"rough-and-tumble" fighting--as also known as "scuffle and tussle,"
and "wooling and pulling"--in short, these agreeable features promise
to include all brutalities save gouging, which was unfashionable so
far to the North. But a man could not live quietly on the frontier
without showing to such ruffians that his hands could shield his head.
For the honor of the store, the clerk had to stand up to the opponent.

The bout came off. In the first attack, Lincoln lifted the foe, though
heavier, clean off his feet, but he was unable to lay him down in the
orthodox manner, consisting in placing him flat on his back, with both
shoulder-blades denting the earth. The semi-victor amicably said:
"Let's quit, Jack! You see I cannot give you the fall--and you cannot
give it me."

The gang shouted for a resumption of the "sport," thinking this was
weakness of the competitor. They joined again, but Armstrong, having
his doubts, resorted to foul play--kicking or "legging," as the
localism stands. Indignantly, Lincoln drew him up again and shook him
in mid-air as a terrier does a rat. The rowdies, seeing their champion
bested, shouted for him to make a _fight_ of it, and probably
they would have "mixed in" and made a "fight for all" in another
minute. But Jack had his doubts set at rest as to the prospect of
overcoming a man who could hold him out and off at arm's length; and,
begging to be set down, grasped his antagonist's hand in friendship
and proclaimed him the best man "who had ever broke into" that
section. The two became friends, and the gang gradually dwindled by
this recession from their ranks of their Goliath.


* * * * *