you
slab-sided son of a dog."

That is not exactly wh