CHAPTER VII 



A FIGHT FOB LIFE ! . 



My dear little Demus! you'll find it is true, 

 He behaves like a wretch and a villain to you . . . 



Aristophanes. 



IT was characteristic of John Kennedy to keep ever- 

 lastingly at it. He was used to hard things to do. 

 In this life some men seem to get rather more than 

 their share of tacks in the boots and crumbs in bed! 

 But every time Fate knocked him down he just picked 

 himself up again. Always he got up and went at it 

 once more patiently, conscientiously, smiling. Even 

 Fate cannot beat a man like that and John Kennedy 

 was a hard fighter in a quiet way who did not know 

 how to quit. 



With four younger brothers and an equal number of 

 younger sisters to crowd up to the home table down 

 there on the farm near Beaverton, Ontario County, 

 Ontario, it was advisable for the eldest son to work 

 ou-t as a farm boy. He was thirteen years old when he 

 first hired out to a farmer for the summer and he was 

 to receive twenty-four dollars for the season. But the 

 farmer had a hard time that year and at the end of the 

 summer 



"John," said the poor fellow with ill-concealed 

 embarrassment, " I I'm afraid I can't pay you that 

 money. But you know that big flock of sheep down in 

 the back pasture? Well, tell you what we'll do. Over 



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